The 305 wide wets end up being like the old 195 wide Toyo R1R on a heavier NB Miata.

They grain with hard use and will even chunk with abuse.

We had the one 360 deg turn and I decided to stop drifting it because the rear treadblocks were getting the scalloped look.

People say its best to heat cycle them harder and let the tread blocks wear down before sending them in the dry- so peoples old wets would be a good source if you want to experiment.

It for sure wouldnt work at all on an FD in the dry with 275s or narrower, though reportedly 275s work ok on NC Miata (so, 2,400ish lbs). My FD is 2,5xx to 2,700lbs depending on how much gas.

 

The purple crack is for sure where its at.

 

Personally I'm looking at the A7 in 255 35 18 as a square setup. Supposedly this size was is some kind of cheater tire for a class with a 255 width limit.

24.8" OD
Section width is wider than 275 35 18 at 10.8"
Tread width equal to 275 35 18 at 10.3"
Almost as much tread as the 285 30 18 (only .1" less tread than a 1.2" wider tire... whatever you say, Hoosier!)

 

Very nice car. Can you share some feedback on the Ikeya shifter? Always wondered how well they work and how reliable they are. Thank you

 

I have had absolutely no issues with the Sequenshifter.

Well, I do need to make a little gauge shade for the gear indicator.
When the sun shines through the rear hatch in the evening I cant always see what gear I am in. Shouldnt really matter since you just go one up or down at a time from the one you are in, but it has made me panic not realizing that.

I didnt like the long plastic industrial handle that was used as the shift ****, but the thread was some huge thing that is bigger than any shift **** thread.

I liked my nephews Voodoo textured **** he got from MiataRoadster, so I bought one of those and a China Helicoil kit in the right size. Drilled the part of the **** that goes down on the shifter shaft a tiny bit and tapped that for the threads. Could still have the threads removed and used on a Miata if need be and I have a 9 other Helicoils so I can try out other *****.



Its way more comfortable in the palm of the hand and a little shorter throw.

Upshifts arent any faster with the Sequenshifter, though you dont ever miss the 2-3 shift.

But downshifts are super fast, I guess because the rev match enables it to mesh the synchros fast.

I have lightweight flywheel and dashpot disabled so the engine revs drop too fast on up shifts, I find myself blipping the throttle to rev-match on upshifts as well in 2nd (gritchiest gear in this old box) especially when the trans is cold.

Going to put the brand new trans in sooner now that I know it will 100% safe with the Sequenshifter.
So much BS out there about it being hard on trans. You just cant bang gears wittout any mechanical knowledge/empathy. Just like a regular H pattern in that regard except a little more abuse proof as you cant push it past a shift rod detent with gorilla shifting (throw is limited by the drum mechanism).

 

Since I have street tires now went for a Sunday drive on a little local mountain rd with my nephew and friend.

 

285/30/18 is a 24.7, not a 23

 

He is saying you can run the 295/30-15 for the shorter 23" tire to help with gearing.

There was a Hamfist Racing affiliate that did the 275/35-15 before the 295s came out on his ASP FD.

 

Yep over looked were it said 275/35/15

 

I was trying hard to figure out how to get those over the RX8 non-sport brake sizes

 

Bought 295/30-18 Nankang AR1.
After my first two local races and some driving around I am impressed.
They are like NT01, just a little better all the way around and quite a bit better cold.

Great dual purpose street/race tires.

Ungodly heavy though.
Compared to the ~22lb previous non DOT tires the ~31lb AR1 took quite a toll on acceleration in the 4th gear 2,000rpm freeway onramp roll-on acceleration test I use.

Drove them out to the country to see my family.

 

Confirmed- the Nankang AR1 are strong.

I was dicing it up with the Corvette boys on Hoosiers this weekend at the kart track.
They got me Sat, but Sun was a higher speed flowing course so I was able to slot in between the 650hp C6 Z06 and the late model C7.

For practice sessions I ran the "Fall Enduro" layout and I was a 1/2 sec lap to 1 sec lap behind my 2013 ~250hp on Ventus TD times, but there is also a row of stacked tires now all down the side of the central straight- so Im not comfortable sliding the car out to the edge of the pavement there anymore.

The AR1 have pretty good road manners too. Drove them the 400 miles round trip.

 

Glad to hear they are working for you. Love they way they look. How well do they heat up for short course/autox work?

 

They are good on the first turn even and dont get too much better with heat.

