Whatever anyone gets, that is at all new-ish, I’d advise to leave the traction control fully on. All of my driving on the track with both the gray S and the block JCW is with the traction control fully on. If I am driving correctly, it does not come on; it does not interfere. I can attest to the fact that it will react faster to an oops in driving than any driver can.

As for putting 4 tires in a car… I have seen it done with an M2, if that helps.

 

 

The previous owner said he couldn't fit all four. He had a second set of wheels with winter tires. He said he couldn't so I had him take off the tires before I went to see the car. (At that point I was 90% sure I was going to take it). I took the wheels and left the tires behind. Sometime in the next few weeks I will try myself and let you know.

Something I didn't realize when I decided on the ATS-V — there don't appear to be any 200TW tires available in the OEM size the car takes (255/35ZR18 Front and 275/35ZR18 Rear). That's probably not the case with the Mustang. This year, I'll be using the OEM Michelin Pilot Super Sports; then I'll see where I go from there. I am also getting long in the tooth and don't know how many more seasons I'll be tracking. And I don't expect to be pushing as hard as I did with the MINI although that could change once I get comfortable behind the wheel. I've been reading quite a bit lately on how to control oversteer.

 

Did you look at TR? They have the 200 TW ‘Stones RE71RS and the Falken 660 in those sizes, plus others. Or did I get the sizes wrong?

 

Those prices serve to remind me one of the reasons I've stuck with Minis all these years, those tires are twice the cost of mine (and probably close to twice the weight to horse onto the car)
Gkp, I hope your track alignment has some serious camber (like as much as possible) to save those round black diamonds

 

Good to know, I have actually gone and looked at the M2s at the dealer but, as much I as like BMWs, at 3800+ lbs I could get the Mustang which is actually about 200# lighter with similar power and torque and save about $25k. And probably wouldn't worry about it as much.....

 

Don’t know about the Mustang, but the M2 has a staggered tire arrangement. This limits tire options and tire rotation options. Also, like MINIs, the M2 (2016, don’t know about current M2) didn’t come with much camber. My cousin added camberplates to his M2 to improve tire wear and because of the staggered sizes doesn’t bother with bring extra tires when he goes to WGI. Camber adjustability is something to consider when looking at BMWs.

BTW - You know Mustang comes in both a GT4 AND GT3 versions if you have the $$$$….

 

I think you could probably go with a square tire setup as with the older M3s for the track, not positive though.....the BMWs are strut front suspension just like the Minis, always going to need camber. Hello Vorshlag!

Re Mustang, I'll take this one. If I ever win Powerball
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...-gtd-revealed/

 

Damn! When I did a search, these didn't come up. I just searched again (by vehicle) and they weren't in the results. They show up when I search by size. Thanks! In any case, I'll be running on the OEM tires until they are done.

UPDATE: According to TR, the 200TW tires don't appear when I search by vehicle because "the rear does not have the XL load rating the car calls for." However, they say they have "enough" and can be used. I'll need to dig deeper on that one.

gbuff: I agree on the elevated cost of tires, brake pads and rotors over the MINI. That's a big reason I will be doing only a few days a year.

 

Ya, I did the same thing, only backwards. I searched sizes first and wondered if I got it right. Then I did the car search and got what you did; nothing. That is very strange. I wonder why TR thinks those tires don’t belong on your car….

As for square vs staggered tire setups, on the M2 the staggered setup is to help tame the tendency to oversteer. My cousin says that even with the staggered setup, oversteer is still something to watch out for in the M2.

Also, my cousin only runs the OEM Michelins on his M2 and really likes them. You’ll be fine with them.

 

Ever since TR changed hands a few years ago I've had on/off problems with their website, stuff like what's happening to you right now and payment issues where I have to manually enter my shipping address when placing an order (though it's the same as my billing address), but not every time It's maddening at times, never used to be like that. Maybe it's just me but I doubt it.

 

I don't know if you saw my updated post. According to TR, the 200TW tires don't appear when I search by vehicle because "the rear does not have the XL load rating the car calls for." However, they say they have "enough" and can be used. I'll need to dig deeper on that one.

 

”XL” only means that the tire can take more pressure than a standard street tire, thus with it being at a higher pressure it can handle more load. However, at 33 psi it will have the same load rating as any other tire. So, this makes no sense, unless they are running the tire at 50 or 60 psi, which would be doubtful. So the TR statement is meaningless. It is not for load rating.

Typically you see XL on truck tires and some off road tires like the BFG KO2s and the like. They do tend to have stiffer sidewalls. So, maybe the caddy is taking advantage of the stiffer sidewalls? That would be an odd way to get that feature, though.

Do your rear tires say XL on them? Does Michelin even have a XL street tire. If they are OEM and they don’t have XL on them, then I would say the TR info is bogus…

Update: I did look up the Michelin Pilot Super Sport tire on TR and they list it by OEM applications and I found one size that was both an XL and SL, and the XL had a higher load rating at a lower pressure than the SL. Not sure how they do that. So, maybe I’m wrong? That could never happen…

But I found no listing on TR for the ATS-V. Again, did I miss something there? The only thing I found was this: https://michelinmedia.com/michelin-u...adillac-ats-v/

 

Now that I looked around, I don't get it. The spec tires are XL as are most other available tires. Beats me.

