Faust's H Street Flailings

[M-Sport fan]

Not that any autocrossers would ever use them, but they now offer the ONLY treaded, non-slick, over 50 tread wear 225/40-17 in existence with these RSes!

 

[the duke]

if the reports that the RE71r is discontinued are correct, looks like I'll need to find some other tire for next year. From currently available information, leaning towards 215/45r16 Falken RT660s. Sounds like they should fit with stock suspension, and maybe with a few heat cycles before autox they'll hold together.

I had really good luck with the old RT615K+, both on autocross and on the track. If the RT660 de-lamination issue has been solved, I'd suggest those. I also ran Direzza ZIIIs on the track and I liked those as well. Haven't done much autocrossing due to COVID though. Both tires offer some pretty good grip and I've found both to be predictable. I want to say the Falkens held up better than the Dunlops over the course of a year, but I think I was also getting braver with corner speeds so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[faust]

We have a test and tune coming up in 3 weeks, so it's tire time. Tire Rack doesn't have the 215/45r16 available until late in the month, but Discount Tire shows them as available, so I've got an appointment to have a set mounted up next week.

 

[faust]

The 660s are on my wheels. Stacked in the garage, as we have lows in the 30s forecast this week. Planning to get them on next Saturday & get them heat cycled on the highway, then see how they work at our test & tune that Sunday.

Double-header autox the following weekend, excited to see how it goes with competitive tires.

 

[faust]

I'm curious if anyone has tire pressure recommendations for the RT660s in H Street trim (no camber to speak of).

If not, I'll probably start something like 40/36 & do the chalk thing to make sure it's not too low.

 

[Rexracer]

I

I'm curious if anyone has tire pressure recommendations for the RT660s in H Street trim (no camber to speak of).

If not, I'll probably start something like 40/36 & do the chalk thing to make sure it's not too low.

ran 39 day 1 in Vegas this past weekend (I run 38 on re71s) at the end of the day the triangles were completely gone. Day 2 I ran 42, but of course forgot caulk so no idea I’d that was even enough...

 

[faust]

as I mentioned in the RT660 thread, I got out to our preseason test and tune yesterday. First time for me on 200TW tires, and the learning curve is real.

Had the rear end come out on me a couple times, felt like we were on our way to spinning, but got it straightened out. I don't think I ever had the front wash out, though certainly got a wheel spinning on corner exits.

Looking at the data after, I clearly was not pushing the tires for all they were worth consistently. I'll have to keep working on using more of the available traction.

Still unsure on proper pressure for these. with my 0 degrees of camber, chalking the sidewalls led me to final hot pressures around 45 front, 36 rear. I'm halfway tempted to move to STH just to get some camber adjustments.

I'm also curious to see if this is as good as these tires grip, or if there's a scrubbing in effect. I'd tried to get at least one heat cycle in them with a 30 minute highway drive the day before, but it was only around 60 degrees out, and the rubber didn't get particularly warm.

 

[faust]

We had our first couple events this past weekend. In the 40s, windy, and overcast / rainy. The lot we were running at is not that grippy, and there were more spins / slides than I think I've seen before.

Looking closely at tire wear, it seemed like 45 psi hot was a little higher than I needed to be, so I let it get down to more like 43.5. Talking to my fellow FiST driver, he pointed out that running the stock '15 front sway bar probably isn't doing me any favors, in that it's letting the car roll over onto the outside tire more than something beefier would. Thinking about addressing that sometime this season, probably after shocks.

More than any car setup, of course, I need to keep learning how to drive. I think my top issues are smoother inputs, looking ahead, and staying tighter to the cones.

Event 1:

Event 2:

 

[Rexracer]

Yeah going to a stiffer front bar was a tough learning curve, but ultimately was a big help.
Video 1 - at the 0:29 mark you are slowing way down (24mph?) and not using the available track to carry more speed in, track out and then get around that next cone.

Video 2 looked good. A trick I was trying at the last event in the big 180 sweepers, was to modulate the throttle to keep boost/build speed, but not wheel spin. I think at the 0:27- 0:31 I can hear that inside tire spinning up

 

[faust]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, I never got that corner at :29 down. Had runs that were way too wide, directly through the cone, etc. I think I was struggling with not quite trusting my traction.

You're right about the wheelspin. I like the idea about keeping up boost without necessarily flooring it all the time, I haven't been thinking of it that way.

