CWay27

Well fellas I just spent over 3 hours on the track and I'm here to share a few reviews. For those who haven't read my previous thread about latest mods here's a recap.

- RS shift linkage with spherical joints and universal joint for tranny rod.
- Gutted the brake bias valve.
- Nitto NT-01 in 235 - 275

Before I headed out to the track, I had the car aligned and the final specs are;

Front:
Caster: 3.90 degrees
Camber: -2.96 degrees
Toe: 0.02" total= 0.04"

Rear:
Camber: -3.00 degrees
Toe: 0.08" total= 0.16"

So the other morning I got in the car and drove 130Km (75miles) to Tremblant. My very first impression is that the tires are noisy.

The sun was present but track temp was just above freezing temp. I bleed the tires down to 30Lbs cold and took it easy for a couple of laps. Tires were getting greasy after 20 mins and pressure were at 38Lbs. I dropped the temp down to 36 and went back out for another 30mins. By then the temp were back up to 37-38Lbs. Anyhow after 3 back to back 30min sessions, I found 36-34 to be excellent. These tires stick, stick, stick and will let you know when they'll let go. After a little more then 3 hours of track time, the tires performed to my expectations and wore evenly. These tires like a lot of negative camber and even after 150miles of highway and 3+ hours of track time, they still show like new.

As for my brakes, I run big reds in the front and regular RSA rear calipers. Last year I was going through front rotors like crazy and never had to change rear ones. After reading posts from Garrett and others, I decided to gut the bias valve and re-install it empty. I flushed the entire system and installed new front rotors (1994 3.6T) with pagid RS29 and plain rear rotors with pagid RS14. I used Motul RBF600 for fluid and the brakes work amazingly. The car didn't nose dive as much and pedal was firm the entire 1.5 hour I was out. The best part is that everything looks brand new where as before I had little cracks showing just after 2 days at an PCA event (8X20min sessions).

Now regarding the shift linkage, mine was getting sloppy and sometimes I had hard time finding the gear since there was too much play. So it was time to address the problem but at a reasonable cost. The RS shift lever and fork is not expensive and cost about 100$ but the RS shift rod is over 500$ and wasn't going to pay that. I also noticed that the weltmeister kit included spherical heim joints and thought I should try to make my own. After a few calculations and measuring, I ended up making my own rods with spherical joints and welded a universal joint for the tranny ala 993 RS coupled with RS shift lever and fork. The result is phenomenal and is precise and short. It's a click click type of sound. If you guys ever want to make your own, search over the 993 board for a thread about RS shift linkage that has about 5 pages. Here's what it looks like.

Overall I am absolutely pleased with the stuff I did and made the car feel like new. Happy track season to all!!

Crazy Canuck

sweet Carl

It was a good day at Tremblant Wed.

CWay27

Yes indeed. It was really amazing to spend so much time out on the track, not like a PCA event where as you get 4X20min sessions a day. I also realized that I'm not in good shape and my concentration was taking a beating after the third 30min session.

Crazy Canuck

It's the only way to go.

I think I did 300km on track.

RJay

+1 on the NT01s cool weather performance (255/315s). The track temps I have experienced have been pretty low here in the NE so far this spring. At WGI, I was seeing max lat G numbers of 1.5+, which given my tires never reached optimal temp, I thought was quite extraordinary. Perhaps its mostly having gone from 16s->17s this year, but as predicted the turn-in is definitely sharper than the RA-1s., and they do feel very similar at the limit. That said, and this may be down to not yet getting a decent sunny day to really get them fully hot, there is something about I miss in the NT01s vs the RA1s with regard to feel which I cant quite put my finger on it. Nonetheless, for the $$$ these tires are undoubtedly the best deal going particularly if you drive in a wide range of temperatures. After a good 500 track miles, mine, admittedly on a very wide, light car, might be confused for a freshly scrubbed set. Maybe theres 1/16 gone. If they have a flaw, it could be their braking feel, which I find a little vague at the limit.

CWay27

Chris, if I put the numbers together I think I also did close to 300 track Km.

Rjay, you are absolutely right but as for brake feel, I might have less experience then most of you guys so that's why my analysis is not as in depth as some of you when reporting on a tire.

RJay

Not at all my friend, just trying to add a few things I noticed. I assume RSAs have ABS, so threshold braking feel/lockup is not something that you would be as sensitive to, but for those of us driving earlier cars without that aid it is an important consideration. So forgive me, not trying to usurp anything, just trying to backfill and support your comments. These things tend in the end to be personal opinion and preference anyway. I'm sure there are guys out there that will hate them as they dont feel like hoosiers, but for those of us that prize fine control while sliding the car smoothly, they are great tires.

CWay27

Don't get me wrong, I actually like it when people add inputs to the report, it makes it more complete. Yes I do have ABS but rare are the times it kicks in. The only times ABS has kicked in was when I had done something stupid and were about to run out of track.

007DT

CWay: Your pressures are 36 Front 34 Rear?

