7 replies to this topic

[diogoteix]

Hello guys,

I've had the amazing pleasure to race my Mini on Estoril ex-F1 GP track this week-end ( i m living in Lisbon). It was a "just for fun" race, where people brought whatever car they have and tried to make the best possible lap. I was in the "sub 1600cc atmo" category, which means that I had absolutly no chance to catch up with the best cars on track (the fastest was some kind of saxo rally car full race setup with slicks, over 200hp, no extra weight...).

It was nevertheless my most exciting Mini experience ever!
The biggest penality of my car in this context was my wheel/tire setup. I m wearing 12x6 mamba wheel with a549 yokos. For the next event, I will definitly upgrade to a048 yoko, but I m hesitating between 12 inches or 13. With 13 inch i would keep these wheel/tires only for track, wearing the 12 inches for every day use.

Next time I promise to post something on youtube. I was supposed to but my recording failed...
By the way my best lap was 2'32, with an average of 100 km/h, if you know other mini lap times i would be very happy to compare!

By the way a moto GP best lap is about 1'35, a Ferrari 458 about 2' when driven cool :
http://skiddmark.com...formance-tyres/

Cheers!

[racingbob]

i have 048rs x 12 on my fast road car

with race type set up, and i would use these for the track no problem

wouldnt use the 13

[twrminisport]

12" all the way.
100%

[Samini86]

10s

[diogoteix]

Thanks, 10's are not an option because it's a late mini with 8,4 disks and I'm not planning to change this. I will stick to 12' then.
By the way I currently have 12x6 wheels (mamba), they look great but have the inconvenient to be very prone to torque steer, due to an offset that is quite different from factory settings (7mm instead of 35mm). It's a bit annoying for every day use but I've not noticed much on the track, probably because the track is perfectly flat.

Since I'm considering using a specific set of wheels for track days, so that I can swap between tires easily, I'm wondering if it's better to fit the A048 on 12x5 instead of 12x6 wheels.
Any idea?
By the way here is a video I posted on youtube (yeah I know the video is the wrong way round... sorry!)
The speed indication given by the GPS tracker is quite unaccurate but you can see the circuit layout, and me struggling to catch up with race prepared cars with bigger engines on slick tire!


Cheers

[racingbob]

yes go for 12x5 with your 048rs 32lbs f 30 back or even more

[mini13]

got to agree with Dilligaf on that!

its largly down to personal preferance, 10's are a lot more forgiving where as 13's can try to kill you with no warning, but there a re soo many variables this can all become very blurred.

Edited by mini13, 06 April 2012 - 10:19 AM.

[diogoteix]

Well, I see that the debate is on now!
What I've seen on Estoril is that you pretty much depend on grip for your lap time. Top speed is not an issue because you reach it barely : my max speed was 161km/h whereas on highways I go up to 175/180.
But turns are quite tight mostly with speeds between 60-75 km/h for me, a bit more if you drive a race 911 GT3 hybrid (top speed 252 km/h):


As for predictability, I've had some surprises already! My tires on the back are 7 years old Falkens (5 years old A539 on front), and when cold they were more than tricky! There was not a single session start in which I didn't spin for a 180, as I thought my experience as a karting driver was sufficient to recover from any overstear... Good lesson of humility though!

I think my decision will depend on whether I go for a second set of wheels (13 inches then) or not (keeping my 12x6 with A048).

On June 17th there is another event on the Estoril Circuit so we'll see what impact on lap times a correct set of tires can have! And I promise to correctly setup my iphone for video recording...

Edited by diogoteix, 06 April 2012 - 11:22 AM.