gimp_dad
Member
Sorry guys but I think all what you write regarding the (good) grip of Hankooks is completely wrong. THEY ARE TERRIBLE, I WILL NEVER GET THEM AGAIN. I replaced my contis as I had terrible wear (which today I know was all due to total misaligment with more than -1 toe out) and wanted to try the cheapest alternative. I get wheel spin at 35 mph !! Basically I cannot at any place floor it from zero, it's just tracktion control kicking in up to 35 mph. So a P with the hankooks is basically useless ! I did not have that issue with the contis, I will get them again.
Wear though is MUCH MUCH better on the Hankooks, I would say you get double the mileage. This all makes sense, softer tires= better grip but worse wear.
gimp_dad, do the 285 completey prevent wheel spin ? I love the turbine wheels and do not really want to change them, but on the other side I want to have the full benefits of a P and not wait until 35 mph to floor it ! Is there a photo posted somewhere of your car ? How much are the 285 hankooks ?
Three comments:
1. The 285s change the dynamics with hard cornering. I assume this is more about relative cornering grip between front and rear,
2. I certainly do not think the Hankooks are stickier than true performance tires like PS2s, PSSs, 5Ps, etc.
3. Grip does not = zero wheel spin. It all depends on power. If you have driven a true sports car, you know that usually with fantastic power/weight ratio you can spin almost any street legal tire (as long as traction control is not too intrusive).
The reason sports cars allow some wheel spin is because that increases total performance. Just watch a Ferrari, Ford GT, Corvette Z06, Lotus Exige (even) on the track and you will see drivers creating wheel spin both on the straights as well as on exit of the apex of a turn. It is a good thing. Poor grip is not a good thing.
No way are Hancock V12s going to give you competitive track times vs PSSs or PS2s (as long as it isn't too cold).
For a rear wheel drive car a stagger setup for any given tire is going to give you more ability to apply power at an apex (unless there isn't more power available) than a non-stagger setup. The higher the relative corner grip of rear vs front, the harder it is to dial in over steer (tires beginning to spin under hard acceleration while cornering). Over steer increases ability to corner at the max possible speed but you only want it up to a point. Once you get too sideways it has the opposite effect and can get you into a lot of trouble (you spin around and lose control). Meanwhile, understeer causes you to go straight when you think you are going to turn but keeps your car from spinning out.
It's generally considered safer to have understeer for non-performance oriented drivers as spinning out puts you out of control in a worse way and braking exacerbates the spin out while braking actually helps the understeer issues.
The MS has pretty darn intrusive traction and stability control. If you leave these on, wheel spin should generally not rise to the level of dangerous once you get used to metering the throttle properly for your situation. It's just that a lot of people aren't used to the amount of low end power and torque available on a P85 or P85+. Even the lowest performance tire options that are OEM for the MS are relatively high performance but the powertrain performance is high enough to still make those wheels brake lose in some of the programming modes.
I personally would like to see at least two or three traction/stability control modes to allow more spin than currently allowed and possibly make the default mode even more conservative.
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