Charlie, not planning on being there. Sorry.

James, not running Toyos, but Direzzas. Not having any problems with them nor am I aware that anyone else is. I won't bother trying to help further.

 

David,

Neither am I - my present bout with unemployment is not helping the racing budget.

I had the car at Chang's shop today (FunHondas in Maynard) and we put Direzzas back on. Now I have no excuses, as that setup has been confidence inspiring and dead nuts reliable for two seasons.

Chang diagnosed the shimmy issue as wheel bearings - after the two of us had done about 30 miles of check ride under varying conditions, and spent some quality time with the car on the lift..

We also went over the rear axle clearances, and he agrees with me that the 15x7 at +38 (the K1s) leave no margin for error between the rim edge and the trailing arm - less than 5mm clearance now. There is insufficient room for wheel weights at present (which is fine as I prefer the adhesive style weights as opposed to those that clip on the rim edge).

So of course - racer that he is - he proposed 15x8 on the front axle alone. That I think would be a damned good idea, but I am just not serious enough at the moment to run an asymmetrical setup.

So the car goes back to Turners for bearings (the current set was freshened during the rebuild, Feb of '08) after 30k miles has apparently produced sufficient wear to require replacement.

The darned thing is that when I went for annual Tech about 6 weeks ago, Josh Parker flagged them as a concern and I discounted his observation as I was cocky about their relatively low mileage and frankly just didn't want to believe it. I should really know better!

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

I thought this thread was a discussion concerning tire/wheel fitment on STX Mini Coopers, no?

No need to be all sour-grapes because someone questions why you made a particular setup choice. Yeeesh....

 

Charlie,

Good catch on the bearings. I know a guy running an asymmetrical setup on a SMF R53. If you are interested at some point, I can put you in touch with him.

Good luck on fixing the unemployment problem as well.

David

 

Thanks David - that was Chang's catch (I was in denial).

On that latter point it appears likely that I shall secure a great job with the primary competition for my prior employer. Not only a good step professionally, but also evidence of the presence of karma in the market.

Fingers crossed.

I do also hope that the gentleman from Texas is well, prospering, and having an adequate sufficiency of motorsports.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

The job prospect sounds good, particularly the karma part.

Dave is doing well. In addition to his daily performance driving at Goodyear, his main racing activity right now is a karting series in TX. He also got to drive a Sprint car. He said it was wickedly quick. He will probably do the Bondurant Shootout in Formula Mazdas again this fall. You can follow his exploits at http://yawmomentracing.blogspot.com/.

Best.

David

 

For what it's worth, I've had 15x8 949s on my 03MCS since they came out a couple of years ago. I use 5mm spacers front and rear, which moves the wheel out far enough to clear the struts and the rear trailing arm, though it is close in the rear. No indications of any contact back there though.

With 225/45-15 (shaved R1Rs last year - amazing in the rain aren't they?) I easily clear my fender lips with my current ride height. Previously I used both 15x7 and 16x7.5 Kosei K1-Rs. On the 16" wheels I've primarily used 215/45s with no issues (back when Azenis were the hot ticket). On the 15x7s, I've used 225/45s and 225/50s. The latter did kiss the rear fender lips but just the plastic so I ignored it. I found the 225/50s also just barely touched the front damper body, so I started using the 5mm spacer. I didn't add the rear spacer until I installed the 15x8s.

If you're rubbing on the fender lip with 225/45-15s then your ride height is pretty low!

Additional info - all of the above where with PSS9s installed (front springs replaced with 350lb/in linear rate 2.5" x 6" springs) and camber of -2.6 to -2.8 front, and -1.6 to -1.8 rear.

Currently I'm installing some Ohlins with 450lb/in linear springs, along with a general suspension overhaul (new H-Sport control arms to replace the original set which was the second set they made back in 2003, new hubs all around, new camber plates, and the AST rear spherical bearing upper mounts) so I'm in for some setup experimenting again as I start dialing in the new parts.

Scott
90SMF

 

That's some great information Scott - thanks very much.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Great info, thanks for sharing!

Do you happen to have a picture of how much clearance you have(b/w tire and fender lip) w/ the 15x8s?

 

Check out my gallery. I've just added a couple of pictures with the tires/wheels labeled to the best of my knowledge. Any older pictures with silver Kosei K1-Rs would have 225/45-15 Avon R comps.

Those with white K1-Rs are either 215/45-16 Azenis (215 or 615 versions) or 15x7s with 225/50-15 Yokohama AO48s or 225/45-15 Avons.

Those with the nickle 15x8 949s have either Hankook RS2s in 225/50-15 or Toyo R1Rs in 225/45-15, both of which were shaved to about 6/32nds.

That's what I can find relatively quickly right now. I've got more buried in non-autocross picture folders that will take some free time to find.

It will be awhile before I get the car back together and can mount the 15x8s on it for new pictures. Life has interfered with a lower back disk issue, plus two sons who autocross in FJA and FKB when they aren't in the pool - they both swim competitively and thus practice 11 and 6 times a week respectively, plus meets and, oh yeah, work. Sorry!

Scott
90SMF

 

Thanks, that is quite helpful. The 225/50/15s look like they do not have much clearance indeed. I guess it will be a tight squeeze using 15x8s for STX.

Btw, do you have your fenders rolled?


Ahhhh competitive swimming... I spent 6 days a week in the pool practicing from 8 to 18 years old. I shudder thinking of those 4am alarm clocks to wake me up for practice before school. What are their strokes/events?

 

Nope, the fenders aren't rolled. The 225/50-15s just occasionally kiss the plastic part of the fender when I hit a decent bump. The fenders seem to fair worse than the tires (no visible damage to the tire shoulder, but little bits of plastic peel off). 225/45-15s never touch.

Remember that I haven't had stock springs (or spring rates) on the car since February 2003, so there's less movement than there would be on a stock setup.

As for swimming, both boys do best in freestyle, followed by butterfly. Breast stroke is a distant last on the list, especially for our 14yr old. The 9yr old is relatively better in that stroke, but still does much better in the other three. Both boys are just now turning those ages, but the 8th grader has been practicing with the highschool team for the last couple of months. He seems to like the longer distances more, getting Indiana Divisional cuts in the 1000 and 1650 the first time he swam those events. His practices have averaged about 6000 yards, plus running and weights, for the last two years. The highschool age team will up that to about 8000 twice a day when school gets out at the end of this week. The younger son managed 10&U Divisional cuts in the 50/100/200 free as an 8yr old in his first year, but was also close in fly and back. I guess chasing a brother who's five years older all of his life pays off.