Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track How to Setup?

Howdy-

I'm kinda new to the whole road racing thing. I've done it three times, but am not quite sure the differences.

I have Koni's & H&R's, with some R Compound Tires.

How do you think I should set the firmness on the Koni's, and the air pressure on the tires?

The course is the Streets of Willows, a 1.8 mile road course w/ some tight turns, speeds probably will be under 100.

I think I'd like to try a mild amount of oversteer, but pretty nuetral would be cool too.

Any suggestions?

-Thanks Holmes

I've personally never been on the streets, but my friends have a couple of times. You are correct about having some slow corners and you probably will be right around 100 or so. As far as setup goes I'd probably recommend going with the Konis 1/4-1/2 turn up from soft and the rears I'd say 1/2-3/4's of a turn up.

What type of tires are you running? A good gestimate on pressures would probably be 45-46psi front and rears I'd say 36-38psi.

Take it out like this the first time and see how it feels. Then adjust from there. If you are pushing too much through the corners soften up the Konis or let a little pressure out of the front tires (I'd say Konis first). If it is oversteering too much put so more air in the rears and soften the rear konis a touch (I highly doubt this will be a problem).

I'm running some Yokohoma A008's. Apparently they've been discontinued. But the last time I used them they performed quite admirably.

On a second note, what's a good R compound tire to replace them with? I think this may be the last event they see. I've heard the Victoracers are popular? They any good?

And I had absolutely no idea I should put that much air in the tires. And I was always putting more in the rears than in the fronts.

I guess I may as well give this a try and see what happens.

Thanks,
Jason

The A008's were good tires. They were replaced with the A032R's. If you liked the Yokos, stick with Yokos, expecially for track days. They aren't quite as fast as the others, but they hold up well and are consistent lap after lap.

Kumhos are very nice, but they will wear faster. They designed for more of a mix between autoxing and track events. I actually use Kumho's for autoxing and they do well, but I couldn't see getting more then 3 track events out of a set. The Yokohamas on the other hand I can see getting 5 or more track events on a set. Just all depends on how much you want to spend and how fast you can afford to go. If you need more info on some other tires let me know, I've driven or have friends who have run on just about any of the racing compound tires out there.

Yeah I'm looking more for track day tires. I don't plan on doing any Auto-X'ing.

And I do seem to like these Yoko's. But then I've never tried anything else. But they appear to be more of what I'm looking for in the price/performance part.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

-Jason

On a side not i've never seen chrome E1's, those actually look amazing. Great looking car.

Thanks for the compliment.

And Qbert I liked that setup quite a bit.
But now I have to buy new tires. Have anything good to say about the Toyo RA-1's?

-Jason

Yeah they're worn pretty much down to nothing. I knew this would be the last race I would get on them. But that's ok.

In regards to what I plan on doing:
I have a second set of rims that I use solely for racing. And all I plan on doing is Road racing, no Auto-Xing. So I figure I may as well buy some R compounds. I just throw em on when I get to the track, so there wet weather capabilities don't matter at all to me.

So what are some decently priced track tires that will actually last a decent amount of time? Or does that exist?
And definitely get them shaved?

Thanks again,
Jason

Yeah, you should look seriously at the Yokohama A032R's then. You don't have to shave them and they will last quite a while. They aren't the fastests things on the planet, but they are very predictable.