 

Hey gbuff1 - Have you started your track season?

In the grand scheme of things, the rest of us are likely wait for the temperatures to be consistently above 32 deg F before heading out on the track on tires that shouldn’t be on the car at temperatures below 40 (or is it 45 - whatever). For others of us that temperature thing is just an excuse to coverup the fact that we have not worked on the car at all over the winter, as we thought we would, and it is not ready to go, yet. Not that would be the case for me…

I went to LRP last Saturday to visit with ZRE who was attend the event that day. Perfect weather conditions. Oh, how I wished I was lapping that day, too.

But, That got me to thinking, I really need to get my a$$ in gear and get my car going. Plan on attending some events. And spend some money to wear out a set of tires and brake pads. And spend some more money on tires and brake pads, oil changes, gas and, and and…

That said, one of my long range plans is to attend at least 2 days at the Glen with GVC BMWCCA on August 2, 3 and 4. Not sure what dates right now; likely the 3rd and 4th. I know of at least one other person who will go. How about anyone else?

GKP - How about you? How’s that hot rod Caddy coming along?

 

I had it to a car control clinic at LRP a few weeks ago. It's definitely a handful! The skidpad was a bit of a bust because I thought the mode I had it in (Track 5) turned off all the nannies. It didn't. Both the traction and stability nanny lights showed they were off, but there was still something interfering. Later, on forums, I found what is apparently the secret to turning everything off including some kind of phantom nanny. I'm doing a second CCC at LRP on Friday so we'll see.

On the autocross track, however, it was a hoot and a half. I had a few serious spins but that's the purpose of the CCC. I want to do a second day to work primarily on smoother acceleration inputs. In the MINI we can stomp the gas pedal pretty hard and get away with it. Not so in this beast. Of course I know that, but old habits die hard in the moment. Gotta break that habit. After Friday I'll look into full track days. I doubt I'll be ready for WGI this year. I need a few days on my 'comfort track' to build confidence. Be sure to let me know when you're doing LRP.

 

Was scheduled to begin April 13 at Mid-Ohio but the night before leaving I threw my back out something fierce and had to bail on that event and the one the following week at the Glen with NASA.
It eventually loosened up and I made it to SCDA at WGI April 29-30 and then really enjoyed the new pavement at Mid-Ohio this past Monday May 6. So now it's onto the Glen again with Chin Mon/Tues May 13-14.
I'll be back at the Glen with Trackmasters for the two days right after the GVC event in August and will be with GVC there on Fri 9/27. Hope to see you there

 

Sorry to hear about the back. That is something I am very familiar with and spent about 6 months with daily PT (mostly at home) to make it better. Glad you are getting going.

BTW - how is the camber working out for you?

I’ve started work on my Gray MINI to get it ready/fixed for some one of the upcoming events at LRP. I’ll let people know how the fixing goes and what dates for LRP.

 

It's OK, I'm getting a bit more wear out of the tires but the -2 is still not enough for the left front.....thinking about filing/trimming the sway bar link bracket just a bit as that's what's limiting the amount of camber I can get b/c it touches the inner fender.

 

GBuff…..curious, how many track day events have you done now? You must be nearing 1000, or close!

impressive…

 

Hey S
By my (unofficial) count I'm at 975+/- track days right now and have 24 more scheduled for this year so I should hit 999 days by year's end....all subject to change of course.
I didn't start doing this stuff until 1996 at age 40, imagine if I'd started earlier! I'd be even more broke

 

I seem to remember that trimming that bracket was a thing that may have been needed to be done on those MINIs to get camber. But I also know that the stock springs and the top spring perch will prevent the strut from moving far enough to get much more than 2 deg. So look close as to what is preventing that camber adjustment before taking the effort to trim that bracket. My K-Mac camberplates for my R56 came with offset spring perches and I was able to achieve -3 deg without that bracket touching. Other than the K-Macs I have never seen an offset spring perch. And, I believe that K-Mac no longer provides an offset spring perch. It wasn’t provided with the latest version of their camberplates that I purchased.

 

When we did the install of the plates we took a look and there was room, I just put my track wheels on and took another good look. I can get a full finger width between the top coil/spring perch and the fender liner which flexes a bit. If I do this I'd trim part of the liner so it's out of the way and I think I'd be good. If I could get anywhere close to -3 in front I'd be happy.

 

All Right! It is done. The new camberplates have been installed in Smokey and he is ready to head out to the track! Woo Hoo!

I found these on Ebay and it turns out that they are made in Poland and the place that I bought them from is in the UK. And they were half the price of anything I could get here in the States. So, what the hey…

They are just basic, race style, camberplates. All metal and no urethane. Not overly noisy, which surprised me. I used the offset spring perches that came with the K Mac plates that I broke (the perches are not broke), So there should be -3 deg of camber in the setup. I wonder why no one ever marketed these offset perches.

At any rate, the car feels like it is on freakin’ rails.

Maybe I’ll be able to keep up with gkp now the car is right… and I add about 200 more hp…

So anyone interested in going to LRP on 6/13 with SCDA?

 

I'm finalizing a few things for June and if the 13th is open I'll likely be there.