Rims for track days
Rims for track days
Author
Discussion

gattor

Original Poster:

180 posts

236 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
Wondered if anyone had any suggestions for good set of rims that could be used for track days, planning on putting Toyo R888's on them.

Don't want my lovelly new SP's put at risk

Rich

Cooky

4,955 posts

267 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
Rl7's with T888's are the ultimate trackay weapon of choice

gattor

Original Poster:

180 posts

236 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
sorry for my ignorance but RL7's?

gattor

Original Poster:

180 posts

236 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
Ahh got it 17" rims, right?

But which brand, want something tough, durable and ideally light weight


Cooky

4,955 posts

267 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
the original rims fitted to early 4.5's. be wary of the 18" variant as they were prone to cracking. The 17" are pretty bulletproof.

Steve_T

6,356 posts

302 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
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I think you're a bit stuck if you want to save your road wheels by using something effectively disposable (cheap) and yet you want a light wheel, which will be increasingly expensive the lighter you go.

Steve.

bosscerbera

8,188 posts

273 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
gattor said:
Wondered if anyone had any suggestions for good set of rims that could be used for track days, planning on putting Toyo R888's on them.

Don't want my lovelly new SP's put at risk
You're more likely to damage your SP12s on the road than on the track. The SP12s are a motorsport wheel. They'll not buckle like spiders do if you're into riding the kerbs at circuits.

ceejay

1,287 posts

284 months

Tuesday 18th September 2007
quotequote all
My first impressions of the SP12 wheel on track are very good. I've done a fair bit of kerb hopping on race slicks with no problems whatsoever. The SP12s are light and tough, I'll probably treat the cerb to a set next year for both road and track work.

Ceejay

AlVal

1,891 posts

294 months

Wednesday 19th September 2007
quotequote all
why not original 16s with r888s?

bosscerbera

8,188 posts

273 months

Wednesday 19th September 2007
quotequote all
AlVal said:
why not original 16s with r888s?
That's a good suggestion insofar as the 16s are fairly light and affordable.

FWIW I go to track days to give my car a good thrashing, to go as fast as I can with impunity. The smaller sidewalls from running on 18" wheels makes the steering more responsive and running 9J rims on the back with 265 tyres gives the back of the car the grip to follow a super-sharp front end.

I've found a properly mounted 225 front with a wider 265 rear tyre to be PERFECT on a Cerbera. The biggest difference running SP12s is the response of the front end of the car, the fatter rear tyres then allow the back of the car to keep up - you can turn in sharp and fast with the confidence that the back will follow rather than fall prematurely into oversteer. These are benefits of the SP12s shod with optimum tyres.

Being a bit lazy about tyre changing, despite knowing the R888s are not far off slicks in terms of the lap times you can achieve, I've found the T-1Rs good enough in all situations (road/track, dry/wet) to just run one set of wheels and tyres all the time. The T1-Rs seem durable too - I've done over 9,000 hard miles on my first set and they're not done yet. In those 9,000 miles it's been donutted, drifted, to the 'Ring twice, done race distances at race pace at Spa, round Silverstone more times than I can count and a couple of other tracks too. I really do drive the 4.5 like a thief and the T1-Rs have lasted longer than any other tyres I've ever run before. If I could be bothered to change tyres for track days I'd go the whole hog and run slicks.

I don't know that a narrower R888 (with fat sidewalls) on a 16" rim would be any quicker than wide a T1-R on the right 18" rim. There's no reason to fear damaging your SP12s on track - they are motorsport wheels. And, of course, the car looks more cool on its 18" SP12s. smokin2

Not that I'm a poser of course. paperbag

Seasider

12,728 posts

279 months

Wednesday 19th September 2007
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bosscerbera said:
Not that I'm a poser of course. paperbag




wink

jon-

16,534 posts

246 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
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bosscerbera said:
Being a bit lazy about tyre changing, despite knowing the R888s are not far off slicks in terms of the lap times you can achieve, I've found the T-1Rs good enough in all situations (road/track, dry/wet)
I'm about to test the difference between road tyres and track tyres for my website (expected to be about 2-3 seconds at a track like Donington) but regarding the comment on slicks, in my experience a hot sticky fresh slick is in another league compared to an R888. Bolting slicks onto road cars isn't really worth it unless you like replacing everything many times sooner than you would normally have to.


gattor

Original Poster:

180 posts

236 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
quotequote all
My understanding is the smaller the side wall the less margin of error you have i.e. less warning of a wipe out.

I've managed to source a set of R17's from a helpfull PH'er Tyre Smoke clap

Having asked around there seems to be 2 sets of track day tyres that are well thought of the T888 and the Yoko 048, so will make a decision before my day.

As its my first time track daying and having a days tuition with a pro driver (Ben Elliot) thought that I should keep my SP12's on their winter tyres and nice and fresh, until my confidence is up, get my nitrons set up just before and hopefully have a fantastic day!

Will be getting a DVD done also so will share my rookie experience around snetterton with any that are interested!

Roll on 19th October!

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

291 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
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Rich, have the wheels at home, will forward a pic of them for you tonight.

gattor

Original Poster:

180 posts

236 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
quotequote all
Cheers buddy, waiting for the Outlaws to give me an ETA for Saturday and I'll give you a bell.

Thanks again!

AlVal

1,891 posts

294 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
quotequote all
jon- said:
Bolting slicks onto road cars isn't really worth it unless you like replacing everything many times sooner than you would normally have to.
I was thinking about the strains slicks might put on the car, all i could think of was the extra grip taking off from a standstill would be a more savage jolt on the drivetrain than normal, and if at any time the wheels arent parallel to each other, like in a bend when the front two arent parallel, it must put more stresses on the linkages there than usual. anything else I hadnt thought of?

jon-

16,534 posts

246 months

Thursday 20th September 2007
quotequote all
Ball joints, suspension bushes and hubs take the brunt of it, hubs particularly.

One other things worth considering is if the Cerberas sump isn't baffled / dry you can get oil surge under the G you can pull on slicks.

jesfirth

1,743 posts

272 months

Friday 21st September 2007
quotequote all
Based on experience of many track days and sprinting cerbs the R888's are excellent. I have a set of 16's with 225's front and 245's rear for trashing on track days for fun but use RL 17's with 235's front and rear for sprints.

My gut feel is that the difference is around 0.5 second on a 100 second run so in sprinting terms it's well worth the change. for track days you won't notice the difference with the traffic etc.

the reason i have the 235's front and rear is partly due to width availability on the 17's but i have also found that the balance of the car through the bends is better-there is little point in having more grip at the rear than the front as the front will just run wide in any event-unless you just drive it on the throttle

SimonSparrow

1,599 posts

292 months

Friday 21st September 2007
quotequote all
jesfirth said:
Based on experience of many track days and sprinting cerbs the R888's are excellent. I have a set of 16's with 225's front and 245's rear for trashing on track days for fun but use RL 17's with 235's front and rear for sprints.

My gut feel is that the difference is around 0.5 second on a 100 second run so in sprinting terms it's well worth the change. for track days you won't notice the difference with the traffic etc.

the reason i have the 235's front and rear is partly due to width availability on the 17's but i have also found that the balance of the car through the bends is better-there is little point in having more grip at the rear than the front as the front will just run wide in any event-unless you just drive it on the throttle
Interesting to hear you say that. I've got 17"x8" rims with 225/45 all round - basically the same size as the Speed 6. Seems to go fine to me, but I've not done a track day for a while.