Quote:
Originally Posted by xlr8tr
Love this story!! Can you explain what it was about the 18" rubber that made such a big difference?
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The 18" tires are radials with modern construction that matched my camber curves much better than the 16" bias ply racing tires I had been using. I had some limited success with Hoosier 16" bias plys and Goodyear 16" radial racing tires on concrete but they were not good at all an smooth asphalt surfaces. The compounding of 18" tires is also far superior to the old racing rubber because that is where all the tire development is being done. Since almost all the racing tires for closed wheel vehicles are 17,18, 19 or even 20" the competition yields superior tires. The diameters of the new rubber also helped since I was running 23.5x11x16 fronts and they did not offer much of a contact patch for braking vs a 25" or 26" front tire. I am in the process of redoing the car for next year and plan on going to 315x30x18 fronts, upgrading the shocks, going to larger front rotors and 6 piston calipers, replacing the clutch and flywheel, reducing exhaust noise by a substantial amount (so I won't get banned at certain autox events) and installing a scatter shield after my Infineon adventure with a cracked flywheel.