New wheels fitted. 18"OZ Alleggerita HLT with R888's

[PJC]

Have to say they do look good.

[sonny]

Thanks Paul, I will take some better "at a distance shots" to give a better comparison.

[adsgreen]

Hi adsgreen
Dont want to hijack Sonny's thread but surely you need an accutrate set up to start the day/journey and obviously pressures will need checking to make sure you dont have a puncture - get accurate pressure guages and you wont go wrong....also check wheel bolts, engine bay for leaks and such like as part of a safety routine.

All very true and important but not specific to nitrogen filled tyres.

Have you had personal experience of Nitrogen filled tyres as it appears you dont seem to be a fan of it?

Yes - I am a fan of it done properly (some places do... others... well, don't) and in the right circumstances.
My point is for a road car on road tyres (even semi slicks such as the r888's) won't benefit from N2 or dry filling. They simply don't get hot enough for the water content to make any noticable difference to the pressure. You may find a fluctuation of 1 maybe 2 psi but you get more than that through driving style, ambient track temperature even tyre wear/hardness. But then back to a road car, 99.9% of drivers would not be able to tell a pressure fluctuation of 1psi on track.

The only times I would suggest it is used is for cold climates where moisture in the tyre can freeze (which is why used in airline tyres), dedicated track toys running proper downforce with soft slick tyres or if a car is to be left unchecked for a while.

Most people on track days spend so much time chasing pressures when they are completely missing the point. The actual pressure is irrelevant and what works great one day may be a death trap the next. The best thing to do after all the normal checks is to go out for a shakedown session and then after a couple laps start pushing the car and come back and measure the temperature differentials accross the tyre. This will tell you if it's under or over inflated.

[Revolution]

good points made...

...right back to sonny.....

how many cans did you have in the end...?

[mac4RS]

My new wheels arrived today. These wheels are exclusively for the track, they are wrapped in part worn Toyo R888s.

Wheel size are 18x9 et25, tyres are 255/35/18s

Just picked this thread up...these look great. I bet you can't wait to track them Sonny - these tyres are just super, even in light to moderate rain (not standing water). Probably 18's suit the car better than my 19's. Bodes well with them PP's you have

[adsgreen]

Its an interesting compromise as if you ask engineers they would go for smaller wheels but then the stylists get involved and you end up with huge ones.

[pad125]

Loving the hall filled with 'car struff', cant think of a better way to p*ss the wife off lol

[sonny]

Just weight the OEM wheels with rubber come in at 49lb. So 5lb more than the O.Z.

[adsgreen]

10% is a fair old amount of unsprung mass.

R888's like yoko 48's are ok as road tyres but once you get some heat in them they come alive.
Just as above - tread carefully in the wet and standing water will cause aquaplaning.

[sonny]

10% is a fair old amount of unsprung mass.

R888's like yoko 48's are ok as road tyres but once you get some heat in them they come alive.
Just as above - tread carefully in the wet and standing water will cause aquaplaning.

Indeed 10% is good.. Im not planning on using them as everyday tyre. I will put them on for the odd meets as well

I was really surprised at the condition of my Eagle F1s, 8k miles of road use to include numerous track days, they still had at least 4mm tread left in them (the front left was prob down to 3mm).

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Not trying hard enough

[PJC]

Perhaps he is the RS4 Alain Prost.

[sonny]

Perhaps he is the RS4 Alain Prost.

[adsgreen]

Or the rs4 miss daisy
Sure you don't secretly want a rs4 cab :p

Just kidding - I'm also fairly easy on tyres. A set of yoko 48's used to last me about 4-5 tracks days on the 211.
Only when I tried super soft slicks (and scared myself silly at the extra grip) did I start doing a set a day.

[adsgreen]

Oh one thing to consider with semi slicks (just in case you've not used them before (apologies if this is old news) is that they operate with much less slip angle when cornering an the transition from peak grip to sliding is much less progressive than road tyres.
Some days (depending on the track) I prefered less grippy road tyres that let go progressively rather than the on off nature of semi slicks.