Darby,

Did you ever run the 71's with your corrected steering toe, optimal pressures etc? (even comparison)??


.

 

pretty high psi, I have to run that high when I run slicks too. It felt really weird letting them get up there but it worked. Hoosier says 48-52 psi for A7's and FWD

 

Yes...the time before the last time I ran RE71s...directly after an alignment. The second time after the same alignment I noticed a difference. I have been running the RE71s for exactly 1 year
...over 10 events on the same basic alignment settings with basically the sane power setup. The only diff would have been a bit more toe out than current toe out... before -.07 inch compared to the current -.04 inch. As for camber I am actually running a bit less with the A052s

 

Interesting. In the dry, TR lap time is about the same as the RE71-R. If they wear better, they could be a good choice.

 

gkp - the RS4 comes in a 215-45x17, which is perfect for the 7” wide 17” MINI wheels. That is what I run, when not on my 15” wheels. From my experience it is hard to fit anything larger or wider wheels on a 2nd gen MINI without rubbing somewhere. I know a lot of people run 8” wide 15” wheels with 225-45 tires on Gen 1 MINIs. That is a nice setup on those cars.

 

On Gen 3 I run 17x7.5s with 225/45/17s without any issues. I think I can fit 235/40/17s on the same rims if they came in the Brand I wanted.

 

Darby-Do you drive your car to the events? I was thinking of a summer tire just for playing on/off ramps, waht'ya think ADVAN A052's for street? I only drive my car 5k a year, wear isn't to much a concern but it's cold her (40's today) so I'd probably put on 2.5k a year before swapping out for winters. Seem's Tirerack pushes michelin's over any other brand?? Pilot Super Sport has the best rating for a 205/45/17.

 

Yokohama ADVAN A052 225/45/17s

I do drive it to and from events...I also usually drive it another day or so until I put the stock tires back on...
My Mini is 1 year old with 5700 miles on it...of course when it was new I drove it a lot for the first 6 months...or my JEEP
BUT after I bought my 2019 Audi RS3 it was garaged more. Recently I have garaged the Audi and been driving The Mini a bit during these COVID-19 Times.

I missed the Mini and manual

 

I am also curious to hear that opinion. The last Max performance tire I had (300 wear rating) was uncomfortable at temps below 50 deg; it got hard and slippery. Older tire design, though, and the rubber may not have been very tolerant of cooler temps. Be interesting to hear about newer rubber designs.

 

MOST High Performance Tires...especially 200 UTQG...are not built for cold weather

 

True. From TR, which I was basically aware of this, but surprised by how low the A052s are allowed to go:

No, I wasn’t looking to use them as snow tires, just cooler weather (early fall, summer nights, etc). With the tires I had, which had a modest wear rating (300), I was surprised as to how quickly their performance dropped off with temperature. That is, in the 50 to 60 degF range and below. This is cool summer night weather around here. They would get better with a bit of driving, but I never knew when they would get better. They were unnerving enough that I went back to my AS tires and got rid of them. At least the AS tires were constantly mediocre no matter what the temp and they were better starting out cold than the other tires.

 

What'dya think stay away from A052's? tire rack says to go with Michelin SS. Did your car steer sharper / super fast turn in compared to the run flats? it would suck to find out that the run flat P7 turn quicker due to the RF sidewalls.

 

the super sports are definitely NOT quicker, none of the runflats are. My experience with them, the stiff sidewall will skip rather than conform to the road surface, resulting in less grip, they are also a harder compound with much longer tread life, and they ride like crap and chunk.

 

I don’t dare to turn the traction control and DSC off with the RFTs that came on my JCW. I did it once and those tires tried to kill me because they lost traction so easily. I run the RFTs on my my street/track car, because that is what I have for the street and I don’t want to get stuck with a flat (it has happened, a flat that is). Also, they are far better than the RFTs that came on the JCW. I don’t push that car at all on the street. It periodically gets exercised, but nothing too strenuous. The JCW is another story. I am looking to get the Yokos for it for the street and, maybe, for a few track runs. That is why I was interested to hear how they did in what I will call “cooler” temperatures.

 

Yokohama has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee so how can I go wrong (if they don't work -take bath on labor).

 

Hmmmm - I wonder how many track days I can do in 30 days?
Well, right now, none...

 

How's about Lime Rock in a Miata Eddie? Do you iRace?

I could use some teaching on real road racing, particularly race craft. At present I've just started iRacing, have 10-15 hours in the MX-5 Cup cars at Laguna and Lime Rock.

I'm too shy to race in public yet - still working out who's racing in what league and at what speed (and how serious).

I'm running 1:01 at Lime Rock presently, without drama (well - not too much). I am using AI opponents so far.

Just a thought,

Charlie

PS: iRacing does not yet offer the Mini I'm afraid.

 

I would really like join up, but I am waiting for my wheel and pedals. Just bought a new computer to do this. They have sold out at Best Buy and at the manufacturer’s (for the one I want), so I found an open-box deal on EBay that I bought. That is supposed to be here next week. I have never done iRacing so this will be new for me, too. 1:01 is really quite good at LRP. If you want to discuss driving on LRP, lets start a new thread.

 

Will do - sorry for the off-track mountainhorse...

On topic, I do believe if I ever wear out the rest of the RE-71 (last year's 2nd set) I'll go to the A052.

And yes the TW200 race tires suck at low temp - a rain tire is better below 40 degrees! But Oh Sweet Jesus they are GRAND with a surface temp of 100-130 or so! Trade-off's y'know...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

100 deg asphalt i.e.50-60 deg sunny day, what's that 2 months in New England, when it's not raining.. For just tooling around town does this seem worth the $$$?

 

Yep . But I meant tire temp, not track temp. The dragon at 70 degrees will allow me to fully warm the RE-71, as will other venues...

But we shall see, the RE-71s will go back on in a week or two, with the light wide wheels - and absent our regular events for the foreseeable future they'll carry me to July I expect.

Perhaps by then I'll have some real racing to enjoy, and in that case I will not hesitate.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Just installed the Yok's A052 (205/45-17), first impression- way better than the Pilot Super Sports, makes the Mich's feel like a touring tire. Gonna put some more miles and see if they rub the struts.

 

Stock wheels?

 

Yes, stock wheels. I'm taking the car out later, hoping they don't rub anything.

 

I looked at mine with the stock wheels and tires and, have to say, there is not much room. I have a set of 215/45x17 tires I want to put on, but I am pretty sure they will touch. I think for my tires, a 5mm spacer will be needed.

Do you think the Yoks run wide?