Semi Slicks, whats chur, and whats dumb.

[CorollaGT]

I tossed up between the 888's and the cheaper nitto's and the look of the pattern for the nitto's put me off as they don't look as thopugh they would have muh wet weather capability.. 

 

 

I ran Nitto's the other week in the rain at Manfeild (second event on them) and they were faultless. My car weighs roughly 1120kg, pumped the tyres up to 32psi cold and had no grip issues. Only thing to watch for would be large puddles.

[spiderwebfx]

I ran Nitto's the other week in the rain at Manfeild (second event on them) and they were faultless. My car weighs roughly 1120kg, pumped the tyres up to 32psi cold and had no grip issues. Only thing to watch for would be large puddles.

When it came to a wet day for me I put my everyday Michelin tyres back on.  They sh*t all over the Toyo's and Kumho's in the wet.

[Truenotch]

Hey VG, we've already talked about this IRL but here are my points: 

 

123's are OK... They're cheap, all-weather tyres but you won't be impressed with the lap times. A better semi will easily give you a couple of seconds over these. 

 

R888's are good, but IMO over rated by a lot of people. They are quite sloppy when new (tread block movement) and get faster as they wear down in dry conditions. They work well in the rain when they're brand new and start to get dodgey later in life.... Ideally you would have one set of worn R888's for the dry and a set of new ones for the rain. At Manfeild the difference on the MX5 was a 1.24.5 on old tyres in the dry compared to mid 1:25's on brand new ones. 

 

NT01's - I haven't used these yet, but am going to buy a set. They have all the advantages of the R888 without the issues of tread block movement. The deep grooves make them work well in the rain when new and they are close to a slick when worn (so great in the dry). They can be swapped left to right and I would guess that turning on the rim won't be detrimental if you have edge wear issues down the track. They also come in 225/45/15, which is an awesome size. 

 

 

As for Rookie's slick argument - there are definitely benefits to using slicks. A brand new Kumho S700 will heat up within a lap and has a tonne more grip than a semi. Rookie drove my car with half fucked Kumho's and a car setup that wasn't working too well on the day (it usually has miles more rear grip), but they still work well. A friend's WRX racecar did a PB laptime a few weeks ago on season-old S700's - so they seem to hold their integrity until they're turbofucked. 

 

Have the feek's ever run new tyres? My old 2nd hand Dunlop D11's were never any good and wouldn't get hot, even when using tyre dope. New tyres make a massive difference - especially with slicks. 

[Vintage Grumble]

I wrote a big response to this, but had to close the window quickly, so to summarize,

 

I've decided to go with the Nitto's as they seem to be the best bang for buck, and I cant use slicks in nearly all the events i'll be entering.

 

Thanks for the info people, has been gooood.

[Goat]

Sellus your 205s to fund these semis. hah

[Vintage Grumble]

If Markku takes the rims, you got yoself a deal-e-o.

[vivaspeed]

I'm a little late to this, but I've run 205/50/15 Dunlop 03Gs for a few years and found them to be really good.  Spoke directly with the motorsport guy at Dunlop and they weren't much more than R888s to get another set (somewhere around $1200).  Not sure if you go straight to a retail outlet what the price will be.

 

Last ones I had were a hard compound and didn't like them much when cold (sprints, hillclimbs, wet, etc) but okay for longer track runs.  Would do medium next time if I got more Dunlops.

 

Need some more tyres now, was thinking about R888s or Nittos.