[RUQWIKR]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

A couple of things come to mind in regards to the slicks. They can be a great value, at only $700 a set. They are hit or miss, though. You never really know what you are getting with take-off's. In the two sets that I have had, I had about 1 flyer with corner speeds 1-3mph faster than stock, but overall was consistently faster on stock G3R's. With this most recent set above I was fighting for rear grip after only 3 sessions.

I will fully admit to you this may partly be due to not having a proper setup nor a change in driving style. Slicks definitely need to be driven differently. I did not change my camber or toe and my tire pyrometer stayed in the toolbox. I shot for about 32psi hot and that's the only thing I did. I'm sure some testing and set-up changes would help.

Regardless, the thing that stuck out to me the most at the end of the day was annoyance. Annoyance in dealing the warm-up time of a slick during a track day. Lining up at the front of the line, just to be passed by everyone because you have to drive at 4/10th for 2 laps, and then having to pass the same cars all within a 20-25 minute session was not exactly fun. Nor would I imagine, it was fun for them when I attempted to keep slower cars behind me during those first 2 laps.

I get it, slicks make you cool. But I'm not sure I see their purpose for a track day.

Sounds like my experience with a set of Hoosier R7 scrubs I bought online.

As mentioned back then, I'm sure new R7's are quicker than the G3R's, but, the new and lightly used G3R's I've been buying are using are consistent from start to the cords. Same with the G3's I also use at times.

[Slate993tt]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

A couple of things come to mind in regards to the slicks. They can be a great value, at only $700 a set. They are hit or miss, though. You never really know what you are getting with take-off's. In the two sets that I have had, I had about 1 flyer with corner speeds 1-3mph faster than stock, but overall was consistently faster on stock G3R's. With this most recent set above I was fighting for rear grip after only 3 sessions.

I will fully admit to you this may partly be due to not having a proper setup nor a change in driving style. Slicks definitely need to be driven differently. I did not change my camber or toe and my tire pyrometer stayed in the toolbox. I shot for about 32psi hot and that's the only thing I did. I'm sure some testing and set-up changes would help.

Regardless, the thing that stuck out to me the most at the end of the day was annoyance. Annoyance in dealing the warm-up time of a slick during a track day. Lining up at the front of the line, just to be passed by everyone because you have to drive at 4/10th for 2 laps, and then having to pass the same cars all within a 20-25 minute session was not exactly fun. Nor would I imagine, it was fun for them when I attempted to keep slower cars behind me during those first 2 laps.

I get it, slicks make you cool. But I'm not sure I see their purpose for a track day.

I think that all makes perfect sense. I get frustrated at how long the 3R's get up to temp. Irun with a group that offers 30min sessions and many times there are only 5-6 cars on the track so I wanted to use the DH's for those events and to set lap time Personal bests. I'm still not entirely sure what to use as the primary "track day" tire.

Chad

I will say though that the more SpeedSF vids I watch of you guys the more it makes me want to make the haul up north to run with you all.

[seanblurr]

My PR's are all on fresh G3R's surprisingly. I came within a tenth with the above set-up at Sonoma and then dropped a few seconds by the next session. I may try 315/335 NTO1's next. If I can find a good consistent tire that performs similar to the 3R but lasts more than 7 sessions I will be happy. The car is fast enough, and I can always go faster with a driver improvement.

[bbroetsky]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

My PR's are all on fresh G3R's surprisingly. I came within a tenth with the above set-up at Sonoma and then dropped a few seconds by the next session. I may try 315/335 NTO1's next. If I can find a good consistent tire that performs similar to the 3R but lasts more than 7 sessions I will be happy. The car is fast enough, and I can always go faster with a driver improvement.

If you didn’t use a slick, what size sidewalls would you use in that 315/335 setup?

[seanblurr]

30 series sidewall, slightly less than an inch shorter.

[Chris Edwards]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

30 series sidewall, slightly less than an inch shorter.

What is the overall height of the BC Forged/G3R combo compared to a stock ZLE wheel/tire combo?

[seanblurr]

I dont have a BCForged/G3R combo, what you see above is a Pirelli slick. the G3R's I have are on the stock wheels.

[bbroetsky]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

30 series sidewall, slightly less than an inch shorter.

No 35 series options?

[Chris Edwards]

Originally Posted by seanblurr

I dont have a BCForged/G3R combo, what you see above is a Pirelli slick. the G3R's I have are on the stock wheels.

What is the overall height of the Pirelli slick/ BCForged combo compared to a stock ZLE wheel/tire package?

[seanblurr]

Originally Posted by bbroetsky

No 35 series options?

nope

Originally Posted by Chris Edwards

What is the overall height of the Pirelli slick/ BCForged combo compared to a stock ZLE wheel/tire package?

