Spokane TRs
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From: Covington WA, USA
Spokane TRs
I'm back. Bare and wet on the pass this morning but snowing to beat all.
As you may know, Spokane had record rainfall on Sunday (0.75 inches). Yeah baby!
Most of the s2ki crowd bugged out at lunchtime on Sunday. Ryan and Johnnie stayed for another session. Jill and I annoyed the instructors by staying until the bitter end. In fact, I think Jill was the last car out on the track. Her first track driving, it rained like hell, and she drove every last bit she could. What a trooper! (And cute, too....)
I stayed Sunday night in Spokane. When I woke up this morning, guess what? Dry and sunny and blue skies. Damn it! Perfect driving weather. Oh well.
Friday was a total blast. I got over 220 track miles in, all of them on dry track. There were 16 or 17 people there, and it was open lapping all day long. It did snow on us (twice) but it didn't stick. So the track was dry and cold. It was quite surreal to be going over 100 mph over the crest of the hill at T3 in the snow.
This was my first time on RA1s, and you will now have to pry them out of my cold, dead fingers. Night and day versus street compounds. But I'm really glad I had a couple years of street tire tracking under my belt, because in the cold and the wet it took a lot of feel to figure out how hard I could push the tires. I would say the conventional wisdom (learn to drive on street tires before switching to R-compounds) is correct.
One major off on Friday -- Scott Adare! He corded his tires and locked them up going into 4. Went off into the dirt on the left and then steered the car through the weeds back onto the escape road. Only casualty was a mouse that he ran over.
There were quite a few minor offs and spins on Saturday and Sunday, and one very big one. An M3 convertable somehow overrotated in 2 and ended up on top of a big pile of rocks on the top of the hill on the inside of the track, about opposite the turn station at track out. No injuries.
Russ narrowly avoided getting volunteered to haul the guy's car back to Seattle. Scott was going to ask him to do it, but then he realized Russ had already left. The wrecker came and extracated the car about 1.5 hours after Russ et al. took off for home. I believe the guy was going to end up paying $3/mile to have it flatbedded.
Too bad it was just too cold and wet to stand around and BS. Most of the time everyone was huddled up in a car somewhere.
I ran the RA1s all weekend, and I was pleased by how well they worked even in those conditions. However, they did have a lot of tread (6/32 shave, new on Fri). Scott even commented when he saw them, "I've never seen Toyos with that much tread before." Turned out to be a good choice.
As you may know, Spokane had record rainfall on Sunday (0.75 inches). Yeah baby!
Most of the s2ki crowd bugged out at lunchtime on Sunday. Ryan and Johnnie stayed for another session. Jill and I annoyed the instructors by staying until the bitter end. In fact, I think Jill was the last car out on the track. Her first track driving, it rained like hell, and she drove every last bit she could. What a trooper! (And cute, too....)
I stayed Sunday night in Spokane. When I woke up this morning, guess what? Dry and sunny and blue skies. Damn it! Perfect driving weather. Oh well.
Friday was a total blast. I got over 220 track miles in, all of them on dry track. There were 16 or 17 people there, and it was open lapping all day long. It did snow on us (twice) but it didn't stick. So the track was dry and cold. It was quite surreal to be going over 100 mph over the crest of the hill at T3 in the snow.
This was my first time on RA1s, and you will now have to pry them out of my cold, dead fingers. Night and day versus street compounds. But I'm really glad I had a couple years of street tire tracking under my belt, because in the cold and the wet it took a lot of feel to figure out how hard I could push the tires. I would say the conventional wisdom (learn to drive on street tires before switching to R-compounds) is correct.
One major off on Friday -- Scott Adare! He corded his tires and locked them up going into 4. Went off into the dirt on the left and then steered the car through the weeds back onto the escape road. Only casualty was a mouse that he ran over.
There were quite a few minor offs and spins on Saturday and Sunday, and one very big one. An M3 convertable somehow overrotated in 2 and ended up on top of a big pile of rocks on the top of the hill on the inside of the track, about opposite the turn station at track out. No injuries.
Russ narrowly avoided getting volunteered to haul the guy's car back to Seattle. Scott was going to ask him to do it, but then he realized Russ had already left. The wrecker came and extracated the car about 1.5 hours after Russ et al. took off for home. I believe the guy was going to end up paying $3/mile to have it flatbedded.
Too bad it was just too cold and wet to stand around and BS. Most of the time everyone was huddled up in a car somewhere.
I ran the RA1s all weekend, and I was pleased by how well they worked even in those conditions. However, they did have a lot of tread (6/32 shave, new on Fri). Scott even commented when he saw them, "I've never seen Toyos with that much tread before." Turned out to be a good choice.
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Joined: May 2001
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From: Bellevue, WA
On a warm day day you'll regret 6/32" as they will hold a lot of heat. Having to pit every ten minutes to drop the tire pressures will wear on your patience. Subjectively speaking, my last set of 6/32" lasted half as long as any set of 4/32" that I've purchased since. Fudge factor: I seriously upped the camber settings on my car after that tire change too.
In my experience there were two significant differences between street tires and shaved R compounds. One, there is no auditory feedback as you approach the limit. As a rule of thumb, the tires only appear to make noise once I enter a lateral orientation as opposed to a forward orientation. (Read that as going sideways or spinning)
Two, smother transition into and throughout a slip angle. The car would seemingly glide instead of shudder at or beyond the limit of adhesion. Overall the stickier shaved tires have more grip, but provide far less feedback. I definitely agree that they are harder for beginning drivers to use effectively.
In my experience there were two significant differences between street tires and shaved R compounds. One, there is no auditory feedback as you approach the limit. As a rule of thumb, the tires only appear to make noise once I enter a lateral orientation as opposed to a forward orientation. (Read that as going sideways or spinning)
Two, smother transition into and throughout a slip angle. The car would seemingly glide instead of shudder at or beyond the limit of adhesion. Overall the stickier shaved tires have more grip, but provide far less feedback. I definitely agree that they are harder for beginning drivers to use effectively.
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 759
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Thanks for the trip report, Mike. Can't say I'm sorry I missed this one. Although Friday sounds like a good day.
My feeling on street vs R-comps is to stay on street tires until you are fast enough that you are chunking them. Then it's time for the R-comps.
Let's all pick a day to drive PR. I'm anxious to get back on the track again. It's been over a year now.
- Michael
My feeling on street vs R-comps is to stay on street tires until you are fast enough that you are chunking them. Then it's time for the R-comps.
Let's all pick a day to drive PR. I'm anxious to get back on the track again. It's been over a year now.
- Michael
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From: Redmond, WA
Originally Posted by PedalFaster,Mar 29 2005, 04:10 PM
While eating dinner on Saturday, I asked about order of fast to slow amongst the Pacific Northwest S2KI crowd. I was surprised at some of the answers, and I'd like to see them validated firsthand.
