Hey.

I feel that my lowered on tokico hp / tein combo RX8 doesn't have much grip in the corners. I'm not sure if the problem is with the tires (performance all seasons) or something else. Compared to my Mazdaspeed Protege, the RX8 has beautiful balance but nowhere near the grip my MSP had. I have a mild alignment of about -1.2 deg. camber all around and 0 toe on the RX8. The 8 feels like it'll easily slide if i drive it at its limit. Is this an issue with the tires or something else?

Thanks!

 

more than likely it's the tires.
what tires do you have?

 

All season tires is your problem

 

All season tires in a state with ONE season.

Ditch the shitty tires and put some Max Performance Summer tires on.


Do you have coil over shocks? If so have you adjusted them on corner scales yet?

Did you do a front sway bar?

What Spring rates are you running?

Have you changed spring rates in an effort to find the right setup or are you more concerned with slamming it to the ground?

It took me 3 tries to get the right spring rates on my RX7 and multiple trips to the corner scales to balance it right. As well as multiple trips to the alignment rack.

I run Falken Azenis RT-615K tires on my 7. On the 8 I plan on running Bridgestone Pole positions when the crappy tires I have on now wear out. I also have a set of track rims for the 8 that will be getting Dunlap Star Specs on them soon.

 

+1

if you want an example of how important tires are, we went from Toyo R888's to Hoosier R6's and it dropped almost 3 seconds from our laptimes.

there is nothing else on the car that changed laptimes that much. we even put a different engine in, that is 60hp more and that might be about 2 seconds.

tires are the only thing between the car and the road

 

Boggles the mind.

 

Makes sense, fellas. I had purchased the 8 back up north with these tires. I believe they're a sub brand of Goodyear. I should mention that I don't plan on racing the 8. My MSP also had all seasons, one of the Falken's, to make this a fair comparison. I was thinking that this could be due to the alignment or possibly the lowering on my part with the mentioned setup. I'll be picking up a set of Enkei's soon, either the GTC-01s or maybe the WDMs and plan on using summer tires then.

 

Un-boggle your mind and don't be so quick to jump to conclusions

 

I've used a couple of all-season type tires on my car. The Pirelli's were quite trackable. The Continentals, while they handled quite well, were biased more to the wet/snow weather.
That said, it still could be the model of GY tires your using.

 

I picked up some Work emotion cr kai's and bought Firehawk indy 500 wide ovals which I was not impressed with at all. Everybody I have talked to has said go with Pirelli pzero's. They come from factory on the 911 gt3 and on the Italia, and are apparently very impressive. Just something to look at when the time does come! GL grippin =)

 

There was no conclusion. Only confusion.

 

What he said: model of tire makes a bigger difference than make of tire. Compare Kumho Ecsta XS to Goodyear RS-A. People that only pay attention to brands will think that the Goodyear will be the better performance tire. And they will be so, so, soooooo wrong.

 

Falken rt-615k stick im running bridgeatone ponteza re90 there pretty good too. But im running 265/35/18

 

i think the FWD vs RWD platform has something to do with it as well.

I think unconsciously you pushed the fwd car more because there was no chance of sliding, if it started to plow, you eased off the gas and that was it, full potential.

I think you have a sport, so no dsc/tcs and the tires start chirping and nervousness sets in? Ultimately the tires are extremely important and will get you faster times.

I could be wrong, but thats how it is with me. I havnt had enough experience with controlling a slide so i dont push it as hard as fwd cars ive driven.

I hear a lot of things about the RT615K not being able to control heat, and losing grip fast. check out the RS-3's maybe? Direzza Z1 Star Specs? RE-11's? Federal 595 RSR's(not regular 595's, those suck)

depending on what kind of driving you do... (generally...) RS-3's are good for track driving, star specs for autocross, Federals for mountain runs

 

Dsc/tc is so not needed. Driver mod is whats important.

 

Whether a Sport model has DSC/TSC, depends on the model year. Mazda made a change in the model designation around 2006. My 2004 Sport has those features. There was a base model, at that time, that did not.
I have no problems with that statement.

 

2009 sports did not have dsc.
2009 touring/gt/r3 had dsc

i know, i owned a 2009 touring

sports came with cloth seats,no sunroof, no dsc toggle, halogen lights, and no foglights.
touring had cloth seats,fogs,dsc,no sunroofm,hid
gt came with leather seats,fogs,dsc,sunroof,hid
r3 came with recaros,fogs,dsc,no sunroof,hid

in 2010 they removed the touring designation(imho the best of both worlds between performance(no sunroof and cloth seats) with practicality(hid and dsc switch)

at the end of the day, driver mod is the most important, but im saying that unconciously the dsc not being there has an impact on someone with a low driver mod. for example myself. I have not yet learned how to control the car sideways with it turned off.

 

^^^ That's when SCCA comes in, and you can learn full car control, then time attack course

I practice full car control from doing scca and drifting, Also learning from two U.S pros Tony Angelo and Ryan Tuerk. both great guys and down to earth.

 

Yes, my sport has no kind of driver aids, which is the way I like it. I've gotten the rear end to slide out a few times in slower, tighter turns. The 8 just feels like it's gliding along instead of gripping, especially on steady, faster corners. I guess the verdict would be in once I get the new wheels/tires, but it makes sense that the tires are probably the big factor here.

 

make sure to get a proper alignment, one that is more aggressive than stock settings to further increase handling.

ive learned a lot by posting in there today.

 

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look into those. BTW, FWD could be very tricky to handle as well, especially one with a stiffer setup like the Mazdaspeed Protege, and mine in particular. Any sudden transfer of weight from back to front would cause the rear end to slide out. Thankfully I've had plenty of practice with that over the 8 years of ownership of the MSP, some in the form of the beautiful / tricky Los Angeles mountain roads.

 

I already run about -1.2 deg of camber all around and 0 toe with +6 deg of caster.

 

i can't say if your tires are good or not, but i can chime in on the fwd to rwd feeling as I recently came from a Mazdaspeed 3 to an R3.

On my favourite twisty road my MS3 felt like a train on wheels, the first time I made a pass in my rx8 it felt like there was less grip except when I noticed the speed and saw 10-15kmph more through the middle of the corners. the rx8 rotates vs. pushing and that feels different at first if you've always had a fwd car

 

Excellent feedback. This also makes a lot of sense.

 

May I recommend the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08.

and to pimp out my review

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...wpost&t=240548