Bridgestone RE01R
Back in the summer, I believe around July, I attended a track day with the then brand new Bridgestone RE-01R tires. These tires were quite amazing. I'd put them on 2 days before driving to the track day at Thunderhill in Northern California.
The tires performed admirably. Tires temps hit a peak of between 167 driver side rear the hottest around 183 or so in the passenger side front. The ambient temps were around 105-108 degrees F. At that tire temp, the tires were getting squirmy (4th 30 minute session of the day). The best times were had the second session, were the tires peaked around 168-170 degrees on the passenger front, and about 10-15 degressF cooler on the driver side rear.
According to GPS, I was about to put in over 30 laps per 30 minute session, under 1 minute a lap, and I was hitting an indicated 110mph before hitting the braking zone on the front straight (numbers were according to instructor riding in car, I was too busy driving!)
Anyway, at Thunderhill, quickly found the Maxima is not geared well for this track. There were many times I found myself between 3rd and 4th gear, popping it into forth just for 1-2 seconds then back into 3rd gear, except near the end with the 2nd gear turn...
Brake fade hit me first session and I did the best I could for the next 3 sessions of the day. I was/am running Axxis/PBR MetalMaster pads. My other car runs Hawks, which I am curious to how they'll do. A week after commuting in the car and I could still see chunks of the brake pads fused to the rotors.
The Maxima faired fairly well. Even with those ambient temps (108 degrees F or so), and constantly bouncing off the rev limiter at 6500+ rpm or so, the engine temperature gauge never rose. The car has over 194,000 miles and the clutch was only changed once at about 150,000 miles or so. The car will get 25-28mpg on a normal commute with energy efficient tires and speeds under 70mpg. With the RE-01R I get between 23-26mpg (more rolling resistance?), and at the track I was getting 9.5 or so.... the low fuel light, which normally lights around 360-400 miles (18 gallon tank) lit around 137 miles. :(
Couldn't even get out on the open session at the end of the day :P
The tires performed admirably. Tires temps hit a peak of between 167 driver side rear the hottest around 183 or so in the passenger side front. The ambient temps were around 105-108 degrees F. At that tire temp, the tires were getting squirmy (4th 30 minute session of the day). The best times were had the second session, were the tires peaked around 168-170 degrees on the passenger front, and about 10-15 degressF cooler on the driver side rear.
According to GPS, I was about to put in over 30 laps per 30 minute session, under 1 minute a lap, and I was hitting an indicated 110mph before hitting the braking zone on the front straight (numbers were according to instructor riding in car, I was too busy driving!)
Anyway, at Thunderhill, quickly found the Maxima is not geared well for this track. There were many times I found myself between 3rd and 4th gear, popping it into forth just for 1-2 seconds then back into 3rd gear, except near the end with the 2nd gear turn...
Brake fade hit me first session and I did the best I could for the next 3 sessions of the day. I was/am running Axxis/PBR MetalMaster pads. My other car runs Hawks, which I am curious to how they'll do. A week after commuting in the car and I could still see chunks of the brake pads fused to the rotors.
The Maxima faired fairly well. Even with those ambient temps (108 degrees F or so), and constantly bouncing off the rev limiter at 6500+ rpm or so, the engine temperature gauge never rose. The car has over 194,000 miles and the clutch was only changed once at about 150,000 miles or so. The car will get 25-28mpg on a normal commute with energy efficient tires and speeds under 70mpg. With the RE-01R I get between 23-26mpg (more rolling resistance?), and at the track I was getting 9.5 or so.... the low fuel light, which normally lights around 360-400 miles (18 gallon tank) lit around 137 miles. :(
Couldn't even get out on the open session at the end of the day :P
posted by vmok00 at 11:04 AM
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