I met up with Anthony and his Fiesta...

One fast Fiesta...



Anthony’s Fiesta

Anthony is a very fast driver and the car is very quick. It has a Cobb tune which makes it almost as fast my JCW. This is his GTR in the pictures. As really nice guy.

More to come about the event as a whole...

 

And this is what we all strive for when lapping around WGI:

 

That view looks exactly the same from the inside of my car! Uncanny! Why is he going in slow motion mode? Just to make it extra clear so us schmoes can see his entrance and exit points? Would like to see that at real time speed...

 

And I wonder why I am white knuckling it up through the esses, while he just casually passes a car to the outside in that same part. Then his slowest speed through the bus stop is higher than my top speed. I think I just need to work on my line, a few tweaks to my aero, maybe an engine tune, some new tires and I might get there....

 

And back to tyres again


I tried to find this back when we were discussing where to put worn tires vs new on a car. Enjoy. This guy is great.

 

Hey,
I posted my visit to WGI on my Albert thread, here...

I had a really good 2 days, despite the heat...

 

Did not watch the video yet as I'm just coming back to earth after Chin at the Glen but I just spent two days pointing really fast cars by going up the Esses--tons of room if you stay all the way left.

 

Did a quick read and gagged when I got to "plastic hub rings"--I used those once, and only once, at a TM day at the Glen. When I got home and removed the wheels it took me a good half-hour to scrape/dig/sand/etc what remained of that plastic ring off the l/f hub face. Find metal rings on Amazon for cheap.....

 

Apologies if I already posted this but I did use the StoneYo mix at Mid-O (Stones in front) and they were fine through the sun, rain, and dry--lap times in the dry were virtually the same as with all 4 Stones. They're still not dead, though......

I did just use four A052s on the car at WGI/Chin the last two days (much of which were wet); more on that later. Off to Anthony to get them all flipped

 

Or, perhaps, wish you (and the rest of us to boot) were a pro and not a.......

 

Do you remember where you got yours from? A while back I found a few places that sell metal rings, but have not bought any. One thing I need to do is figure out what the wheel bore is. I know what the MINI hub is. I was thinking I would start out with TR as they are who bought the wheels from.

I was lucky. The plastic ring didn’t melt. It just softened. I could still get it off and use it when I rotated tires.

One thing I do know is when I am out classed... Definitely out classed in that case.

 

If there was a garage door opener on the visor, the video could easily be mistaken for me.

 

 

Yes, try TR first--they had them when I bought my new Sparcos last year. MINI CB is 56.1mm (ID of the ring) and yes, the OD of the ring into the wheel varies with the wheel. TR should be able to at least let you know what it is.

 

OK, it's later.....used the same pressures (34 cold all round) as with the Stones and went out on a damp-in-spots track Wednesday. Amount of grip was actually a bit unnerving as I'm used to sliding the car after a bit and it wouldn't slide......yet. As the day went on and the track dried I did indeed get the car to slide much like as with the other tires i.e drifting down the Carousel . I did feel the difference in weight of the tires that made the car with the Stones feel a bit sluggish (when they were new) but unfortunately this was offset by the blazing heat we (and you) had. I lost a full 5mph at the end of the back straight and going up the Toe was an exercise in frustration. Other cars were feeling it, too, as I talked with many other drivers of all sorts of cars and they agreed, even a guy with a Viper who was still flying! Then REAL rain, and the YokoOnos were really something. Sipes or not, they stuck. I was going through T10 w/o braking (albeit at a slower entry speed) which I'd never done before, and all around the track I found grip. Flat up the Esses, not a bobble. Really impressive. After the happy hour (all groups on track at day's end) a guy in a Cayman GT4 came over, asked what tires I had and took a picture of one with his phone!

Thursday was a bit better, cooler and drier but still rain on/off at times. We had three 30min morning runs as we had to vamoose for IMSA by 1pm but two were largely dry and lap times were virtually the same as with the Stones. There is time to be found with these and as I get used to them I will find it.

Of course, they are not perfect.....they are REALLY soft. I spent two days moving the tires all over the car to equalize the wear, and it worked, but as mentioned before I have to flip all four. This will put the "Out" side on the "In" side but they are so close I'm not worried about it. The little sipes in the center of the tire will be pointing the wrong way but the way these wear that won't be for long. This tire loses water with the compound and the two wide longitudinals going around the tire, not those itty-bitty sipes.......

As an aside, Eddie, as the track dried from the real rain we all noticed that eventually the entire track would dry except for the Bus Stop, which did have a dry groove on the INSIDE but still had standing water on both sides of that. Don't know if you found it that way but I used to do a rim shot through there and it was dry; maybe after all these years (5? 6?) following the repave the track is finally changing.

