Brakes Wheels 1st Gen Tires Most liked posts in thread: Thoughts on next wheel/tire setup for the track

That was just the shortcut Mark... All I am saying is, there is a road around the back side of Lake Santelah that is a good cross between the Dragon and Hellbender, and nobody knows it is there. (Show you next year, but keep it quiet)

 

Yeah it's a no brainier, it is through their ebay store not the normal website. I found out about it here: Discount tire NT01 Ebay Deal!! $660 Shipped for full set )

 

15s

You can run 205/50/15 SM7s or 225/45/15 RRs on 15x7 inch rims. 15 x 7.5 would be better. 15x8 is fine as well.

 

15's on 225/45/15's, 9 inch wide rim up front, 8 inch wide in the rear. You should be able to find a rim that fits, 949UL with a spacer would probably work. With the automatic, I think 15's are your best bet. If you want to be able to flip tires around, go with 15x8 on all four corners. You'll roast your fronts well before the rears go, especially on R-comps. That being said, 15x9s up front is significantly faster. I have run 205/50, and 225/45 on seven inch wheels, 8 inch wheels, and the 8/9 stagger, as suggested by Jan, and the 225/45 on the 8/9 stagger is hands down the best.

As for tires, the Nitto 01 is other than Hoosiers is my favorite tire. Doesn't need to be shaved, good life, and sticky as hell. Tough to find at the moment, but they should be available again in the spring. More and more people are running them. I needed to replace mine and made the mistake of not ordering early spring; they were already sold out nationally. So I bought RA1's instead, forgot to shave them, and I hate them. They're supposed to be the same compound as the Nitto 01's, but they have more tread--too much for the track without shaving them. I'll switch back to Nitto next year, no need to shave, better dry tread pattern (I don't run on really wet tracks anymore anyway). The RA1s are supposed to get better as they wear down. I hope so.

I have never run the R888's, but the rumor is they heat cycle out well before they cord. The Nittos hold up (and supposedly the RA1's too) until it's time to change them. The R888's supposedly like less camber, so if you're running -2.0 or less up front, they might be worth a try. Like the Nittos, they don't need to be shaved, they're good to go out of the box.

 

I've run 888's and the rumors are BS. No special camber requirements either.

 

Double post.

 

Not rumors, confirmed by Toyo when the spec Miata guys started complaining. Toyo recommended less camber up front, that you don't need as much camber for the R888's, and that part of the reason people were having so much trouble with the R888's was due to the fact the car needed to be set up differently for them compared to the RA1's.

The Miata guys also complained about the R888's heat cycling out sooner than the RA1s, which was killing their budgets. The R888's were originally meant to completely replace the RA1's, but due to the complaints, the RA1's were brought back.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1216784-Toyo-R888-Setup-Notes-for-Spec-Miata&

This thread hits the high points.

There is a tech article from Toyo that goes in more detail but I couldn't find it with a quick search. Bottom line is the R888 is a much different tire than the RA1, requires a different setup, and did not wear as well as the spec Miata guys and many others would've liked. There are some who swear buy it (and many more who swear at it) but if you're switching from RA1's or Nitto 01's, the setups aren't going to be the same on the R888's, you're going to need to change some things, from pressures to camber for it to be optimized. Which totally makes sense, it's a different tire. It's not much fun to find an optimum setup for a tire then start all over again.

That being said, I can't imagine the R888's being worse than unshaved RA1's. But I'll get Nitto's again when they're available.

 

My buds that race SM use over 3 degrees of negative camber up front. And complain about everything. When the top ten positions are separated by 0.2 seconds that stuff matters. For DEs with a MINI its BS. At a DE you're lucky to put a string of laps together within the same second cause of traffic.

SM guys complained about the SM6, which is why the SM7 came out. The Toyo RR was much more consistent than the SM6, but looks like the SM7 has slight advantage over RR when both are the spec 205/50/15 size.

And both the SM7 and RR are significantly faster than 888, RA-1, or NT-01. They should be as they are ~50 treadwear tires vs 100 treadwear for the others.

I guess the message is don't sweat the small stuff.

 

Except I'm almost 4 seconds slower at Road America on unshaven RA1's than Nitto 01's, which is a huge kick in the crotch with a steel toed shoe...I kept overheating them, not used to the extra tread and squirm coming from the Nittos. My own fault for forgetting to shave them, shaved they'd probably be very similar.

If the R888's don't last as long as the Nitto 01's, that would make a difference, at least to me, for HPDE's.

When I get my JRZ's on, and I can add castor, and dial out some camber, I might try the R888's--they may really shine in that situation. My only concern is how long they'll last.

 

Can you tell me what offset 15X8 and 15X9 wheels you are running please? Are you running coil overs, and what diameter springs? I am running 17X7.5 inch wheels with 40 MM offset and in the front I have a 15 MM spacer with very little clearance. In the rear I am rubbing the plastic wheel arch.

 

Thank you for the answer. I have been concerned about the increase in scrub radius. Have you had more problems with the power steering than normal, or noticed any other differences? What did you do to clear the rear wheel well lip? Thank you for the help

 

You'll rub the wheel arch trim on the back with 8's, and a little on the fronts.

It's self correcting. It wears off. Or just take a dremel and remove the bottom of the inner lip of the arch trim--you can't see it anyway, so cosmetically it's not an issue.

No rubbing on the liner, it's just the arch.

You're at speed at the track, it really doesn't affect the power steering except at low speeds, and even then, it's not much.