nothing like pulling a transmission out while laying on your back in mid 30F temps

 

Understand your frustrations. Had a set of 3011's on my Celica and anything close to a bottom out and the seals would be blown. If you're ever in the market for an alternative I highly recommend the Penske 7500DA's. Over 10K miles on them this year and about 30 events with a few bottom outs in the rear along the way. If I were to do them again I'd go with an even shorter assembly.

 

Never had a problem until this past year so something is up. I feel like it was a service issue, but we'll see if Koni NA can straighten it out.

 

I'm thinking I may need a new clutch. If you guys were to go aftermarket clutch that is still legal for STX..which one would you choose?

 

im picking up very lightly used stance gr+ coilovers on sunday and i want to make sure the preload settings are correct.

Do any of you guys have any good links that i can read up on? Most of what i find when i search are those hellaflush websites.

 

You don't need to preload coilovers. Just put them on the car, then raise/lower to your liking.

 

well okay then, thanks!

 

Exedy OE replacement, installing one while the trans is out, much cheaper than the factory one through Motorsport

 

Cool, looks like it's only 300 from Goodwin Racing, looks like Ill pick one up!

 

Tire testing season starts today:
Tire Test Results : Dunlop Direzza ZII Introductory Track Drive

Maybe Rick Ruth was right to up the STX PAX this year.

 

you guys and your PAX fantasy, if you went to the road race community and proposed an index to equalize competition among the classes they'd run your @ss out of town tarred & feathered on a rail ... they only tolerate it for Solo because in their eyes were all a bunch of wannabes any way and all they care about is the revenue stream we provide to support their own cause ...

 

lol... thanks for the pep talk, coach. All I was trying to say is that the new crop of tires look promising. Hopefully they still hold up to 100+ runs without falling off. Also, love it or hate it, PAX will matter at the Match tours.

 

they'll matter for people who like to throw away their wad gambling, which won't be me

 

If Dunlop doesn't offer contingency then what's the point on a newer faster tire when I still have a fresh set of Toyo's...

 

Toyo is a lot cheaper too if you shop around. I won a lot of contingency money on them the last several years. They don't last quite as long, but still get decent wear if the setup is good.

 

Unless Rick has a crystal ball he was wrong to up the PAX an arbitrary % without actual data. STX has also not shown consistent data to be faster than STC. Similar to but not as bad as BS pax being softer than AS.

The way PAX works with only once a year modification it looks like ST will be ahead of the curve, especially if the Tire Rack test results and Dunlop materials are a true indication of the new tires' performance. I suspect the gains in the ST trim won't be as high though.

 

if their data from a bone stock 328 BMW was a true indicator we'd have all been winning on Michelin PSSs last year or two rather than RS3, R1R, Z1 Star Spec, etc. ...

 

Mark -

Did changing your trans in the cold freeze some brain cells ? :-) We've never tested the Michelin PSS (Max Performance Tire) directly against the Extreme Performance tires you mentioned above.

Maybe you are referring to a magazine sponsored test done at our facility with guest drivers in the past ??? If so, that wasn't us, just the cars and the facility.

Hope to see you at some events this year,

Chris Harvey
Tire Rack

 

must have, could have sworn I saw a Dunlop Z1 Star Spec tested against the PSS

if I was wrong then I appreciate you pointing it out

just out of curiosity, why would you run a comparison test between two tires (ZI vs ZII) on two different cars without swapping them to take that variable out?


.

 

So who do I talk to to see about getting Dunlop to offer some sort of contingency this year...Since Toyo and Hankook are falling behind the curve...

 

This was more than a little surprising to me as well. This is a casual comparison and not the one we're all waiting for, but still. Seems silly that in a performance test you'd remove all variables save the tires.

 

Their were several reasons we used the two car approach for this test.

- Multiple drivers. While the data presented in this comparision was an average of times set by Woody and I. Several other staff and guests had the opportunity to drive on the ZII during this product introduction as well. Swapping tires on and off a single car wasn't practical with the time available.

-Direct feedback. Jumping immediately from one car to another with out taking the 10-15 minute break to swap tires over makes for more consistent track conditions and driver feedback. The track surface temperature is more consistent (think partly cloudy day) and the wind plays less of a factor on water depth when the sprinklers are used for wet testing.

-The cars are identical spec, within a few hundred miles of each other and the alignment is checked on a regular basis. We trade for new cars every 12-18 months to keep them "fresh".

Hope this helps clarify the "why" .

We plan to do a complete test of the new extreme performance tires once the weather warms up this Spring and all of the new players are available. I believe Andy Hollis and GRM also have plans to do the same.

-Chris

 

do you know something we don't?

 

The new tires are here,

 

^Hey so that's what a stack of tires looks like! :P

Mine will be here in a few hours or so.