[jalquiza]

Loaded up and going to the track this weekend. I think Sunday is supposed to see some sprinkles, so I should get a good range of testing.

 

[jalquiza]

Initial street test was positive. Steering feels sharper than Cup 2 and it has tons of cold grip.

I’ll still give an update after the first track day on them, but I feel like I will happily use this as my street tire at a minimum.

 

[jalquiza]

Sat in the Gingerman tech inspection line catching up on f1, then went out for a morning warm up session. My group was running unusually slow which was the opposite of what I expected to experience after a night of terrible sleep, so I was going ~10s slower than I would for a wake up run. Did knock one semi clean faster lap @ 1:44.

Still very positive feel, but I want to see how they hold heat with repeated fast laps. More driving to come!

 

[jalquiza]

Continued: wearing nicely after ~70 track miles. They come on much quicker than Cup 2 and are a lot more progressive at the limit, but also don’t overheat nearly as quickly as I thought they would. Also I can easily run these with lower starting pressure and don’t need as much finesse with the stiffer sidewalls.

One session out this morning slightly damp, incredibly good performance. Local noise ordinance where the track shuts down for 2H now.

 

[jalquiza]

Posted one more update in another thread thinking that I was here:

Tires

Hello, it’s time to replace my OEM cup 2’s on my 21 GT. Any suggestions on what tires I should go with? leading contenders are Michelin pilot 4s, Pilot Super sport, cup 2 (out of stock at tire rack), cup 2 connect as well as the Goodyear eagle f1 supercar3 & the new Yokohama AD 009. any...

www.lotustalk.com

 

[jalquiza]

Mclaren and Ferrari along with Lotus tend to under-tire the front IMO. Cars like the 488 and even the 765lt have only a 245 front. You can perfectly get away with it, but people act confused why Vettes and ZL1s with 285/315+ front/rear tires slapped on net similar lap times.

I’m fully onboard with the lightweight and steering feel ethos, but it shouldn’t become a foot gun. I would love to run a 265/315 setup on the Evora.

 

[jalquiza]

With the BWR front control arms and additional camber, my under steer is basically gone. Well, at least until I buy and install the rears this winter 😏

No understeer issues here but overall more mechanical grip would be nice. 245/295 is a lot more pleasant after getting the car down to 3,000lb however.

You’ll enjoy having the front+rears. Can’t recommend it enough.

 

[jalquiza]

Do you have time comparisons on same track?

Nothing worthwhile because I had so many overlapping changes, but the usefulness is undoubtedly there as the stock hardware was maxing out at ~1.8 rear camber. It was very loose in the rear with overheating at the shoulders. Up front was solid as I had the BWR front UCAs on.

 

[jalquiza]

I prefer to think of it as WE are not undertired, those other cars are overtired and the resultant numb handling and loss of that tactile pleasure are the result. It IS something race series need to do a better job of limiting in the future. Maybe if the manufacterures are limited on the ridiculous girth of tire allowed, they may stop making everything an overweight pig with ever more huge HP.......

That is true, the typical 3600lb+ cars these days with 295 up front are not exactly the pinnacle of driving feel. I like to get away with as little tire as possible, really. Ideally I'd actually do a 255/305 but none of the ideal compounds come in the right sizes.

 

[jalquiza]

look what i found

Also this one was very favorable to the ad09:

I'm going to go out there and say that the TireRack test is bunk, which is unfortunate because so many people use them as their benchmark.

 

[jalquiza]

Mentioned it in my track build thread, but as for continued testing at a different track: I and another driver on ad09 found them a little loose but still fast and very controllable on the smooth asphalt sealant that the track is known for.

I got about 4-5 fast laps in a row before I started sliding and hitting ABS, needing to let the vette by:

Wear and street manners continue to be great. I think supplementing these with R7 or CRSv2 is going to be a great set to select from depending on the day.

 

[jalquiza]

I too was settling around 31/32, although with how quickly these come on I would be pushing early in a session while they were only up to ~27 psi, felt they could resist a lot of rollover (both by feel and lack of sidewall marks) even in some downhill hairpins. I want to blame the low stock camber limits and narrow-ish wheels here. Mines -2.6 up front + the BWR bar.

