RE55 warning.

[Snowman]

Guy's - just a quick piece of advice.

I know a bunch of you out there are thinking about / already have gone and bought some of the Bridgestone RE55's. There is no doubt that they are an awesome track tyre BUT if your car isn't set up properly they will be a very expensive investment.

I noticed that my front tyres were wearing unevenly (outsides seemed to be near bald but insides seemed pretty good) But the rears were ok. So last night I was in the process of rotating my fronts to rears - and when the fronts came off I noticed I had 4 or 5 large chunks of tyre missing (the size of a 50c coin) on each tyre and I was down to the canvas in these chunks.

So those tyres are farked. They have done 1 day of the Dutton Rally and 4 track days. If my front suspension / castor / camber was set-up properly I wouldn't have this problem and my $2K worth of tyres would have lasted a lot longer than 2 months.

If you are going to get yourselves a set of these tyres - then spend the money and get your suspension set-up properly or else you are just throwing money down the drain.

[Downforce]

pfft - what are you guys on about? Castor angles? Toe? Spring Rates?

Its all bollucks. Just get in the damn car and drive!

LOL.... perhaps not then?

[GunMetalR33]

GTTR34: ha ha ha ha ha that is classic.

Sorry to hear about the tyres SnowMan

[Snowman]

:chairshot: :headshot: :whip: :slap: :chop: :tomato:

Ok - in perspective - doing it to make sure you hard earned cash doesnt get wasted is one thing.

Doing it when you haven't even been out on the track before and you are worried about those precious seconds when you don't even know how to drive yet is a whole different story.

From memory that quote came from a thread like the second point - and wasn't necessarily talking about people using semi's.

[KamikazeR33]

so u sujjest me goin t0 get me wheelies sorted firkst befwore i twy drwivinnng wittv mi full sleeeks ¿¿¿¿

[Roy]

Im not wanting to sound like the over bearing parent....but another aspect to using these tyres is that becuase they are a lot closer to a slick race tyre then your normal road rubber, be very careful if your car doesnt have ABS.

If you are still coming to grip with pulling a NON-ABS equipped car up and still have a tendency to lock tyres (rears as much if not more then fronts) then perhaps stick with road rubber as well. Flat spots will soon have you thinking that warped a disc and because stickies dont squeel like normal road rubber sometimes its a little hard to pick if you are lockign up.

They are awesome tyres, but seriously its more fun on road tyres as the car moves around a lot more, if you make a mistake then you dont ruin tyres, and if your susp settings arent optimised then you can prematurely eat tyres. Try the first time i went to Eastern Creek with stickies i ruined the front right tyre!!!!

So run stickies, sure, just be aware like any performance mod there are possible negatives as well.

Anyway ill have a temp probe on the day so if ppl want to keep track of tyre face temp and pressures to see how they tyres are working then that may help diagnose a prob well before you blister a tyre

[RBN1]

excellent point Troy. I personally plan to get 55's however I want to have a set of rims with cheaper rubber so I can pull the 4WD fuse and see what the R can do in terms of Dori action

They are awesome tyres, but seriously its more fun on road tyres as the car moves around a lot more, if you make a mistake then you dont ruin tyres, and if your susp settings arent optimised then you can prematurely eat tyres. Try the first time i went to Eastern Creek with stickies i ruined the front right tyre!!!!

[KamikazeR33]

sounds like i better do what u say then

my slicks havent turned up yet anyhow (damn u couriers)

[Roy]

....Flat spots will soon have you thinking that warped a disc and because stickies dont squeel like normal road rubber sometimes its a little hard to pick if you are locking up.

LOL...skylinegeoff and me were just working under my car when he spotted the reason you should seriously consider the negatives of semis before bolting them on...thankfully the damage isnt too bad as it was still damp at Phillip Island when i did it.

He got a photo which im sure hel post

[GTRgeoff]

The other issue is the knife edge traction in the wet on these things.

Point to note, my fronts were $100 ea Continental SportContacts. Were $100 and have done 4 trackdays and daily driving duties. I still have a least one day left but may get some Dunlop 9000's as they have a little more grip. So what if I could go 5 seconds a lap faster?

Roy's tyre shows signs of a gradual lockup (tyre still turning after traction is lost and then a brief lockup) but it looks pretty severe. I've had a think about this one and would recommend he get it buffed out ASAP.

[Brutus]

All good advice but for those of us who have been running track tyres for ages, without ABS and no the cons if they aren't treated with a driver who knows what they are doing, what suspension settings do you suggest so you don't bugger them. I also enjoy running on road tyres and having gret slip angles over Lukey heights and through turn one at the island but I would much prefer pulling 1.5g through the corner at warp speed on track tyres.

So what's a good setting for camber, castor, front and rear toe for a set of track tyres for a GTS-T??????