 

And not just because the Falken 660 did so well in it...

 

Very interesting, Eddie, thanks for posting.....the Cooper, Maxxis and Kumho were non-starters for me, along with the 'Kook as it doesn't come in a 205/50-15. I understand that they run wide so a 225/45 might potentially cause problems with my stock suspension (rubbing?). I think.

I do generally concur with what he said about the two tires that I've actually used--the ZIII didn't have the grip of the top tires but were good to drive. Agreed.

And the A052s do feel like they have a softer sidewall and are also easy to drive but do not wear as well as the others. Also agreed. He mentioned the fact that one of the tires (the BFG?) was inside/outside, which the A052s also are--this really came in handy at the Glen as I made it through the two days by moving them all around the car as needed w/o having to visit TLSS to get them flipped. I ended up using only the four mounted on the car that I drove up with but did need to flip them all (when I got home) as I previously mentioned.

Really surprised the BFG did so well on a road course as opposed to an autox course where they supposedly were tops at one point.

The caveat here is that this was a DRY handling test and I wanted a tire that was also good in the wet, which by my own experience the ZIII and now the A052 are. All the research I did on other tires, including the RT660, indicated that they were somewhat lacking in the wet. So I steered away from them (ha ha) and towards the 052s, and so far I'm glad I did with the limited time I have had with them. I have many days to go this season so will sharpen my thoughts as we go forward.......

 

Yesterday I took a look at the TR web page to see what was going on with the RE71Rs. The guy who did the tire review said that they are being discontinued and there is no planned replacement. That is a shame as it has been a staple for autocross and track for a number of years now. TR has the RE71Rs on clearance now and the 15” are all gone. I found they still have the 215/45x17 for about $115 ea, and there is a $70 rebate on 4. I couldn’t pass that up, so I bought 5. Not sure where I will use them... Smokey and Albert both use that size, but Smokey also has the 15” wheels.

I was surprised to see the Rivals did as well as they did. TR has them as being poor in the wet. I found the Falken 660 to be OK in the rain, but not as good as the RE71Rs.

225/45 tires will fit in the wheel wells of the R56. I did it with 225/45x17s (Toyo R888) on my R56. It did rub a little on the plastic liner, but no metal. The thing is, that size is pinched with a 7” wide wheel and I didn’t gain anything by that size over the 215/45x17 I had used. It would need a 7.5” or 8” wide wheel to be able to take advantage of that size. At least that was my thought for the Toyo R888s. Maybe the 225 Rivals would do OK on a 7” wide wheel. I think that a 225/45x15 would work well as it is 2” smaller in diameter and it will go an inch less into the wheel well which should keep it from rubbing. However, the needed wheel offset is hard to find for a MINI. Most wheels in the 7.5/8” 15” size are made for Miatas and come with a ET25 or 30, which is too little for the MINI. For MINIs, a ET 35 or more is needed to fit into the wheel well.

I did check with TR for centering rings for the JCW, no go. But they did give me the size I needed and I found them on Amazon...

 

Glad you found the rings.....it's my understanding that there is a RE71RS in Japan that has replaced the old tire; that tire is not coming here for whatever reason. My guy (Bart Blackburn) at TR said B'Stone has never done that before and that they (TR) are quite P.O.'d about it. Regardless, that 71R was a helluva tire for a long period of time. And I think TR also shows them as available on clearance in 16" which is what Anthony C. uses on the Siesta Fiesta

When I was in-between wheels I squeezed my 205s on the stock 5.5" holies for a couple of events--it worked but was obviously not ideal. I can see that 225s on my 15x7" Sparco FF1 wheels wouldn't be ideal either so I'll stick with the 205s--plenty of good tires to choose from in that size.

 

Here is a listing of 7.5x15 inch wheels with an ET35 (link), which should work with a 225/45x15 tires. Just filter the listing for that size... I might have to give this a shot when I redo my suspension...

 

TR shows no A052 in that size but yes RT660 and RS4.

Your 660s are 2# heavier in 225/45 than in 205/50

 

And the wheels will be about 2# heavier too...

But it is all in the thought (wishful thinking?) of faster speeds through the corners.

And what did Pontiac say in their ads about “road hugging weight”...

 

Pontiacs, like most of the other cars of that era, had to stop to turn

I'd be more concerned about having 4 extra lbs to lug around when loading, mounting, rotating

 

It seems that is the only weight training exercise I get these days... That is until my back gives out...

 

Yeah, back, knees, feet......as my dad used to say, "it's tough to get old".

Just looked for some A052s to buy and they are again out of stock everywhere I looked with TR saying 60-90 days. Last time they said that I ordered 4 ZIIIs and voila, the 052s appeared the following week.

So I may be moving on from them, at least temporarily, until they magically appear again.