Was fortunate enough to be invited to the KW Tech Day at Buttonwillow last Thursday. It was an AWESOME day, with sessions starting for Advanced on the hour from 9am. I shared a garage with my two buds who both have E9x M3's as well, and with tons of industry friends in attendance, it was just one of the best days.
I figured it'd be a good time to try to squeeze one last day in before the baby comes, and, a great opportunity to set some laps on a brand new set of Nexen SUR4G's, since that's the tire I ran almost exclusively on my last build.
The weather was great with temps in the mid 50s in the morning. PB weather!
Just to mention, my only time at Buttonwillow in this car was a few weeks back, running on a heavily used set of Yoko A052s (295 squared). My best lap of that day was a 1:56.12.
In my first session on the Nexen's, I ran a 1:56.2 and knew I could go quicker.
Sure enough, second session, I threw down a 1:55.7! Pretty impressive for 275s that have been sitting in my garage for a year. And, quicker than the worn A052s.
My buddy Alan brought two sets of wheels, one of which had 295 A052s on them, on the same Titan7's I was running last time. He was curious to see if I could go quicker on them, so in the name of science, I tossed them on. My session would have been their 10th heat cycle, so while they weren't new, they weren't too old either. Comparatively, grip felt better. Turn in was sharper. Roll over was non existent. The 30 series sidewall just has no flex compared to the Nexen, which you can really feel bending at the limit. Not necessarily a bad thing, but just something to get used to. Where the A052s really shine is the high speed sketchy sections where I'm usually wishing I had aero. I have way more confidence bombing through vs the Nexens.
Of course, I set myself up for a pretty solid lap. The AIM said it was a 1:54.63 before I got to the final turn, Sunset, where I constantly ruin every good lap by braking hard, getting thrown toward the steering wheel and botching my 3rd gear downshift, sending me into a understeer, and then oversteer correction. The rear cage can't come soon enough! Can't wait to have harnesses and a chassis-mounted shifter. So, despite this error, I ran a 1:55.16, a full second faster than my previous best on these tires.
My original goal for this car was a 1:54 with no aero on street tires, but after reviewing the data, my rolling best lap is a 1:52.867, so my new goal is a 1:53 in this trim. Had no idea this car would have so much potential with so little seat time and so few upgrades. Loving it.
In other news... this was my last track day for a while. Baby girl came early, and 5 hours after getting home from the track, we were headed to the hospital. Mom and daughter are healthy and it's been an incredible experience. The car will keep growing though! Cage, StopTech Trophy kit, harnesses, shifter, rear subframe bushings/mounts, SPL rear arm package... all in the works.
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Originally Posted by slcook54
Loving this build. You got me thinking about T-S7's over ARC8-R's, I'm Melbourne and would go Iridium Silver with no center caps.
Any other angles capturing the Fikse's? Can you give some details on those? Are they 3 piece? Forged? Weight? Price?
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Definitely Titan7 over Apex...
Fikse's are the Profil 10. They're true 3 piece wheels, anodized gold centers, machined for lightness and only weighing 21 lbs each. I'd like to widen them to 18x10.5 all around, currently they're 10" wide.
