Race tires

It's been kind of hard to blog. Crazy stuff going on in my life. The car now sits on a set of Yokohama Advan race tires. When I went to get them mounted, it was more for the pick me up, than getting to run corners a bit harder.

Relearning to drive on those little beasties has been tough. Brake points and steering input is weird when 99.99 percent of my driving has been done on road tires. There is so much grip I have a tendency to lock them up. Not fun when you are looking at flat spots. So, instead of braking late, I find myself slowing for entry and exiting faster. Totally different than how I drive my street car.

My daily driver is a Mercedes C230 Coupe with an AMG brake package from the C32. The binders are RS-4 brake pads from Porterfield. A bit expensive ($200 plus for front pads!), but so worth every penny. The AMG/Porterfield package has excellent feedback, and pedal modulation is instinctive. Of course that car runs on a Toyo T1R tire which is a durable performance tire and therefore different than a DOT approved race tire that I have on the X now.

Literally I feel like I'm relearning things. I have yet to have the X loosen or slip front or rear in a turn. There is your 50/50 balance baby! Mostly, I have yet to push the envelope of my turn in and lateral grip. Its the damn brake zones that are giving me such grief. Ever seen a race tires brake skid? In front of a Fedex drop off, not so cool.

Stay out of the ice plants kids.