V710 Mid-Season Review on my performance

If my memory was as good as 10 years ago, I would be able to tell you how many autocrosses I have ran on these V710, but unfortunately my memory is shot. I would say that these tires probably had a good 6 events on them (I'm counting all of the trophies I have sitting in front of my right now)

No they have not corded, and the surprising thing is I don't have severe camber wear across the thread either. The rubber is a bit beat-up and the wear indicators are starting to disappear though, but it's still got plenty to go until the end of the season!

I've been warned that the V710's are good for the first half of the season, and as the top layer of the material is being worn away, the gripping capability dramatically decreases and it gets greasy easily. In my opinion, cornering on these tires still feels like the car rides on rails, but the turn-in is not as crisp.

I want to share some of the lessons I've learned on my first season racing on R-Compounds!

First, I've been told that the best way to drive the Evo is to pretend that I'm driving a FWD car. In a way it does make sense because the car tends to understeer under hard turn-ins and if the line isn't setup right it will plow the entire turn even with the ACD set at Tarmac! Naturally, the only thing I can play with on the car is tire pressure (the rest of the car is stock) so to dial out understeering I would start the Front at 34psi and Rear at 36psi. At the end of the day I usually end with Front at 33psi and Rear at 37psi. As the season progressed, I realized that this is all wrong.

Although the added oversteering capability helped the turn-in and allowed me to exercise better throttle oversteering on the "out," the ill effects are I had a horrible time keeping the tail in check going through slaloms, on long sweeps I would get unexpected oversteer on the lightest tapping on the brakes (shifting weights to the front), and on trail-braking the car gets skirmish. Worst of all, the tires promoted a driving style that wasted a lot of valuable rubber due to sliding. Many of you know, sliding may look cool but it certainly doesn't give you the fastest time around the track. Plus, R-Compounds are MAD$$$ If they get corded I don't think I have the funds to buy another set this season.

So! There's a lesson learned here. For the past couple of events I started the tire pressure 35psi across the board and kept the pressures around that point. Many experienced racers will agree that the sweet spot for the V710's is at 35psi! One tip you should also remember is on hot days the front tires (due to its double duty of driving and steering) heats up more than the rear. I would lower the front to 33psi and the rear to 34psi. At the end of the run, I will get a pretty even 36F-36R psi distribution.

By doing so, the car became very neutral in handling and had none of the tail snapping action. You would ask, "how about the understeering problem it has?" Yes it still has that problem, and I have learned a few tricks to eliminate it as much as possible. Try these:
1) Do all the braking in straight line, and don't enter the turn too aggressively
2) Late Apex and get on the gas early (you can basically get on the gas as soon as you see the next gate)
3) Experienced drivers would use left foot braking. I have so far no success at it yet...

So, expect more insight to come! Let's hope these tires are good until the end of the season!

Learning the ways of the V710s

Have you ever thought that you think you are so right about something, and when you discover that you're wrong it feels like you're an idiot?

Driving on slicks (r-compounds) for the first time was a wake up call. Not only did I realize I was totally wrong about how they handled, I also needed to learn completely new ways to drive my car to accommodate these new shoes.

NOTE:

• R-compound does not provide unlimited grip.
• The car will not always go where ever you want it to go.
  

Overall this is my impression of slicks (V710 to be more specific).

Let's start with what I was wrong about:

• I originally thought that slicks would have a much better turn-in grip than what they actually provided. Going hard into a corner WILL, and I repeat WILL, get the car to misbehave. Worst case scenario, the car will plow into the turn.
• They don't have unlimited traction. In dry pavement they can still be spun up off the line. Be on the look out for pebbles, wet patches, or sand; they will break loose hard!
• Temperature of the course matters. They will under perform when it is cold out (60 deg or below), but will significantly improve above 70 deg weather
• There's almost no sign of the traction giving out when it's pushed over the limit. When it goes, it goes...
  

Ok, here are the things I'm impressed about:

• Upon exiting a turn, throttle is my friend. I can slam on the gas pedal much earlier than if I was on street tires and expect no wheel spin what-so-ever.
• Three wheeling is possible through slaloms! I love seeing pictures of my car doing that
• Recovery from over working the tires is much quicker than expected.
  

Let's just hope that these slicks will last me the entire season before cording out!

Skidpad Attack!

Car: 98 Mitsu Eclipse GS-T (FWD)

With a FWD, the skidpad really isn't your friend. Prone with throttle understeer and lift-off oversteer, it's hard to keep the car at a constant radius around the cones.

In my opinion, there're three parts to a skidpad:
1) Entering
2) Circling
3) Exiting

1) Entering
With street tires, it is important not to overcook the entrance because that will ruin the rest of the skidpad. Enter with a confident speed and start to lock your wheel into a fixed steering angle

2) Circling
The most gains I got out of the skidpad was in this section. I was told to lock my steering angle and use the throttle to steer. I didn't really think that would work but after trying a few times, I finally understand why. In a FWD, too hard on throttle = understeer, but as soon as you lift-off = oversteer. Once the steering angle is locked, it is easy to navigate around in circles just using the throttle to adjust the yaw of the car.

3) Exiting
Look for the gate you have to enter as you're leaving the skidpad. As soon as the last cone of the skidpad is in line with the outside cone of the subsequent gate, I increase the pressure on the throttle and ease through the gate.