The time to try is now, while bstone is offering a rebate on them. I hounded the local firestone dealer enough they decided to sponsor me, so now i have to run them

Other good news is that I tried re01rs on the local road course weekend before last and they did quite well. They are as quick as the 615s for the first few laps, but don't fall off nearly as quickly (read no chunking). I have maxqdata logs of the falkens and bstones basically back-to-back if anybody wants to have a look. It's raw data, so you'll have to sift through it.

EDIT: Oh, and while I'm thinking about it. The RE01R rides really well too. I was amazed at how quiet it was. It's not a big deal, but it's nice when most of our local events require 500 miles of driving.

d

 

Looks like mineral wells. I'm so jealous...

d

 

Yep. Good eye. A bunch of us locals grabbed the canceled Pro date and decided just to do a practice. And while the rain might have ruined the Pro, it was great fun to practice in.

The rest of the pics of the day are here The rain starts on page 5.

 

Damn, you never told ME.



d

 

This weekend we ran two different sets of RE-01Rs on two different M3s. Tire pressures on one was 34psi for 245/40/17 on a 17x8.5" wheel. The car had really good balance front to back with no real temperature variation with the pyrometer.

Tire pressures on the other were 35psi front for 225/45/17 on a 17x7.5" wheel and 34psi rear for 245/40/17 on a 17x8.5" wheel. The second car had more grip in the rear than the front. The front would have rolled too much if they went any lower. I felt like it would have been a shame to increase rear pressures to sacrifice grip in the rear and neutralize the balance.

Both cars roll too much currently and are trying to overload the front tires. The first M3 has a wider front track and wasn't working the front tires nearly as much as the second M3.

-Jon

 

More kudos to the 'stone RE 01R.

Jake and I ran the Kansas Region event this weekend. Saturday was last years East national course.

After fiddling with tire pressures, I was able to get down to a 54.2 clean and a 54.1 dirty. For comparison, last year I was at 55.5. I know it's hard to compare with conditions being different. Discussions with outhers showed their times to be equal to maybe a few tenths faster than last year. Last year we were on the Yokohama's.

I wonder if Yokohama will be lowering their prices now.

oh, the course runs better backwards. With a minor change, I ended the day with a 52.7.

Fun times, can't wait for nationals this year!

 

This is somewhat subjective, but I ran my first solo event on the re01r. In a field of 50+ drivers, whom I race against often, I picked up about 1 _pax_ second. Normally finishing 12th-14th overall on the falkens, I jumped right up to 3rd.

The finish in class was equally stunning (to me at least) with a clear win on what -- so far -- had been a close season (2 wins, 3 2nds).

d

 

Has anybody done bushings? Which do you replace and what did you think?

I had a WRX owner drive my car this weekend and he said it felt a little "disconnected". He said he noticed a significant difference on his car.

EDIT: My other worry is figuring out the metal content of each bushing versus stock. I've verified my bump steer kit, but I'm not looking forward to having to verify all the rest.

 

CD-

Most of the other bushings are okay. I'm installing Energy bushings in my car and they are all legal. I know some guys are installing or have installed the Works bushings. All legal as far as I know.

 

I've done the Energy Suspension master bushing kit, which is 100% legal as the bushings are pure polyurethane. No metal to worry about other than the bolt sleeves, which are the same metal content as the OEM. It made a marked improvement - FYI.

The bump steer appears to be legal but, is iffy. There have been guys report additional understeer though with those bushings, which is why I have hesitated to install them.

 

I haven't had any understeer problems with the bump steer kit. This is on stock suspension with stock tires.

Granted, I can't exactly speak for driver consistency not causing the change...

 

What's iffy about it? It's a pure polyurethane bushing like all the others but the metal sleeve's hole is offset. I can provide evidence the metal content is less then OEM. And 14.8 part B of the rules says "offset bushings may be used".

I actually don't think mine is doing any good. I suspect the bushing is currently offset in the wrong direction for my application because I seem to have a harder time getting my toe right then another Evo with a similar setup. I wouldn't recommended it unless you have issues setting your toe.

 

I installed all the Whiteline bushings except the bump-steer kit. I think it helped tighten up the response of the suspension and reduced the understeer...so much, I installed the 26mm Whiteline FSB. Definitely not an easy install, but it was worth the blood and pain and money.

Dennis

 

I'll add some fuel to the fire then if this is subjective. The black evo with identical set-up was running g-force readings of 1.05 sustained and 1.08 peak. That car was run in the afternoon like ours. The only difference is it's on Yokohamas. Our car, run in the same heat was 1.10 sustained and 1.18 peak. I was the driver on both of the compared runs.

 

Good info. Thanks Jake! I saw Jerry's post on SCCA forums about the RE-01's. So are you guys going to stick with them? TireRack had higher numbers on the skidpad for the RE-01's but faster lap times with the Neovas:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...ay.jsp?ttid=71

I'd really like to try a set back to back on a full AutoX course on the same car, same day. We're working with another STU guy to possibly hook that up.