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So I finally got to autocross my new car, yesterday at RPI and today with the local chapter of the Porsche Club of America (and I have a nice blue ribbon on the table thanks to the PCA 
).
Yesterday I finally killed my old Azenis RT-215s, after 12,000 miles and a lot of multi-driver autocrosses they had held up well, but with 3 drivers I think we were just a little too hard on them, and the tread is more or less gone. A friend of mine (who drove my car yesterday at the RPI event) had a brand new set of RT-615s laying around, so she let me throw them on my HX wheels last night for today's meet.
I am VERY impressed with the 615s. I was skeptical putting them on the wheels last night, as they don't seem to have the same sidewall stiffness as the old Azenis did, but they are supposed to be lighter because of that. Once I was driving on them I didn't notice any problems with the sidewalls, they were as kidney-bruising stiff as the old ones on my car.
I've been in the habit of using water to cool down the 215s, and I'd heard the new ones would handle the heat better. It was hard to tell if they were that much better without running them back to back, but the rear tires heated up a lot less than normal it seemed, and they didn't get greasy as fast as the old ones did. I still watered the fronts down between runs with a pump sprayer.
I was considering getting another tire to replace my old Falkens, but I think I'll end up sticking with the 615s and buying them from my friend. Stefano has the Hankook Ventus RS-1, which are supposed to be very close in performance, I'll run them back to back sometime to compare them. The only other tire I know of that's close in performance is the BFGoodrich KDW2, which I think is a little on the expensive side. I also have driven a couple of cars with them (Matt's CRX included), and I feel like the Falkens are stickier.
My new car came with Koni Yellows, Ground Controls 550/650 F/R, and ES poly bushings all over. When I got it one of the end link bolts was broken off into the stock rear LCA. I was going to replace the LCA with an OEM one, but Matt hooked me up with some SPC camber correcting control arms. After I installed them, the car felt a bit twitchy in corners, even with the stock bar. I'm still getting used to it on the street, the rear likes to let loose on on/off ramps. It pulled in my rear camber to -0.5 degrees, so the rear tires are sliding very well for me, the car is pretty neutral and I don't think I'll be changing out the stock sway bar any time soon.
The SPC arms are clearly well made. Installation time was about 30 minutes, with a lift, tranny jack, and air tools. I could probably have done it with a jack/jack stands and hand tools in 40 minutes to an hour. Everything bolted up pretty well, I needed to load the suspension slightly to get the passenger side endlink bolt in, I was afraid to strip out the aluminium if I forced it at an angle.
Construction is solid, with nice hard bushings in there already. The two of them together are lighter than one of the stock LCAs. The only complaint I have is the colour, they are brushed aluminium. I want to take mine off and shoot them with some flat black, as they are very visible from the rear. Also make sure you set your rear toe after doing this, they will pull it out. I took my car in for alignment and asked for 0 toe in the rear, and the best they could get was 0.5* out.
I'm working on (right this moment) a setup guide for autocrossing in SM2, so you can see my whole setup in that thread to see how they work with other components.
).Yesterday I finally killed my old Azenis RT-215s, after 12,000 miles and a lot of multi-driver autocrosses they had held up well, but with 3 drivers I think we were just a little too hard on them, and the tread is more or less gone. A friend of mine (who drove my car yesterday at the RPI event) had a brand new set of RT-615s laying around, so she let me throw them on my HX wheels last night for today's meet.
I am VERY impressed with the 615s. I was skeptical putting them on the wheels last night, as they don't seem to have the same sidewall stiffness as the old Azenis did, but they are supposed to be lighter because of that. Once I was driving on them I didn't notice any problems with the sidewalls, they were as kidney-bruising stiff as the old ones on my car.
I've been in the habit of using water to cool down the 215s, and I'd heard the new ones would handle the heat better. It was hard to tell if they were that much better without running them back to back, but the rear tires heated up a lot less than normal it seemed, and they didn't get greasy as fast as the old ones did. I still watered the fronts down between runs with a pump sprayer.
I was considering getting another tire to replace my old Falkens, but I think I'll end up sticking with the 615s and buying them from my friend. Stefano has the Hankook Ventus RS-1, which are supposed to be very close in performance, I'll run them back to back sometime to compare them. The only other tire I know of that's close in performance is the BFGoodrich KDW2, which I think is a little on the expensive side. I also have driven a couple of cars with them (Matt's CRX included), and I feel like the Falkens are stickier.
My new car came with Koni Yellows, Ground Controls 550/650 F/R, and ES poly bushings all over. When I got it one of the end link bolts was broken off into the stock rear LCA. I was going to replace the LCA with an OEM one, but Matt hooked me up with some SPC camber correcting control arms. After I installed them, the car felt a bit twitchy in corners, even with the stock bar. I'm still getting used to it on the street, the rear likes to let loose on on/off ramps. It pulled in my rear camber to -0.5 degrees, so the rear tires are sliding very well for me, the car is pretty neutral and I don't think I'll be changing out the stock sway bar any time soon.
The SPC arms are clearly well made. Installation time was about 30 minutes, with a lift, tranny jack, and air tools. I could probably have done it with a jack/jack stands and hand tools in 40 minutes to an hour. Everything bolted up pretty well, I needed to load the suspension slightly to get the passenger side endlink bolt in, I was afraid to strip out the aluminium if I forced it at an angle.
Construction is solid, with nice hard bushings in there already. The two of them together are lighter than one of the stock LCAs. The only complaint I have is the colour, they are brushed aluminium. I want to take mine off and shoot them with some flat black, as they are very visible from the rear. Also make sure you set your rear toe after doing this, they will pull it out. I took my car in for alignment and asked for 0 toe in the rear, and the best they could get was 0.5* out.
I'm working on (right this moment) a setup guide for autocrossing in SM2, so you can see my whole setup in that thread to see how they work with other components.
