Views on best Superlight trackday tyres

[IanJ]

Hi,

 

I am about to buy a set of 4 6X13 Caterham 8 spoke wheels for my 1.6K Superlight (138BHP/Dry Sump). The idea is to keep the existing wheels (shod with A021Rs) for road use and buy something a little more grippy to put on the 8 spokes for trackdays. As the car will be driven to/from trackdays, the choice of tyre needs to be road legal.

 

I think I have pretty much convinced myself to give Yokohama A048Rs a go. I am tempted to go for Medium compound on the rear and Soft compound in the front, but would welcome views from anybody else who has tried this combination. The current setup of the car in conjunction with my driving style results in a understeery bias to the balance of the car at turn-in which becomes more neutral as power is subsequently applied.

 

Would anybody care to offer their views as to whether this sounds like a sensible approach or not?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006

Penn Sevens Here

[Jason Plato]

if you place more grip at the rear with the wider tyres you intend using, you will have more understeer - you may have to change the suspension settings from what you have now, to use the extra grip from the wider 48's properly . This will probably involve some or all of the following , increasing rear ride height a little , increasing rear ARB , increasing rear spring rates , lowering front ride height , reducing front ARB .

 

I use soft fronts and medium rears and it is a pretty good all round setup for track and road in my opinion

[IanJ]

Dave, thanks for your reply.

Just to clarify: I plan to go from a current setup of 4 185X60R13 A021Rs to 4 185X60R13 A048Rs so there would be no width change front or rear. The only change in balance I am expecting would be reduced understeer by fitting a softer compound on the fronts than the rears.

Am I to understand that you currently run wider rears than fronts? I guess it might not be such a good idea to mix compunds if I am using the same width tyres at both ends...

 

Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006

Penn Sevens Here

[Jason Plato]

sorry , I read it as you were going to buy 8" rears and then fit 205 tyres 😬

 

soft compound all round is nice but the wear rate on the rears will be exagerated ( obviously ), Grip levels will be several points above your 21R's

 

If you can live with the extra expense from wear then go for the soft all round , I use different compounds a my 245bhp 😬 tends to heat the rears up pretty well on road or track

[MikeW]

I'd go for the medium compound all round. On track the fronts heat up well within a couple of laps and wear rate will be a bit less than with the soft compound. We've been racing on these all year and a very good tyre in the dry.

 

MikeW

Mega Grad Race No 22

[Jenson Button]

I have a 1.6 Superlight on 6x13's all round and my last set of tyres were medium compound A048's all round. I found them to be excellent but the rears obviously wore out quicker than the fronts. Using mediums all round has the advantage that you can swap front and rear tyres half way through their life.

 

However, I've just replace with mediums on the rear and softs on the front. I chose that to further reduce understeer, to even up wear front to rear as well as to find out if I preferred it to mediums all round! I've now done two track days with these tyres and I'm impressed. The wear rate is more even and there is noticeably more grip at the front. I think I'll stick with this setup for a while.

[A10ROX]

Superlight

.. designed with ACB10 in mind 😬 😬

 

A10ROX:OK, its an R500 without the magnesium bits sump etc and only 205bhp!

[IanJ]

Thanks for all the views. I think I'm going to give the soft front / medium rear A048Rs a try as per ChocolateTelevision's setup.

ACB10s are tempting, but I don't want the hassle of camber changes when switching between road/track tyres and I don't want to compromise wet weather performance *that* much!

 

Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006

Penn Sevens Here

[IanJ]

Well in case anyone is interested:

After attending trackdays at Brands GP and Rockingham I am hugely impressed with 185X60X13 A048Rs all round on my 1.6K Superlight using Soft fronts and Medium rears .

The car felt fantastic and the additional frontend grip inspired confidence to push hard.

Oversteer and Understeer could still be provoked as required and the balance remained good.

I was also extremely impressed with the performance on a (mildly) wet track where the A048Rs seemed more progressive than the A021Rs and reached a useful operating temperature far more easily.

Last of all, I reckon I still have enough tread left for a couple more trackdays before they become too worn for road use!

 

Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006

Penn Sevens Here