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So very true. Here is a disturbing post about the new Yokohama A052 that corded after a day on the track. And these are really expensive tires. I would think that it is not the car, nor the driver (from what I can see in the video). The track looks to be much like LRP in the fact it has a lot of right turns that are brutal on that left side front tire. But I have never seen that kind of tire wear in all the years I have been going to LRP. The thing I find really odd about the wear on that tire is that it is evenly worn across the tread, which would say that this is not caused by a lack of negative camber.
Just signed up for the car control clinic a week from tomorrow at LRP. Forecast calls for two storms between now and then, so there should be plenty of the slippery white stuff on the skid pad and autocross track. Looking forward to seeing what the Paceman (aka the Maxi-MINI 😉 can do wearing some nearly brand new Pirelli Sottozeros. Event is officially sold out, but only two people ahead of me on the waitlist...
That sounds like so much fun!
Hope you get in. I was hoping to go skiing, but then remembered that it is Presidents Week and that is a blackout week for skiers like me...
I think I had similar conditions that last time I was at LRP... Cold, wet and rainy. I was sliding some...
I think you were too...
BTW - I just got my discount calendar from SCDA... The first round of discounts ended about a month ago. I wonder when they were sent out... November? December?
Pretty sure I bought my pass in mid to late November...and as I recall I was slip sliding away a lot more than you were last time out at LRP! Wonder if anybody makes studdable R-comps?
My subscription to this thread (now going for 11+ years!) somehow stopped so I have been out of touch. Can't wait to hear about the winter clinic, VV — I hope you get in.
Off-season renovations here at Highland Raceway included a dramatic lowering of the banking around turns three and four which led to a great deal of re-landscaping. Here two classic Minis round turn three.
I hope I get in too, as conditions should be perfect for some winter performance driving. Good move reducing the banking on T3; Classics don't need any bloody banking! 😁
Thanks. I built it five or six years ago and this winter, to kill a few hours here and there, I decided to complete what I never got around to.
I tried doing a HO train layout once, but could never get into it. I really liked what some people did with them and the detail they put into them. So realistic. Yours does well with that...
I am more into this sort of thing:
New home theater speakers
With everything else going on, it took most of last year to make them. I am now on to making a center channel and a second pair of small speakers.
Boy, I'd love a pair of those speakers in the Classic! If they can't fit, I bet one would do the trick...😉
Got the green light for tomorrow morning's winter car control clinic at Lime Rock 😁 It's a good thing I didn't buy studded R-comps, as they are not welcome at the track. We'll see how my Pirelli Sottozeros perform. They're over 6 years old, but have around 600 miles total on them at this point. I'll report back over the weekend.
Boy, I'd love a pair of those speakers in the Classic! If they can't fit, I bet one would do the trick...😉
4’ tall and 60# a piece, you might need a trailer for the Classic...
Originally Posted by veggivet
Got the green light for tomorrow morning's winter car control clinic at Lime Rock 😁 It's a good thing I didn't buy studded R-comps, as they are not welcome at the track. We'll see how my Pirelli Sottozeros perform. They're over 6 years old, but have around 600 miles total on them at this point. I'll report back over the weekend.
That's hilarious, GKP! Those speakers just might drown out all the noise from the engine bay and exhaust.
The winter driving clinic at Lime Rock was a lot of fun. Perfect conditions, meaning there was plenty of snow, ice, and eventually slush and even some bare pavement by noon, when my sessions were over. They had the autocross course open, along with a shorter course that was set up in B paddock (where the gas pumps are). Wide range of vehicles from SUVs to a couple of Scooby STIs. One of them had a very good driver, the other was 'all car and no driver'. He actually got stuck and required the tow truck to pull him out. The shorter autocross had a much more consistent feel because the course was pretty much all snow, which started off relatively soft, but got packed down after a while, of course. I was using the throttle for 'braking', and spent 95% of the time in 1st, getting up to between 25-30 mph. The car felt very predictable during all the sliding, (DSC was disabled for the day) and by the time we moved to the permanent autocross course, I was grinning from ear to ear.
Conditions changed dramatically in the second half of the event on the permanent autocross course. There was a lot of ice, along with the ruts that go along with that, plus some slush and some small areas of bare pavement. I had no traction on the ice, of course, and some of the turn in points were crazy early because you knew the car was going to massively understeer on the icy sections. Definitely more challenging, but the car did pretty well, all things considered. It was weird seeing the real track covered in snow. It was so tempting to do a 'parade lap', but I would've been banned from any future events, I'm sure!
It was weird seeing the real track covered in snow. It was so tempting to do a 'parade lap', but I would've been banned from any future events, I'm sure!
Sounds like fun! I would also have been tempted to do a parade lap — and it might be worth the lifetime ban. In the years when I fitted snow tires on the MINI because I drove it to work every day I would get to work early on snowy days, when the parking lot was empty and before the plows showed up, just so I could play.
I am thinking... On a snow covered track, how does one make the turn-in for the up-hill and then actually make it up the hill?
I grew up in Rome NY, which is in part of the lake effect snow belt, and learned to drive in snowy parking lots. Back in the day they almost aways had snow in them. They didn’t salt as much back then and out of the 120 days or so of the snow season it probably snowed on 110 of them... It was a blast...
Speaking of making it up the hill, there was one car that couldn't make it up the narrow access road from B paddock to the permanent autocross entrance! From the difficulty he was having during the first autocross session, I'm pretty sure he had all season tires on. He had to back down.
Speaking of making it up the hill, there was one car that couldn't make it up the narrow access road from B paddock to the permanent autocross entrance! From the difficulty he was having during the first autocross session, I'm pretty sure he had all season tires on. He had to back down.
Over the years, so many people have told me their car is "terrible in the snow". Inevitably I will look at the tires and then explain why. It's all about the rubber. I don't think there's a car on the road today that can't get through the snow with the right tires and some basic driving savvy. I live on a fairly busy road that is a steep hill and there's a guy in my neighborhood who drives a Camaro Z. I don't know about his tires, but he gets up the hill, in fresh snow, all the time without even spinning his wheels.
Speaking of making it up the hill, there was one car that couldn't make it up the narrow access road from B paddock to the permanent autocross entrance! From the difficulty he was having during the first autocross session, I'm pretty sure he had all season tires on. He had to back down.
Originally Posted by gkp
Over the years, so many people have told me their car is "terrible in the snow". Inevitably I will look at the tires and then explain why. It's all about the rubber. I don't think there's a car on the road today that can't get through the snow with the right tires and some basic driving savvy. I live on a fairly busy road that is a steep hill and there's a guy in my neighborhood who drives a Camaro Z. I don't know about his tires, but he gets up the hill, in fresh snow, all the time without even spinning his wheels.
You are absolutely right about the “rubber”. Any “summer” tire and any tire not an all season or winter will be a disaster in any amount of snow at all. There is a guy in the UK who does tire tests and has done all season tires in the snow (does testing in Finland, above the arctic circle). He found they were pretty good in light snow. He has also done summer tires on all wheel drive and found them to be almost useless in the snow. Of course, nothing beats a good set of snow tires. The snows we have on our base Cooper are phenomenal!
can do wearing some nearly brand new Pirelli Sottozeros. Event is officially sold out, but only two people ahead of me on the waitlist...