[ferni]

I'm no expert Brutus, but i'd say as much negative camber as you can get on the front (-3ish?), decent amounts on the back (-2 to -2.5ish?) and lots of castor, not sure if toe makes much difference to killing semi-slicks

Andrew: Mind if i ask what your wheel alignment settings are when you killed these tyres?

[Scotsman]

I have also almost gone through my first set of Semi's. Took 6 track days to get below the wear marker on all tyres. I went for the Yoki's A048 because that's all that was avaliable back then. I was pushing pretty hard for the last two Phillip Island weekends, but mine have worn pretty evenly for a car that rolls around a bit.

So be warned... $2000+ worth of tyres doesn't go a long way, but you'll have a great time burning away that money.

[Roy]

... I've had a think about this one and would recommend he get it buffed out ASAP.

Buffed? Drive over to Adelaide did that:)

Brutus...id tell you what i think but dont want to be resposnsible for being way off and costing you a set of front tyres.

Seriously if you are going to run these tyres then id recommend seeing someone like Centreline, there are other places who are reputable but i havent used them so wont recommend them.

Im no expert or professional driver but i have improved a fair bit from wghen i first started these days, and sadly i knowing the pitfalls still damage them, so just be aware.... dont mean to harp but i FREAKED when i killed my first set of fronts and im not too impresses i did a front left at PI. Maybe i need ABS:)

[adznight]

Just take your cars in and get them looked at. I'm all for doing it yourself but when your spending 2k on tyres do you really want to fu(k it up? I picked my car up from centerline last week and she's all sweet to go

[Brutus]

Well aware of the drill. I locked up a front left in my MX-5 going into turn one at Sandown on a 40 degree day. Lock up was not much more than a car length and I did a brand spanker A032R Yoki down to the canvas!!!!

Luckily I was getting my tyres for nicks at that stage.

Biggest difference comes when changing from using fast road pads to full track pads, that is when you WILL lock up brakes until you are used to them. So if down the track you get the driving sorted, go and get some track tyres and then go hardcore on the brake set up, be careful. The above happened when I swithced to Hawk Blues. Amazing pads but man, they were so easy to catch a brake and bye bye rubber. 50c piece tyres anybody......

[Downforce]

Well aware of the drill. I locked up a front left in my MX-5 going into turn one at Sandown on a 40 degree day. Lock up was not much more than a car length and I did a brand spanker A032R Yoki down to the canvas!!!!

Luckily I was getting my tyres for nicks at that stage.

Biggest difference comes when changing from using fast road pads to full  track pads, that is when you WILL lock up brakes until you are used to them. So if down the track you get the driving sorted, go and get some track tyres and then go hardcore on the brake set up, be careful. The above happened when I swithced to Hawk Blues. Amazing pads but man, they were so easy to catch a brake and bye bye rubber. 50c piece tyres anybody......

Did your MX-5 have ABS?

[Brutus]

Nope......

But it was never a problem with fast street pads on the track or after this one occurance I never locked it up again with these pads, just getting used to a new dimension in braking compared to what I had used before.

Not an ABS problem, a lack of familiarity with new equipment problem......

[Roy]

Nope......

But it was never a problem with fast street pads on the track or after this one occurance I never locked it up again with these pads, just getting used to a new dimension in braking compared to what I had used before.

Not an ABS problem, a lack of familiarity with new equipment problem......

You just freaked me out:) Im about to go from RB74s to Ferodo 3000s Oh well suck it and see.

Just re-read some of this thread and it seems like all doom and gloom with R-spec tyres...its not, just be aware of the pitfalls and you will get plenty of use and enjyment out of them.

[Duncan]

haha yeah these GTR cheaters are never happy.

R tyres are great but they sure don't last forever. On my GTST the fronts would last 4-6 track days, the rears 6-8 track days. Unfortunately they were different sizes front to rear so I couldn't swap them, only side to side.

My tips are:

* Rotate them Left to Right halfway through their life, ie after 3-4 track days. Also rotate front to rear every time if you are a cheater with a GTR.

* Get ABS Save yourself from that horrible feeling of wrecking a good tyre. I've done a few over the years and it hurts (the wallet) every time

* Drive smoothly....if you are getting heaps of over or understeer you need to try something different (unless you just set the lap record, in that case you are probably going as quick as the tyres allow )

* Run a bit of camber on the track if you can

* Always run the right hot pressure for the tyre and track. Its easy. Start at about the pressure you need to aim for (cold tyres). Do 2-3 laps, come into the pits and let them down to the correct temp, they will be 4-8psi too high. Find out the right hot pressure for your tyre from the distributor....THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT

And, don't worry too much about them, they do die....but then you are kidding yourself if you think a road tyre would last 6-8 track days, plus there is the bonus of heaps better traction from the cheater tyres