680mm compared to whatever the height of stock is, I don't have numbers. Tirerack or Goodyear may. I believe it's something like 25.X inches tall. The slicks are a tad bit taller than stock, I do know that.

[seanblurr]

I wanted to post a slightly in-depth update about this set up and a few other things so my experiences are on paper for everyone else.

The 18" wheels are working good so far, with a few slight hiccups. The clearances are very tight with my wheel specs. Two areas of concern is the inner lip to the strut, and the inside wheel surface to the brake caliper.

The clearance is so tight to the caliper, the rubber "clag" you sometimes find on te inside of your wheel after a track day actually hits, rubs and melts to the caliper. Not a catastrophy, but what if it were a rock or something? See pic below. The other clearance location is the strut. I dropped a wheel and just barely bent the inside of the wheel. This bend was enough, though, that it started rubbing the strut. Strut should be ok, but I will likely replace the wheel. A 3mm spacer solved the issue. Even though the wheels fit without a spacer, after this issue I would recommend a 3mm just to be on the safe side. See photo.




As I said a few post back, I wasn't entirely happy with using the DH slicks during track days. That opinion hasn't really changed. I opted to try a 315/335 Nitto NT01, the size was appealing and I've used these in the past. With that said, anyone who has followed some of my previous threads from my time with the SS 1LE will know that I was not fond of the NT01. I wanted to try it again before I gave a definitive opinion.

The NT01's are 315/30/18 and 335/30/18, because I know I will get asked. No issues with fitment. The tires actually appeared to "balloon" a little bit, even with an 11" and 12" wheel. Pressures for these tires appear to be all over the place, some will say run low around 34psi and others recommend higher. Back when I was racing Spec Miata we used an RA1 and R888 which shared the same compound and we were finding that 40-41psi was the ticket (completely different car, I know).

Two weeks ago I took the car out and did some testing at Thunderhill West. This is a small, tight track that favors smaller cars. It just happened to be an insanely cheap day so I used it as a chance to test the set up.

I started out with a target of 34 psi hot and it was TERRIBLE. The car had no bite, it was very sloppy and it would just not turn in. Pushed like mad. Over the sessions I increased pressures and using a tire pyrometer found 39-40PSI to show the best tire temps.

With higher pressures, the car's behavior was slightly more manageable. The turn in never felt as precise, almost as if it had a delay, compared to other tires. I then started to adjust my driving habits and found the NT01's actually responded quite well to "on-throttle" steering. Meaning, as I rolled onto the throttle the car would settle, the front end would bite and I wouldn't understeer through the corner. After this adjustment, the car became even more manageable.

At Thunderhill West I was able to run a 1:21.X on NT01's compared to a 1:20.X on the stock G3R's.

Fast forward to last week where I attended a track day at Thunderhill East (the big track). Surprisingly, I had never been on this track since my days racing Miata's years ago. It took me awhile to re-learn it in such a different car, but ended up running consistent 1:58's. Again, on NT01's and facing similar handling issues as I was on the other track.

I ended up swapping a highly used set of stock G3R's onto the car for the last session just to get another comparison. Holy shit, what a difference. I immediately ran 2 seconds faster with a 1:56.3 with lots of time to spare in a handful of corners. Turn in was crisp, the car felt neutral and balanced again, what a nice feeling. Rock on GM and Goodyear, they sure created a superb car.

Just goes to show you, aftermarket is not always faster.

On the flip side, I only get around 7 heat cycles (session) out of the front G3R's before I cord the inside. That certainly makes for an expensive tire when you run 15+ days a year. The NT01's have 8 cycles on them thus far, and are showing good signs of wear. I expect to get double the life out of the fronts. This shows that they can be a good alternative when overall lap times aren't a concern and cost-to-play is.

Here's a video from an AIM Smartycam of that previously mentioned 1:56.3 lap, enjoy!



And some random pics from Thunderhill West

[RUQWIKR]

What negative camber are you running front and rear at the track? Thanks for the updates by the way. With my MRC set up at ~2.7-2.8 negative up front and 1.8 negative rear, I am cording the outer section of the front before the inner. The rears are wearing extremely evenly. With both front and rears, I swap side-to-side if a 2-day event same direction and do that too event to event if same direction but only one day per event.

[SienarSystems]

seanblurr the wheels are bad ass...I’ve got a track question about Sonoma: do you know if any of the ZL1 aftermarket exhausts will pass the sound restrictions? I’m considering the Borla s-type with NPP but will stay stock if that’s what it take to track the 1LE at Sonoma. Thanks!

[seanblurr]

Sonoma has a very generous limit that would be tough to blow.