Carrera GT

Dennis, I went out in torrential rain on Skyline Blvd last week running the Corsas. They're very good in the wet, but they won't take acceleration or deceleration. In other words, they handle cornering and steering forces, but braking and acceleration are fragile. I was running 34/36 front/rear cold, but I'm now running 32/32 cold for the street.

I expect to do a half day at Sears on Sunday and maybe Thunderhill Monday if the weather clears. I'm sure you know Sears can be brutal in the wet, so I'll be running in "tender foot" mode.

Carrera GT

Thanks for the suggestion. I think you're right -- for UK weather, 32 hot is a good number. I can't get two degrees out of the front, but I'll likely find some good recommendations on adjustable camber plates and then I'll have my choice of track rubber.

Cheers,

tdf360

JJayB -

>>We hired Cort Wagner to help in our set up and after several sessions the best lap times were with 31 and 33 psi hot.<<

What were your lap times? I'm trying to decide between the MPSC, Corsas, and RA-1s. Everyone seems to have different experiences.

JJayB

rosso360

Cort ran some 1:27s with my son as a passenger! He thought he could go faster with a stiffer ft. bar but we ran of adjustment. I had some 1:29s which was over a second faster than my best times with MPSC. I did not like the MPSC due to the sudden break away they exibitted. Hoosiers are still faster but forget about running them on the street.

Arthur

Have anyone ever bought used slicks? At around $75 per tire with plently of rubber, I think it beats buying a brand new one for nearly 4 times that much. I will find out soon if the savings are worth it. From speaking to others who have used them, the disappointment level seems to be nil. FWIW, I happend to pass by a tire dealer at CMP today, and he had a set of Pirelli slicks, used once. He didn't want to haul it to the dump, so he said I could have them. Looked decent, so they're sitting in my garage now, next to my used Michelin slicks. I'll let you all know how the tires hold up after Nov. 21.

JJayB

I thought slicks would be a better wear bargin than R tires. Wrong. First off, you need two sets, especially if your running "used" slicks. Your suspension set up needs to be way stiffer. If your car is a street/track you'll run a littler faster than Hoosiers unless you run a full race set up. I ran Pirelli slicks for a two day event. I was a over a second faster than my Hoosiers, but didn't get that much better wear than R tires. The slicks being softer picked up a lot of debris and rocks which demolished all of my fender liners. Lesson: If its a street car R tires. If its a race car slicks.

Carrera GT

JJayB, I agree with your commentary on Hoosiers -- not a "compromise" solution.

Carrera GT

I played in the rain (heavy rain, standing water) this evening. The Corsas are a great rain tyre. Really excellent cornering traction. There's a relatively narrow threshold with power-on but it's there and once you feel it out a few times, it's quite predictable. My car still understeers, despite -1.7 deg camber on the front and -2.2 on the rear, so I was dealing with an uneasy mixture of lift-off over-steer and plow-on under-steer. In other words, if I was trying to cook it through a turn and needed to tighten my line, it was all about feeling the tyres. I think the Corsas (in this case running 32 cold in the rain) are really very good. I think they just can't handle high ambient temperatures. I also noticed the power-on traction was progressive (if not as much outright traction as I'd like) but the braking was very good. I don't know enough about tyres to explain why the things did better under braking than acceleration, all I might guess is that the narrow fronts with weight transfer could cut through the water while the much wider rears weren't getting significant weight transfer and had to displace more water with less weight per square inch of rubber.

I have a half day at Sears, presumably in the wet, and a full day of also presumably wet weather at Thunderhill on Monday. After those events I'll report back.

JJayB

Just finished a track day today which is my third day on the Corsa. Last time out I experienced some chunking on the shoulders which others on the board also experienced. The weather today was 70 deg. f, track was cold due to rain yesterday and last night. No chunking, great grip, WOW! Trun in and predicability was great.

The last time out the temp. was around 100 deg. f. Apparently this tire doesn't like hot ambient temp. Even though these are pricy, I'll give them another shot. Looks like the best street/circuit tire out there. ( I can't wait for the flames).

Greg Fishman

Sounds like you need a set of Michelins also. They are horrible in the cold but decent in really hot temps.

Why don't you have a set of Hoosiers also? I know they don't wear as good, at least the current ones don't, but your smiles per mile quotient would be a lot higher. IMHO.

JJayB

Greg
I like the Hoosiers and run them for time trials. Occasionally I do a cruise night and need a tire that resists broken beer bottles from disgruntled Vett owners. Believe it or not the hot rod guys love forged and polished BBS's with 315/30's. I think the Corsa is a good duel purpose tire.

Tried the MPSC, hated them. Didn't want to become that religious due to sudden brake away.