Surprisingly wide operating window though right?

 

[jalquiza]

In my last track event I didn’t have a probe on me and didn’t think about the fact that my FLIR thermal cam (lightning connector) wouldn’t work with my iPhone 15 (usb-c), so I couldn’t validate lower pressures. By feel, I think these stiffer sidewalls with high 2 neg camber should handle lower pressures well. Curious to see at what point they stop seeing an ideal temp gradient.

 

[jalquiza]

Love the updates guys. I’m about ready to order these for my car.

Could you confirm: to get -2 or more negative camber, we need BWR control arms? Thinking ahead and what mods I need for a decent alignment.

1.2-1.4 degrees is the typical max you’ll see on stock hardware up front. Lowering the car may get you further because it’s camber-gaining, but there’s drawbacks. Working from stock, I personally think the BWR front UCAs + BWR ARB are the best suspension upgrades in terms of value.

The rears seem to max around 1.6-2.0, so if you do get the front UCAs and send it in for an alignment, I’d suggest having them max out the rear to equal values then setting the front based on the results. Depending on your balance preference, you can give them some relative value to shoot for up front.

I ran -2.5 up front with -1.8 in the rear before the back end UCAs were available. It was quite tail happy. For anyone stopping at front UCAs with the ARB, keeping the front/rear closer in sync and somewhere in the -1.8 to -2.0 range is still very street friendly but helps a lot on track.

 

[jalquiza]

UCAs add a lot of clearance over stock. You should be good!

 

[jalquiza]

I found that the AD09 were surprisingly loose on the street at only 50F given that their street and first lap grip at 65+ was so good. It’s possible that I totally didn’t see a spill somehow, but got a hard accidental power slide entering a ramp taking a friend for a ride last year.

Still a fan of these tires as all rounders though. Recommended 100% as street summers or drive-to track tires that you can run fast laps in all day without them crapping themselves.

 

[jalquiza]

Anyone running these on an Evora with aftermarket FUCAs and RUCAs that can comment on what they like to be at camber-wise for track use? About to put in BWR FUCAs and Spitfire front track rods today and wondering what ballpark I should shoot for prior to bringing it in for an alignment next week. I have the RRR Engineering RUCAs in already and am sitting at somewhere around the ballpark of -2.8 to -3 in the rear with ample room for another degree of adjustment in either direction.

@jalquiza @Vertigyn @Jedifar @friss

Yeah, these have worked very well with ~ -2.9 camber for me (I always run a little more in the rear on this car). Also have the Spitfire toe/track rods, nice to get those knocked out while you’re in there.

IMO upper 2s camber is still very street friendly, with the stiff sidewall I get very little rollover. I’ll likely run a little over 3 next time I get it on a rack given that this is mostly for track use.

 

[jalquiza]

Driving style will have some bearing (plus I also run double adjustables), but usually ~ 0.3 less for the front. Right now I’m at 2.7F 3.0R

 

[jalquiza]

Is that specific to the Evora platform, or also applicable to the Elise? I've got AD09's on the Elise and once I'm done with all the suspension upgrades it's going to need a total alignment. I'm going to start with Shinoo's numbers (-3 degrees camber front and rear) but wondered if your offset recommendation applies to the Elise too.

I’m not familiar with setting up those cars, but it’s such a small difference that you may as well start equal if it’s a new setup. Driving feel and really carcass temps + wear will be the most revealing.

I ended up on this because it’s still very easy to get the rear as loose as I need it to be and the wear/temps are good. I ran ~ equal camber and found it was almost too easy to get into oversteer. I backed off the front slightly as to not take away from the contact patch in the rear for corner exits while adding some patch up front for braking.

 

[jalquiza]

Countering my comment about the AD09 in colder temps on the street, I did just run these at a track day that was 40 degrees during the few sessions I ran.

Not a great day for setting times with the sheer number of cars going off, but I thought it was fun. I felt like I was able to work pretty decent grip into these after about 6 turns. If pushed, they were happy to slide

If you’re comfortable with tire management, I think these should be fine for track use down to ~ 45.