4 Kurves

Not mine. Any day buddy, any day...

Evan - you have a car yet? Laguna Seca is in two weeks man!

roberga

You must be magical behind the wheel. Being around cup cars every month I would expect Cup cars to be faster even with Stephen Hawking driving.

4 Kurves

Yeah - I think Evan is a bit optomistic on that report. I believe his evidence is based upon a Racer Clinic race at Willow Springs and he is speaking mostly of top speed issues.

As a matter of reference as a decently new driver in my 2002 Cup I can do 1:27's at Willow sometimes dipping into the 1:26's. Other Cup drivers are quicker yet.

Fastest I've ever gone there in my GT3 was a 1:31. Ever. 4 to 5 seconds is a long way. Long!

Seth Thomas

Hey Cos, back at you biatch. Those must have been some slow drivers in those cup cars you chased down. LOL

cosmos

ok, where to start.

Kev, no I had M3 race car, sold M3 race car. I am looking to buy 93' RSA.

Clock Boy, I have no comment to at this time.

4 Kurves

Well I'm glad you sold the M3. Good luck with hunt for the RSA - we got some great events coming up!

Hope to see you out there soon!

mooty

i am having enough of a hard time resisting evan's badgering (sp) of not having a real race. your are NOT helping.

4 Kurves

Hey, whatever I can do...

multi21

Seth,
Quick question on the RA-1's. Do they come in OE sizes for the GT3, or are you running different sizes? How do they feel? I've always had a good experience with Toyo's on the M3, but after reading a lot of post on this site, most people prefer the PS2's or MSPC adding that the suspension can't handle good R-compound tires (binding up?).

mooty

m3pete, i asked seth same Q, here was his response

245/40/18 front
305/35/18 rear

These are the tires ran in World Challenge GT by the 996 guys and work well on my car. ABS hasn't been an issue but the key is to get them shaved. I don't know how the car would react with the full tread RA1s but I would think it would make it be real squirrelly. I like the Toyos on the car because they last forever doing track days. When new they are a really fast tire and stay about the same for the whole life.

frayed

Sometimes I think Seth's paycheck comes from Toyo. lol, j/k

Greg Fishman

I think Seth could figure it out when he needs to change it. He is probably not as hard on brakes as most. Something about racing in a pro series that seems to make braking overrated.

frayed

Heh. True story.

Seth Thomas

The car has brakes? Oh that is what the extra pedal is for. Just kidding. I wouldn't say that racing in a Pro series makes braking overrated but we have learned from data that braking is what slows down our lap times. Laptimes improve the most when you are on the throttle. So braking needs to be as efficient as we can make it without ABS. The GT3 has a really great brake system that is very close in feel to a full race setup. The ABS doesn't kick in until you are really aggressive on them and the pedal feedback is the best on a street car I have ever driven. It has very little assist compared to my street BMW which adds to the confidence I have in the brakes.

Did I mention how great the Toyo tires are (this was for Frayed)? LOL.

Seth Thomas

As Mooty pointed out I run 245/40/18 on the front and 305/35/18 on the rear. I buy these shavd to 3/32nds which is the depth for World Challenge GT cars. You can get them shaved to 4/32nds or 5/32nds if wanted. As far as feel goes these tires are great for a DE. They are not as fast as a Pirelli slick or a Hoosier but our cars are fast enough without the aid of these sticky tires. The shaved tires gives a lot of feedback on the track and lots of grip. They slide when you want them to without all of a sudden loosing grip. I have driven on PS2s (a street tire that cannot hold up to repeated beatings on the track) and MSPC (a good Rcomp tire). The MSPC is comparable to the RA1 but I feel they offer less grip. The ones that I drove on would slide around a lot and they didn't have as much grip as the shaved Toyos. This was somebody elses car so I can't compare how long they lasted compared to the Toyos. In my opinion the MSPCs would be about 1 sec a lap at Road Atlanta slower than the Toyos.

Can the suspension on our cars handle a bigger tire like the 305/30 and 245/40 ? Yes it can. My car has no problems running these tires on it. I don't get any fender scrubs or any unusual suspension behavior while running the Toyos. I have had to mess around with my Motons to get the suspension dialed in as I did get a little bit of excessive weight transfer under braking. No big deal just change some pressures and shock settings and it is gone. The Toyos are about 1" taller than the stock tires on the GT3 so there is the need to keep this into consideration when setting up the suspension. Overall though I am happy with the tires and won't be switching to anything else anytime soon.