Mark, Interesting discussion - I would have thought that you'd get more argument for the 13" wheels from the US ppl but it seems fairly equally divided over there as well as here. Do you run only at one circuit? Eastern Creek?
A few comments. I consider bigger brakes would give the average Sports Sedan more of an advantage than the control tyre choices that you have to work with but you have an unusual brake setup i.e. you have a fairly large ventilated disc with 4 spots that fits under 13" wheels and don't fry the pads or boil the fluid, the latter was the most prevalent problem we had overcome with the smaller brakes we had to run with 13" wheels. You will probably find that most of your competitors have similar brakes that we ran that didn't have a chance of fitting under the average 13" rim so they run 14" wheels simply to accommodate their brakes. Having said that - If you are out braking them does that mean they are slower than you overall - if not then what do they have that you don't have eg better grip for longer, more HP, superior suspension setup, lighter, better gearing options etc Consistently quick lap times reflects the total car setup as the ability of most of the drivers with similar experience is usually fairly equal. I wouldn't even reconsider using 13" wheels on a 1600 Sports Sedan unless I had to conform to a regulation as I found with mine they didn't work anywhere near as well with the FJ (turbo), particularly on the tighter circuits like Wakefield Park as the torque of the FJ just used to light up and burn the rear tyres in no time flat. I did try 15" wheels for a while but we just couldn't get the setup right with them to give good speed off the corners compared to 14" and we went backwards with them. Anyway, some interesting points of view out there, good reading. regards Terry -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Mark Alford Sent: Thursday, 4 April 2002 5:17 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: What size wheels are best? Andrew, Needless to say, he runs 14" wheels and we are usually pretty close when it comes down to lap times etc. Also, I think nearly everyone else runs 14" wheels, but that doesn't mean they are all right! He has a number of points - some of them I find difficult to swallow, others have some credence. 1) Run 14" wheels and let the torque (I run an FJ - which is very torquey) pull the car out of the corner with the 14" wheels. - my argument is that I could change diff ratios if that is what I wanted to achieve. 2) 14" rim will have a larger outer diameter, therefore more rubber - which in turn means the tyres will not get as hot because you are using more rubber to do the same task. (I think he's clutching at straws here!) 3) 195/60 will have a smaller side wall than a 205/60 - which is true. But.....the 205 is only a 13" when the 195 is a 14" therefore won't they pretty much cancel each other out or at least the contact patch of the 205 must be worth something here? 4) The whole bigger brakes argument - my opinion there is that I am already out braking other people so why would I need bigger brakes? I am running four spots with a 260mm vented disk up front, with disks in the rear also - stops pretty good! He had some others also, but they were a bit left of field and/or he didn't have a good explanation as to why. I'm all for taking advise, hence I posted this message, but I don't like to change things simply on someone's word - I like to know why, and so far, no one has managed to show me why 14" wheels will give me a better package than what I already have, or will bring my lap times down any further. Cheers, Mark. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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