I have these tires too and happy w/ the performance. I run 31 F 35 R

RJay

Personally, I'm still hunting for the correct pressure. For me with a much lighter car, so far its seems to be somewhere around 34-36 hot (well luke warm) all around. At the odd AX, I too like a couple of pounds left out of the rear to get the and start cold at 30/28. Helps the car to rotate a little better. I would think that in 31-35 would, in general result in significant understeer with a 911, but if if works for you, hell, it works.

MelanomaMan

I am also running the NT01's at 34/36. I've had them on for 5 trackdays and they are consistent. I will admint that it is easier to get them up to temp here in the desert (AZ). Only one of those days was for time trials, and I felt like I left something on the table due to grip.

F350Lawman

Great thread, let me jump in w/ some (lots of) questions. I am waiting to receive my 17"x 9" & 11.5" Kodiak Racing Wheels, I am ordering NT-01s in 255/40/17 & 315/35/17 to mount on them. Currenlty the car is shod w/ Hankook Ventus RS2s in 225/50/16 & 245/45/16 on the original Fuchs. The rear Hankooks are mostly cooked anyway (good timing)after 5000+ very hard miles and my one and only trip to the track last week. As an aside, I thought they were a pretty darn good tire, especially for the $$. Much better than my Dunlop SP8000s.

I am drawn to the NTs as everyone seems to comment on their great grip, decent wear, while still maintaining feedback. So here are my questions. I like the way the car handles now and was thinking with the extra tire/grip I will soon have, I should start out w/ the 27mm Smart Racing sway bars one notch stiffer front and rear. Logic just seems to say that I will be putting more force on the car laterally so one notch should keep the very limited roll similar to what it is now? I (and more importantly my mechanic who is very good) feel the car handles nicely right now, so I'd like to maintain that feel. With all the suspension upgrades and some HP upgrades, we both feel it needs more/better rubber.

My car should weigh about 2800 and I won't be driving it as hard, (yet) as you seasoned track guys , any recommendations on my starting pressures?I am asking for all this input because the time frame is tight, hopefully the rims will arrive just in time to mount, align and balance the car. I may get one day on the back roads to test it out, maybe not. Anyway, I want to arrive at the track as setup as possible, as my "test" on the road may range from semi-productive to semi-useless...depending on traffic.

Thanks

RJay

So this is precisely the sizes I'm running on CCWs and interestingly, although it was with RA1s, your 16" sizes are what I was running last year before going wide body. My car weighs a bit less than yours (ok, a lot less), roughly 2000# empty, so some of the comparisons might be a bit off. Like you I got the car finished just in time for the second day of my first event. We ran it with all the settings the same as before (camber/castor/shock settings/etc) except that we did add about an inch of bar to the rear given the change in ratio between the f/r sizes. What I found somewhat surprising is that the car pretty much felt the same, just a little better.

Given what I've noted which seems to be in line with what the R888 (pretty much the same tire as the NT01) guys are suggesting in the other thread here, I'm finding that pressures are around 4 PSI below what was working on the RA1. I used to run around 39 hot with the RA1s, now I run 34-36, but equally I'm 250# lighter than last year. I would guess that a good initial target for hot for you would be between 36-38. That said, Nitto, who surprisingly did not respond to my inquiry around pressures for my car, recommends 40PSI hot, but for what weight car, dunno.

CWay27

Mine were getting greasy at 38 and then went down to 36. The reason I decided to go 34 in the rear was to give me a little more grip. I am not an expert and figured I would be more at ease with a planted rear and having only to correct the front end rather then, a planted front end and loose rear end. Maybe I got it all wrong, that's why I post my input so others can jump in with their inputs. The majority of you tend to put less in front.......

RJay

My rear camber setup to around 1.75 degrees. IIRC, I run around 2.5 degrees up front. 450#/600# springs with Leda single adjustable coilovers at 12/24 14/24 clicks for a 2000# car with a full cage fully tied to the body, solid mounts, monoballs, etc my car is extremely stiff, with very little chassis deflection to contend with. I have less weight on the rear of my car than many of you probably have on the front of yours.

I bring this up as all of our cars are likely quite different and undoubtedly our driving styles, experience level, likes and dislikes are different as well. To get a more precise answer, demands getting out the pyrometer, taking the measurements, making the notes and coming to your own conclusions about what works for you and you car. Not having had a day where its really been warm enough to run the widths I'm currently running (I'm pretty certain I would have been faster on a 245/275 combination in my first three outings) I've not been able to get any valid temp numbers. But I'm not totally blowing smoke at you either. What I do know is that for my car, I'm pulling pretty good numbers even in cooler weather at the pressures I'm running with my current setup so they're not a bad starting point until I can do a little more work to figure out if I can do better. As you can see from the Lat G number map below from WGI taken on a day with an ambient of 65 degrees and cloudy overcast skies, the tires are certainly capable of some pretty impressive numbers (AIM MXL accelerometer, not GPS, data, max on that lap of -1.54, +1.48). What we should take away from this thread is that it is indeed likely mid thirties is the appropriate initial target. Perhaps a bit more if your heavier and little less if your lighter. After that its up to each of us to use the tools that we have, be that your butt or full logger setup with infrared temp sensors and try to fine tune from there. I'll be back at the Glen at the end of June, hopefully a borrowed pyro in hand and if I remember I'll try to post what I see in the numbers when I get back.