This past Sunday the 10th of february I tried it. Hankook Z214 C51 medium compound DOT race tires mounted on my Forgestars. 245/35/18’s and 275/35/18’s. I purchased and mounted them several weeks ago, talked to my alignment shop about transporting them for me to the track, made a deal (I promised not to be faster than his car ..... I lied) and got to work on preparing the car. Turns out it needed quite a bit. To be honest, I was nervous. I rebuilt my Stoptech calipers, replaced the discs and stepped up to Carbotech XP12 pads. New alignment too. Lots of new untried changes make me uneasy. I arrived early, finished taping up the car, paid to compete, went through inspection, mounted the transponder and went to look for my tires. Got them on just in time for practice. I used practice to bed the brakes and heat cycle the tires. Back in my paddock I pulled the front tires off to check the calipers for leaks, none found, checked the air pressures, let some out (I overfilled them for the break in) and shot the breeze with the Honda gang. (kids mostly) I moved up to group A this year because of the tires .... and headers that are in transit . I was grouped with 2 Ariel Atoms, 2 GTR's, and 2 EVO's. I warmed up my point bye arm just in case. I went out behind a GTR that's well driven and fast. He was going rather slow the first lap and a half warming the tires so I did the same. The tires felt a bit funny at first. As they got hotter they felt better. Then the GTR took off so I did too. First shock was the braking. Holy mother, I thought I could stop before, the grip under braking was mind boggling. I never found the limit, I should have tried harder. The lateral grip felt good so I started pushing harder little by little especially where room existed just in case. The rear stepped out on me twice but it was easy to recover. Great! The car was behaving exactly like on street tires, only the limits were higher. I caught an EVO and passed him. He was faster on the straights but I could out brake him by 50’ from 120 to 20 mph and was quicker in the curves. I came in feeling good. Miguelo (chief steward) came over, chico, el carro esta saliendo duro!! It looks fast! When the times were posted I ran 2.1 seconds faster then my previous best. Unfortunately my day was over. I boiled the water in the heat exchanger and it blew out my reservior. I was 6th fastest of the day behind 2 Atoms, 1 GTR and 2 EVO’s. There’s still a lot of speed left with these tires. The stopping distances were so different that I found myself misscalculating them, as well as turnin points. 39 to 40 psi hot works good just like the RS3’s. -2.5º camber in the front is close to ideal. I’m told Hoosiers like a lot more. -1.5º in the rear is too much. When I get the cooling problems controlled I’m going to have big fun and great videos. Speaking of which, I placed the camera in car and you can’t see anything outside the windshield. Bummer but now I know not to place it there.
Rob has a new Bosch pump on the way. 2nd place trophy is on the shelf and I’m on cloud 9.

Les