Tire Dilema...

[Boozshey]

Yeah damn, don't want to buy any 18" wheels.

[blacksheep-1]

SRSLY 18 inch is the way to go for muscle cars, there's not much used stuff for 17s out there and all the race organizations are running 18s

[Boozshey]

I don't even think that 18s will fit the way my car is setup.

The a-arms and kmemeber push the tires out and forward.

But I can say that I don't believe the car likes street tires very much.

Is it possible that suspension changes would need to be changed between street tires vs race rubber? The car as far as I know has always been a race rubber car.

[Loren]

Yes, street tires and race tires often require different setups.

It's also possible that race rubber could have been masking some deficiencies in your setup.

But, most likely, you're just used to a certain level of grip and forgiveness from the car... and you're going to have to give yourself some time to adapt to having less grip. Tune the driver.

You might also need to look for the right tire pressure. And it was COLD at this last event, so don't judge anything based on that!

[Boozshey]

Yeah, I was told that the RS-3 like the heat and are better in the summer.

But yes, every car I've ran I've always ran race rubber. So I've become accustomed to a specific grip.

I suppose though, I don't want to have to adjust the car every time I change tires. So I really need to just figure out what class I want to be in and make it happen.

[jesup16]

Yes RS-3's like heat and it wasn't available yesterday, even in the afternoon. I really feel sorry for the morning guys on heat friendly compounds.

FWIW, I dropped 2lbs front and 3lbs rear yesterday after my 3rd run. I cut almost 1 second off...was running 53's, then found the 52's. Have you started playing with tire pressures yet?

It's also likely you need to chase the setup. I made a small adjustment in camber/alignment in the back for this event (luckily I have a friend at goodyear with a nice alignment rack). Not sure about it's results given the lower than usual temps.

[Vz28]

Getting used to the grip and response will be the most effective improvement (slower throttle application, early/smooth steering inputs), and I think the most rewarding. But you may find that a more compliant rear setup will improve the ability to put the power to the ground. Going back to street tires on my Camaro I switched to a softer rear sway bar (stock) and adjusted the shock rebound, which I might do with any set of new tires. I also tend to run a relatively low rear tire pressure but that will be setup specific.

I think you ran when I did - if your Mustang is still relatively heavy you should not have a problem getting the RS3s warm - I managed to overheat my tires after a couple of runs (admittedly not autocross-specific tires). On the old 315 race tires I always struggled to get enough heat in them at an autocross if I did not have a co-driver.

I have not seen your car run but I don't think you should have to make drastic changes to the car to have a decent street tire setup. Make small adjustments, take notes and I think you can find something that works.

[Boozshey]

I spoke with Maximum Motorsport about what I experienced. They said I would for sure need to (as you put it) "chase the setup". I am not an expert by any means when it comes to turning corners and suspension. I understand drag racing suspensions much better. So talking to experts is what I have to rely on right now.

They advice they gave me right now is what I had already had a hunch on. 1) stay with race rubber since I know the car handles how I want with them. which is pretty much on rails. or 2) start changing the setup to help on street tires. I did get a couple easy changes like loosening up the rear sway bar and see if that helps with the rear ends traction, and what not. I just don't want to get into turning coilovers and adjusting shocks to make things happen. I guess I would rather have my car set up to run race rubber than street tires.

At least I got to feel what street tires feel like I suppose.

[Loren]

If you haven't already, document your current setup so that you can revert to it. It's all just hardware and settings. Very repeatable.

Then you can start making adjustments. But, BEFORE you adjust anything more than tire pressure, give yourself a few events to adapt. Get used to your level of grip, THEN start fine-tuning the car. It's not that hard to do, just remember to only adjust ONE thing at a time so that you can learn what that one thing does for you.

If you want specific advice, you'll have to tell us what your specific setup is and what specific problems you're having with it.

[Solar]

Yes RS-3's like heat and it wasn't available yesterday, even in the afternoon. I really feel sorry for the morning guys on heat friendly compounds.

My 2 ¢ I have RS3's and ran in the second group in the morning, other than the first run, I didn't notice any issue with tire temps.

[garage west]

Drew is on 255 RS3s and was a second and a half up in his '87 Mustang. Brian was 2 tenths back on 225 RS3s in his '91 Nissan 240.

[blacksheep-1]

FWIW try upping the pressure several pounds next time, of course there is a threshold where this no longer works, but on cold tracks with limited qualifying times, it's not unheard of to up the pressures to build heat in the tires immediately. This is one of those areas where autocross setups have little resemblance to race setups.

[Solar]

Drew is on 255 RS3s and was a second and a half up in his '87 Mustang. Brian was 2 tenths back on 225 RS3s in his '91 Nissan 240.

Drew and I also ran the same air pressures in our tires, if that means anything.