hrd-hr30

I had these on mine. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4pcs-TE37-15-inch-Wheels-Rim-4X100-4X114-3-5X114-3-Alloy-wheel-Car-Rims-SY5029-1/202307696405?hash=item2f1a7a7715:m:mzSq8e4N6sRzyu4P-hxy9Gg:rk:4:pf:0 Contrary to popular opinion I didn't die. Also tracked them with semi slicks.

mistake above. Levin's normal pressures were 32F 36R according to my notebook. I did another hillclimb on the weekend with it and tried lower pressures 28F 32R. It had heaps more tyre squeal and heaps more understeer. Ran 50.72, 50.79 and 50.69 like that. Pumped then back up to 32F 36R and was instantly back to the normal sort of times with a 50.06, much less squealing and noticeably improved grip. Ran them 2psi higher on Sunday and they felt a little better again, set a new PB of 49.92. Based on that, I'm going to try the a bit more pressure in the Soarer next time too.

it depends on the car - weight, amount of camber, balance etc. in my 1530kg rwd Soarer 32psi hot all round in my 1080kg fwd Levin 30 hot front, 34 hot rear.

Richard, I don't think anything has really changed in the semi slick landscape since you asked the same questions last year, other than the R888R which are still a bit of an unknown quantity. I haven't seen any decent cars try them or heard any reviews. Price of every tyre has crept up a bit. Just go back a page or two and the advice is all still relevant, including the warnings about Hankook Softs giving up the ghost after not many heat cycles, and way before the tread wears out... the Mediums cycle well. I've had the Nankangs on the Soarer for just over a year now. Wearing well and heat cycle well, although I have only used them twice since buying another car at the start of the year, they're still getting PBs when I dust the big Soarer off for a run. I also bought a set for my other car that I've mainly been using this year. Definitely the pick of the budget semis. 1.09sec faster than NT01 at Lakeside on the Soarer, and they're cheaper. Or compared to arguably the fastest semi available, Hankook Z221 C70 Soft, the Nankang is just 0.27 slower at Lakeside, for half the price. More sizes available than when they first came out too.

Yeah, the Renault looks much better out in the sunlight than it did in the dark studio shots which made it look like there was too much black. Not a fan of the shark fins, but i think all the cars look good. With Sauber's livery being the least good I particularly like the Williams, but it's hard to go wrong with Martini colours. The new cars are certainly much better proportioned than they have been for years.

I was hoping Sauber would go back to the jellybean mags of a few years ago New cars look good though - the lower, wider rear wing totally transforms them. Not liking any of the liveries other than Williams yet... Too much fussy gold on the Sauber. Too much black on the Renault which hides the car's shape. And Ferrari's are supposed to be red. Keen as for the racing to start - Pirelli reckon they'e actually made tyres not designed to degrade so they can actually drive them hard in the race, and corner speeds should be pretty epic. Hopefully that's right and the fast drivers get some reward from it, instead of it being all about tyre management.

Farcical 1. All those penalties were a joke. As were all the drivers comments during and after the race. Seems if they're not handing out 40 place grid penalties they find other ways to keep themselves occupied - in this case by artificially modifying the podium

cheers

what's the other place? I have a mate who's after a set

yep Nankang AR1. You're in luck being in Adelaide, they're from Sleeka Spares.

They're in a totally different league to NT01s. No doubt whatsoever. There's no downsides to them. The guy who fitted them has been selling NT01s for years, said the Nankangs definitely have stronger sidewalls. They're good on the limit, and when you overstep it. No quirks or foibles at all - they just perform like a good semi slick should. They might not be quite up there with A050/Z221 mediums, but would be FAR closer in performance to those than the Nittos are to AR1s. I'm hoping they release a 295 or the back of the Soarer... Would be awesome for the hillclimb if they release a soft compound! I've done 3 trackdays and one hillclimb so far, so it's early days to be talking about durability, but no concerns so far in wear or heat cycling.

Used the Nankangs at Mt Cotton hillclimb on the weekend. They were great - work very well from cold. I've never felt a semi work so well in Turn 1 out there. The sharpest steering response I've ever felt into T1, with not even a hint of understeer and probably the best traction I've ever had on the way out of T1. Actually, they've got excellent traction off all the slow turns out there. I'm very impressed with them. Had to be careful not to overheat them with the burnout - just a very small 2 second burnout to warm the rears was about all they wanted. Any more and they went a bit squishy. Haven't seen the times from the last couple of runs yet, but runs 3 and 4 were 47.9s which is 4 tenths faster than the Nittos were there (without tyre softener). That's heaps of time at a ~48sec hillclimb, and I reckon I went faster on the last run. Just waiting on the results to be emailled out.

hehe that BMW 135 is a bit quick... he's the one who broke my record at Mt Cotton. Yes,15yrs is a long time, but I bet it's still a bunch of slow 90 deg corners and short straights with hay bale chicanes/barriers - that's still not my cup of tea no matter how many years have passed. But like I said these events are very popular, so obviously not everyone agrees with my critique of the track

yep, FI have been much improved since their Spain update. Williams messing around with the extra illegal wing on test days says to me they're more interested in testing stuff for next year's high downforce cars. Hopefully it pays off.

I think Williams and a few others with tight budgets are focused on next year's massively different cars and making do with what they've got for the rest of 2016