best road legal trackday tyres?

[JakeR]

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

cheers guys

JakeR

[JakeR]

interesting guys... thanks a lot...

I have a set of CR500s, and I think they are a great all rounder...

was after something a bit more dry grip focussed.

I had discounted the ACB10s, due to the geometry thing, but will investigate those Kumhos.

Interesting post about the soft tyres going off...

[JakeR]

BertBert said:

fergus said:

JakeR said:

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

ACB10s (A30 compound, although if you're not bothered about wear, try the A24 compound - I think they make a DOT approved tyre in this format)

I think that this is the only topic in the caterham world that Fergus and I actually agree on

Also regarding geo, it's pretty easy to change the DD ears at the back to get the right camber and the front is just a geo setup. Neither are too challenging.

Bert

when you say 'too challenging' are we talking about something that can be done quickly, trackside, by a dufus (that's me that is)? I mean if, halfway through a trackday, i wanted to change back to radials?

[JakeR]

sam919 said:

It would be something that would detract from your trackday, an hour spent pi##ing about to no real advantage

yeah... that was kind of my thoughts.

I have no problem with changing from wets to drys or vice versa, but too much other fiddling about would be a right old kerfuffle methinks...

[JakeR]

Mars said:

By the way, CR500s are radials but they just work differently to the other brands. Don't really know why.

phew... i thought they were, got well confuseded when someone said you can swap between them and acb10s!!

[JakeR]

BertBert said:

JakeR said:

Mars said:

By the way, CR500s are radials but they just work differently to the other brands. Don't really know why.

phew... i thought they were, got well confuseded when someone said you can swap between them and acb10s!!

You can swap. Radials in general and certainly CR500s are nowhere near as sensitive to camber as ACB10s. Now if you were going to be racing, then it might be a different matter.

I had my caterham set up for ACB10s and used my CR500s as wets for trackdays and for when the ACB10s were bald! I had no problems at all running CR500s on ACB10 settings.

Bert

Cheers Bert... just to complicate matters for my fuddled brain, my car is a Freestyle car: superwide pushrod job, so I'm not quite sure how much 'normal' Caterham knowledge I can transfer! I am currently using Michelin radial slicks in the dry and CR500s in the wet/on the road. The Michelins, though used, are things of complete and utter brilliance imho. Was just wondering what the alternatives were if I went back to having all my tyres road legal...

[JakeR]

The Wookie said:

The Michelins are also an excellent slick tyre, I'd suggest getting a new set of those if you can afford them. You will be amazed at how much better they are when brand new.

Seriously interested in the new CR500+ tyres though, the 500's are a bit underspecced for a C400

I think the Michelins are pretty awesome when used! Might have to treat myself to some new ones one day!

[JakeR]

The Wookie said:

JakeR said:

I think the Michelins are pretty awesome when used! Might have to treat myself to some new ones one day!

Old vs new is worth up to 1.5 seconds a lap in a Porker Cup Car.

Bearing in mind old to us is only an hour or so's running, although the Porsche is a much heavier car. A set of proper 'we've run out of testing budget dustbin out the back of the workshop' specials can put another second on top of that

My experience is very much limited to trackdays, so I have no real way of knowing any time differences. However, the car seems way better under braking than I have experienced on cr500s or AO48Rs, real 'OH MY GOD I'M NEVER GONNA STOP IN TIME!!!' stuff .

This is on Michelins that have maybe 3-4mm of tread left shown by the wear indicator...

[JakeR]

yes indeed, I've heard that too...! Even cold used slicks are slippery little beggars until they have a little heat in them!