Sponsored by The Tire Rack

[135gofast]

Alright, this has been buggin me. At the beginning of spring, i "upgraded" my stock RE050 215 fr and 245 rr RFTs with some massive APEX ARC8 rims and 245 fr & 275 rr Hankook V12s. Vorshlag camber plates required, check, -1.7 degrees of camber plenty to fit in the meaty 245s.

I like the Hankooks on the street, definitely a little softer and quiter and feel as sticky as the rfts on the street. And the look of the car with the faties is awesome! At the autox, however, i could NOT keep the V12s from rolling over on the sidewalls. I never had this problem before at autox (GTI on Conti SportContacts, Dirrezza *specs) or on the 1er's stock 215 RE050s. But after 4-5 autox on the V12s, the little triangles marking the end of the tread and beginning of the sidewall are completely wiped out, i mean the entire triangle is gone. gone. That's with running tire pressures from about 40 to 52 up front, i varied it and varied it, but always, the tire chalk is wiped out after the run. it's pretty frustrating to ruin a tire with 500 miles on it in an afternoon of autoxing.

so here's the question, if i am not wiping out any of the triangle on my stock RE050 215 fronts (1 autox and 2 HPDEs), is the issue:
- the larger front tires 245 vs 215 offering so much extra grip that the suspension produces extra body roll that is causing the sidewalls to come in contact with the road surface

or

- the Hankook V12s suck

I'm leaning toward the latter, since i really didn't feel extra grip from the V12s vs the RFTs

Would an M3 front arb help this situation?

[135gofast]

was really hoping to get some opinions on this, or some scientific pontificiation.

i don't think it's my driving, because it doesn't happen on the stock 215s, only on the larger 245 Hankooks, it's gotta be the tire's larger width or the tire itself.

so would larger 245 fronts have so much extra grip that the extra body would cause the tire sidewalls to come in contact with the road surface?

Would an M3 front arb help this situation?

[ptack]

Not enough info. What size are the rims and is this a problem with just the fronts? I doubt it has anything to do with Hankook as a brand.

[135gofast]

Originally Posted by ptack

Not enough info. What size are the rims and is this a problem with just the fronts? I doubt it has anything to do with Hankook as a brand.

ptack - the rims are APEX ARC8s, 8.5" front, 9.5" rear, direct 1 series fitment with no spacers. Vorshlag camber plates set at -1.7 required to fit the 245s. Otherwise stock suspension.

Only the fronts are problematic. The rears show no wear beyond the end of the tread. At one autox event, i dumped the camber plates to max (about -2.5) for a couple of runs to see if that mattered, it didn't. Running that much camber with the current alignment yields too much toe out, so i prefer to go with -1.7 setting.

I figured it was because of overdriving the car, but switching to the rfts for 1 autox and 2 hpde's there was no issue . So it's gotta be either the larger, grippier 245s, the tires themselves or maybe something about the alignment.

Any opinion welcome. It's either upgrade the suspension or buy new tires and risk ruining them prematurely too (which is the reason for posting about mixing 245 rfts fronts with Hankooks rears).

[ptack]

Well the tire/wheel combo seems right. You might just be running too hard for any relatively inexoensive street tire to deal with. Any significant amount of camber over stock will certainly accelerate things and the Hankooks are a square shouldered tire which could be the root of the problem. Maybe a rounder shouldered tire or just a hopefully higher quality tire like Michelin PS2s will prove their supperiority at this level. I would ask Gill from the Tire Rack if they've heard about similar issues and know which tire might hold up best.