It was mid 80s to low 90s and I didnt manage to grease them out either, but thats 295s. Cant say how sometging narrower like 255s would hold up.

 

 

Took TeamRX8 advice and changed from the Motul to the OS Giken LSD oil before this last kart track race.

Big change in the LSD lock timing and holding strength- had to learn to drive the car again.
The chassis set-up was from when I was running the Torsen (rotation off the gas even with no diff locking). This old chassis set-up with the now harder locking LSD off the gas meant I had to be more gentle getting off the gas before turn in. Slower inputs felt slower, but who knows- smooth usually feels slower too, but its faster.
Maybe can take advantage of the LSD decel rotation and set the chassis up to be more stable (add some rear toe in.)
It already freight trains forward on acel though. Had a couple backie moments playing around at practice laps that it easily reversed and drove forward
out of.
With the stronger lock on acel I started wearing the outside of the tires in the rear for once because it puts power down when the car is on 2 and 3 wheels. Definitely felt faster in those areas.

 

Are you saying the stock torsen was even more prone to rotate the car during decel turn in?

I never thought of diffs in terms of engine brake deceleration, but it makes sense that they play a role.

Did you try softening up the rear to counteract the rotation via Ohlins adjustment or lower tire pressure?

 

I never noticed the stock torsen had any locking effect on engine decel.
I had set up the chassis to rotate easily without rear end lock on decel.

The last race with the OS Giken and the correct fluid I did soften the rear damping and tire pressure a bit, but the lock on decel was so pronounced I just had to concentrate on gentle gas pedal lift off (being smooth).
Gentle lift would point the nose to the apex now, jumping off the gas like before would point the nose to the exit of the turn and if you jumped back on the gas you could claw forward and ride the outside of the track around the turn.

Or I guess you could go *** first off the outside of the turn, but that appealed to me even less so I didnt try that.

 

The Peak Profile 7443 Switchback LEDs I used for mini projector/turn indicators in the Depot '93-'98 front combo lamps looked cool and had great lighting, but always burnt out.
I started getting the Amazon warranty, but just swi



tching them out was tiresome.

Since the Morimoto spots in the inside postion had been rock solid reliable I replaced the Peak Profile with Morimoto 7443 Switchback LEDs.

 

I thought the front signals were 1156 single filament? How are you getting a 7443 LED dual in there?

 

I made a modified dual element socket to fit the stock/stock style front turn signal housing and a jumper harness.
I would make it for bayonette style dual element bulbs if I did it again. Had to add a set-screw to 7443 socket to keep bulbs in place racing.
So, both inner and outer bulbs work as micro projector spot lights and the outer bulb (where there is physically enough room for a switchback bulb) switches to the turn signal as well.

 

My car was doing almost the same thing on decel at Medford and my last event. This last saturday was wet and just the slightest off throttle would make the car want to rotate. It was more pronounced this last weekend as it was wet out. So for sunday I disconnected the rear swaybar. That got rid of all the rotation on decel turn in. It also helped a ton with keep on throttle rotation in check. I could now get on the throttle sooner and with more throttle and the *** end would only step out about 1ft. so much better slip angle on corner exit. This was in semi we conditions with ground temps in the 50s.

 

For the Fall Enduro in Medford I rotated the tires (front to rear) for the first time and set them at equal pressure front and rear. I had the rear lower previously.
Either something had gotten on what had been the rear tires (was worried about coolant on course at earlier event) or I had just cooked/glazes the rears.
Because with the rears now on the front it had some understeer- which didnt amuse me.
However, they scrubbed in over the course of practice Friday and the car was back to neutral handling by Saturday practice.

 

I rotate my tires after every autocross. Fronts build up with OPR. As for tire pressures, for my tires I have found 28F/25R seems to work the best. I think I have my car feeling really neutral and balanced. Car does not push much and the rear only steps out about a ft and just stays there. Wish I would have figured out my abs issue before Medford. Oh well next year

 

Im able to scrub off the OPR driving on the street, but I can never scrub out the glazed outer shoulders on the street with the FD- just cant bring myself to drive it that hard.

I love how evenly the FD wears tires, but it does lull me into being lazy and not rotating them.

Oh yeah, I had my season final event for local cone autox last Sunday also. I was feeling the course and managed 4th out of 39.

So far the Nankangs AR-1 held up to 10 local autox events, 9 kart track events with hours of practice laps and 4,000 miles of driving to those events on very fun windy roads.

So, this also happened...