225/45/17 Report. Good news, Great news, awsome news and slightly bad news

So we mounted up the 225/45/17 Kumho Ecsta V700s in the front and ran the 205/40/17s in the rear and went racing at KilKare speedway this weekend.

Good News - They fit and look good.

Great News - They stick like nobodies muther farking business, don't effect turn in negatively and in combination with the 205s allow for some unbelievably fast driving.

Awsome News - I murdered the rest of the pack, paxing 17th out of 90 and had a blast doing it. I still lost in D stock to a Pro running an RSX Type S, but I lost by .009 seconds... yep the amount of time it takes to travel 3 inches on the course. I was so happy with my runs and the 225s I didn't mind losing to this guy... he's got three years experience over me running in STS with that car.

SLightly bad news - The tires eventually rubbed. Not on the autocross course, not on the street going through a bumpy nasty city, not while bouncing the car around in the grass areas of the speedway. No the tires rubbed when we had to make a 130 degree turn to get back into the grid. It was some exposed metal peice on the left side of the passenger side engine shroud. Once we figured out it rubbed we just didn't turn the wheel that far again (full lock). But the damage was done. The exposed metal cut nice little strips out of the inside edge. Nothing that ruined the tire but pretty damn unexepected. I'll be hammering that shroud piece down on both sides and that should be that.

This car is an ENTIRELY different beast with the 225s... I had so much grip on the speedway that I"m never turning back. We didn't have time to test them on the rear... so that will come later... but quite frankly I like the 205 rear setup... it changes the weight distribution of the car towards the rear and made for some awsome handling changes in an already awsome car.

Video in the next post.

Great input! I have thought about trying this. Maybe I'll just buy 2 new tires next and reuse the 205 for the rear.
Keep up the great work and testing!

Here's me making only one tiny mistake and losing the gold by .009 seconds.

Click to expand...

(doh) That hurts. Congrats, however, on a job well done. That looked like an awsome course setup. Had you been running Hoosiers, you may have mad up that .009s and then some . It's a shame they're so expensive though.

Cost is not an issue with hoosiers. Its that hoosier dosn't make a tire that will fit the car. I could get a 205/40/17 road race compound...but why? The 225/45/17 hoosier is waaaay too large for the wheel well and won't mount at all on a 7" rim.

I emailed Hoosier a while back to ask about a possible 215/40 or 215/45 or maybe just a 205/40 that would fit a 7" rim. They said that their next generation tire, the R3S04 and A3S04 would be steel belted and will fit narrower wheels, but at first their will only have a 205/40 R3S04 but they are considering making one in autocross compounds specificly for our kind of cars.

I would take an A3S04 in 205/40/17 as my autocross tire of choice... depending on traction surface area of the new generation tire.

Tom: Are you running the 225/45 x 17s on the stock Racing Harts? I seem to remember you telling us that you had a second set for race wheels. If so, would the smaller offset of a +50mm wheel (Andy's Team Dynamics Pro Race 1 wheels) help or hurt your small rubbing problem?

Thanks,
Morris

I have a second set of the OEM racing harts for autocross. They are mounted on there. I'm not sure how much an extra 5mm of play would help, but really the rubbing only occurred at full hard right lock of the wheel.

For the level of grip that I had I would gladly be easy on the wheel and not turn it so many times to get into really tight spots, but it was a full lock turn that let the shroud cut into the wheel. Nothing we're worried about.

We might get some of those team dynamic or maybe some cheapy asa wheels for next year.

Great to hear that the 225's are going to work I was worried about that. Now that I'm used to the car it's about time for some race rubber. Had an event this Sunday in Richmond, Ky and finally pulled it all together. 1st in DS and 1st in the PAX!!! This was even on street tires, so I think it's time to step up a notch!!!

DistantTea: I see that you're from the Cincy area, are you the orange MSP registered for the CenDiv event at Riverdowns???

David

That event was canceled. Its been moved to Kentucky Speedway. I don't know if we want to drive to KY speedway (hour and a half) for three days to attend the challenge.

You should come up north every once in a while. Did you check out my video of KilKare? That particular course was short... but that surface is awesome. Great compromise for grip verses tire wear.

I goto cincy events all the time. How far is the speedway from you?

So the CenDiv is going to be at Ky Speedway now!!! Man, that sucks, I'm not too fond of the Speedway lot. Seems like it's so bouncy that my tires are constantly on and off the ground. I'm not too far from the Speedway, only about 40 min. The video that you have posted is sweet, I would love to run that track!!!!

What is your home region, WOR or OVR??? I've heard there's some good courses to be run up that way. My friend Todd ran STS at the VA center this year, he said he really enjoyed it.

I'm a WOR baby. We lost our home lot so this year we've been mingling with OVR, Cincy and Cendiv.

The next WOR event is over a month away, but its at KilKare again. The surface is reallly easy on the tires, but sticks pretty well. But I'll probably be at the Cincinnati Sept 14th event at riverdowns... if they still have it.

Cool, I should be at Riverdowns also, I'll have to look you up. Where is Kilkare at?? how far is it from Cincy?? I'd really like to run that course, looks awfully fast

KilKare is in Xenia... maybe an hour from Cincy.

Results were finally posted for the KilKare event... look how tight the competition is in D stock... I love this region because I'm actually competitive here (average driver in my class has three years experience and I'm keeping up on my first year).

http://www.worscca.org/autox/results/2003/results_2003_pe6.html#DStock

WOW That's some close competition there. This is my 4th year autocrossing, I drove a Honda Prelude for the past 4 years, so it's been a big learning experience for me driving this new car. All the power and the LSD have been taking a little while for me to get used to. Competition isn't quite that close in my home region (central ky). Here's a link to our DS results from this Sunday, I won the class and paxed 1st for the first time ever, I'm still enjoying that moment everyone in the class had street tires except for the RSX-S... I'm really thinking of coming to that next Kilkare event, I really like that track.

http://www.ckrscca.org/soloevents/030824/030824results1.html
the pax list (87 drivers)

http://www.ckrscca.org/soloevents/030824/030824resinx.html

How do you do against Caleb Miller or Ian Haskel when they bring their Type R down to CKR? They're my performance litmus test.. if I ever get good enough to catch up with Ian at a regional event I'll feel pretty good about myself. That car took 2nd at nationals two years in a row.

Ian is an incredible driver, I remember when he drove his M3, he was seriously fast. He's even beat Caleb in his own car. I've never ran against them in the Mazda yet. The last time I was at the speedway they weren't there. I was really close to or beat their times in my old car, but it had race tires and was DSP prepared, so it's really not a comparison. I doubt I'll be anywhere near close to Ian or Caleb until I get race tires and I still have alot of learning to do in the new car.

There's going to be a fun event at the end of the season at Fort Knox this year. I know it's a long way, but you should try to make it down. Courses are really fast and technical and they're usually and average of 60+ seconds, so they're not too short either.

Keep in touch on this board. I've noticed you've hit a couple CSCC events this year so maybe we can race against each other sometime soon. Hopefully we won't miss the next cincy scca event at riverdowns. Its the sunday after our vacation so we'll be cutting it close.