Hey Arnold,
Glad you enjoyed the tires. I told you that you would be a happy
customer!:)
Sorry I wasn't there to help you out with pressures and the like. What were
you running anyway?
Near the end your tires weren't losing grip because they are old. They were
losing grip because they were hot. That's when they start to feel greasy.
When you can't comfortably hold your hand on them after a run, it's time to
cool them down.
Here's what you do. Go to OSH, Home Depot, or any hardware/garden store of
your choice. Buy a weed sprayer. Those little translucent plastic bottles
with a pump and spray handle on them. Should cost $10. Then before each
autox fill it up with water, and if the tires are starting to get hot spray
them down with some water after each run. Typically on a hot day at Mather
you will need to do this after 3 runs or so.
If you have space it's not a bad idea to order a new set before the old runs
out, but if you want to save some cash I wouldn't necessarily switch to the
new ones until the old ones cord, providing that you aren't going to drive
them on the street. They should grip okay right until they cord, although
the rubber will gradually get harder with more heat cycles.
I'd anticipate the tires I sold you should last for the rest of the events
this year at Mather, unless you are severely camber-challenged and they cord
on the outside shoulder.
Also, if you run bald Kumhos at GGF, don't expect miracle grip like you got
at Mather. The rocky nature of the surface and the marbles there like some
tread on the tires. Expect the experience to be much more similar to street
tires.
Good luck!
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Clifford Richardson [mailto:the_brain7@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 12:13 PM
To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Cc: keongliam@hotmail.com
Subject: Sac events 9 & 10, V700s and crazy people
Aaaaahhh...a whole weekend of autoxing. Can it get any better? Probably. For
now, I am content. On the way home, I noticed I was flooring the gas at
every green light. It took some conscious restraint to hold myself back.
(sorry for the long post, I ramble a lot).
I got to try, for the first time, the Kumho V700 on my car. Yeh, I'm a
little late in the game, but you have to understand something, I'm clueless
when it comes to this kinda stuff. I mean I only recently learned what
negative camber was! I thought it was too much work (and $$) for only 3 runs
to buy a trailer, another set of tires(or an entire car), an air tank(or air
compressor), adjust this and that, do a run, adjust air pressure, second
run, adjust, open the hood to cool the engine then final run. Then change
tires back, pack up and go home. All that in roughly 4 hours. All this
doesn't include all the other work that goes into the car of course. These
people are nuts I thought.
Hehehe...please don't flame me, finish reading first. :-)
My very first autocross was at GGF on July 15th. While I had a blast, I felt
my automatic 318i needed a lot more power (I still do, but that's another
story) before I could really get competitive. Many of you encouraged me to
work on my skills rather than blaming the car (What!?!? You mean I
suck!?!?). Yeh, I did get a lot better(ok, maybe just a teeny bit). One BMW
Performance Driving School and a few (6) autocrosses later, I think I
finally learned the limits of my tires (Michelin Pilots) and so decided to
try the Kumhos I got from Peter Thana. I was told I could shave 2-4 seconds
on those tires alone. Well, I put them to the test this weekend at Mather
Airfield.
The course was sweeeet! It was long, challenging, had some wicked turns and
a chicane. I'm sure someone else could explain the course better than I. All
I know is I was spoilt! 4 runs!!! Sunday's course was even better. It was
the same course, but reverse with the addition of a slalom and adjustments
at the end. On both days, the weather was pleasantly cool and there was
plenty of time for fun runs.
Talk about relearning how to drive! I was still driving like I was on my
Pilots(read slow). In my 4 official runs, I could go no faster than
1:28.xxx. For comparison, Integras were pulling around 1:22.xxx give or take
a second. I did manage to beat only slightly heavier or less balanced cars.
Lucky for me, the Sac chapter only has 4 run groups for the entire day so
fun runs soon followed. It was then, I got the hang of these sweet tires. I
cut my time by 4 secs!!! And I know I could've done better cause on both of
my best runs, I screwed up in the same spots. On Sunday, my time was more
consistent after dropping 3 secs off my first official run. Time difference
just hovered b/w .2-.5 secs. best time was 1:12.917. I didn't do much better
in the fun runs: 1:12.719 no cones. I did get to 1:12.2xx but I killed a
cone. Again, i could've done better. Kept screwing up at one turn..should've
taken an early apex. Anyway, by then, I noticed the tires were starting to
lose grip since I got them used with virtually no thread left, and also
drove on them all weekend. Still, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat by the
end of both days.
So what did I learn?
1> the difference 2-5 lbs of air pressure makes
2> brake HARD!
3> V700s ROCK!!!
4> this is gonna get expensive ;)
Now to most, if not all of you, this is not new. Indeed, the concepts were
not new to me, but there's no teacher quite like personal experience. First
thing I noticed about the V700s, they were virtually silent! none of that
screeching my Pilots did almost all the time. Second, these things STICK! I
felt planted and even when I took some turns a little too fast, recovering
was so much easier. Some guy asked what class I was running and couldn't
believe that my car was stock! Yup, I was grinning stupidly at the dubious
look on his face. (teehee)
Thanks, Michael, for letting me use your air tank. It took 2 runs to figure
out I needed more air in my tires and boy did it make a difference! Liam,
thanks for letting me drive your 330ci! Put V700s on it and you'll be faster
than me!!! hehehe...And thank you all for the many pieces of advice,
solicited or not, that have encouraged me to keep coming back. So now, I'm
shopping for a trailer I can tow my wheels in, an air tank and a
professional quality tire pressure gauge. I'll be ordering a new set of
Kumhos when these are totally worn. Looks like I'm hooked. I'm even
considered purchasing a friend's Miata as an autocross car...I must be
nuts...8-]~
Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. I have a hard time reading
emails that are this long.:-) So now I'm asking for more advice. What should
I be looking for in a trailer?
-Arnold
"Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try and take over the world!"
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