 

[Rexracer]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, I never got that corner at :29 down. Had runs that were way too wide, directly through the cone, etc. I think I was struggling with not quite trusting my traction.

You're right about the wheelspin. I like the idea about keeping up boost without necessarily flooring it all the time, I haven't been thinking of it that way.

Yeah last event it sort of clicked with me. We have a area at PIR that is just slippery, so the only thing they do there is use it as a big sweeper turn around (like you were doing). 2 things happen there, people come in hot and spin/sideways, or they go in conservative and then are supper slow since they cant build speed, but dont have speed to get them through it. I started pulsing the peddle knowing I could build a bit, but not a lot, say 25-75-25-75, and it seemed to work well, providing good power once I got the wheel straight and could floor it.

I need to figure out how to overlay solostorm with video. =\

 

[faust]

Yeah last event it sort of clicked with me. We have a area at PIR that is just slippery, so the only thing they do there is use it as a big sweeper turn around (like you were doing). 2 things happen there, people come in hot and spin/sideways, or they go in conservative and then are supper slow since they cant build speed, but dont have speed to get them through it. I started pulsing the peddle knowing I could build a bit, but not a lot, say 25-75-25-75, and it seemed to work well, providing good power once I got the wheel straight and could floor it.

I need to figure out how to overlay solostorm with video. =\

If you have solostorm controlling your camera, it's not too bad. Not sure otherwise.

 

[Rexracer]

ah... ill have to try to sync them, never needed to, so didnt think to try it that way.

 

[faust]

When it works right, the solostorm to camera integration is pretty nice, with SS starting & stopping the camera at the right time.

In my case, with an old gopro connecting over wifi, the camera battery savings of only recording when needed are offset by having wifi on.

Being able to see the low quality video immediately after a run is pretty handy, not to mention getting the high quality video with overlay later, so for me it's worth the fiddling.

 

[Rexracer]

Darn...yeah i gotta work on that. Do you do an in-car view also from the tablet camera?

 

[faust]

Darn...yeah i gotta work on that. Do you do an in-car view also from the tablet camera?

No, I just slide the tablet into the pocket behind the passenger seat. Saved me having to figure out a secure mount for it.

 

[faust]

Did some more research, and decided to order a set of front Bilstein B6s to go with the set of rears I haven't gotten around to installing.

Now to see if I can actually figure out how to install them. Looking at

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf1hyRHNBic
as my main guide, and referring to the service manual for torque values. Anything else I should know?

 

[porambo]

Did some more research, and decided to order a set of front Bilstein B6s to go with the set of rears I haven't gotten around to installing.

Now to see if I can actually figure out how to install them. Looking at as my main guide, and referring to the service manual for torque values. Anything else I should know?

You can probably get another .5 degrees of camber in the front by pushing on the top of the damper towards the inside of the car when tightening the top hat down. I didn't really see a toe change with that adjustment so alignment is probably unnecessary.

 

[faust]

flushed the brakes with pentosin DOT 4 LV over the weekend. Seems like the brake pedal has more modulation now than it did with whatever non-LV DOT 4 was in there previously. Have an autox this weekend, interested to see how they perform.

 

[Fiestadude]

as I mentioned in the RT660 thread, I got out to our preseason test and tune yesterday. First time for me on 200TW tires, and the learning curve is real.

Had the rear end come out on me a couple times, felt like we were on our way to spinning, but got it straightened out. I don't think I ever had the front wash out, though certainly got a wheel spinning on corner exits.

Looking at the data after, I clearly was not pushing the tires for all they were worth consistently. I'll have to keep working on using more of the available traction.

Still unsure on proper pressure for these. with my 0 degrees of camber, chalking the sidewalls led me to final hot pressures around 45 front, 36 rear. I'm halfway tempted to move to STH just to get some camber adjustments.

I'm also curious to see if this is as good as these tires grip, or if there's a scrubbing in effect. I'd tried to get at least one heat cycle in them with a 30 minute highway drive the day before, but it was only around 60 degrees out, and the rubber didn't get particularly warm.

I find the rt660s better than the re71s in dry conditions. The rt660s are way worse in the wet though. I also do experience rollover and run my tires at 45psi front 46 psi rear because I like a looser setup. My car is completely stock besides wheels and tires and was able to snag top pax the last 2 events with some pretty acclaimed drivers in the field.