Type R and VTEC owners

rjkoneill said:
jaunting off to Peterborough this weekend. potential PX for this on the cards. but waiting to hear from them on a price to change.

I have a guy coming from leeds who is mega keen on saturday morning. If he decides he doesn't like it then i have a back up plan at least.
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That looks really nice. I've always been keen on the S2000 but having a young daughter means it's not very convenient at the moment :(
 
Clarkey said:
Easy challenge then because I definitely do. Grip might not be quite there in the wet but it's a closely matched thing. Potenza have actual rigidity in them though so you can feel what's going on and you don't have a strange latency in the controls and body movement. Even if it had much lower grip, I'd feel more confident on them. Ofc I've been over this a hundred times but I enjoy hating on the Eagles so here we go again.
Top 3 yada yada, there's a lot more to a tyre than braking distances.
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Thing is, it depends on the car, but you are broad brushing the tyre based on your one experience which goes against most other's reviews. You're car obviously is a bit soggy so cant deal with a bit of extra tyre squirm. Sure its not as sharp on a dry track but thats not where most cars spend their time. Mine spends most its time on B roads which are bumpy, wet and covered in crap, he the goodyear slight compliance is nice and helps grip (the rest of the car is firm with poly bushs and konis on stiffest), the compound is more suited to conditions, and the breakaway point is more progressive compared to both RE050A and S001. I dont imagine the RE002 moves away from this trend. Infact too stiff tyres make the car feel skittish.

Who mentioned braking distances? One tyre can full throttle in wet with no VTEC spin the other can't.

How were the RE002s on your drive this morning? Bit of frost and wet roads?
 
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rjkoneill said:
jaunting off to Peterborough this weekend. potential PX for this on the cards. but waiting to hear from them on a price to change.

I have a guy coming from leeds who is mega keen on saturday morning. If he decides he doesn't like it then i have a back up plan at least.
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That looks a good one! Best colour combo if you plan on keeping it looking stock.

Token pic:
 
Simon said:
Thing is, it depends on the car, but you are broad brushing the tyre based on your one experience which goes against most other's reviews. You're car obviously is a bit soggy so cant deal with a bit of extra tyre squirm. Sure its not as sharp on a dry track but thats not where most cars spend their time. Mine spends most its time on B roads which are bumpy, wet and covered in crap, he the goodyear slight compliance is nice and helps grip (the rest of the car is firm with poly bushs and konis on stiffest), the compound is more suited to conditions, and the breakaway point is more progressive compared to both RE050A and S001. I dont imagine the RE002 moves away from this trend. Infact too stiff tyres make the car feel skittish.

Who mentioned braking distances? One tyre can full throttle in wet with no VTEC spin the other can't.

How were the RE002s on your drive this morning? Bit of frost and wet roads?
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My experience is the opposite to what you are saying. The F1s wobble around a lot and always leave me wondering exactly WTF is going on, no feel around the limits and they suddenly let go. This is why I say I don't feel confidence when driving with them, it's a disconnected experience and at first I honestly thought the car was broken. Having good grip is good and well, but if you can't get a good feel for it then it's good for nothing IMO.
The car is not soggy, it's running monotube dampers with 7k/6.5k springs, M3 spec solid bushes and ball joints everywhere. I don't run anything like full stiff on the dampers though, that removes all bump compliance really. 2/3 in the front and 1/4 in the rear.

Also, my F1s will not take all of 1st gear even in the dry when it's cold, lights them up when it comes on cam. Never had that problem with AD08 or ZZ3.

In terms of grip in poor conditions, I would say there is no discernible difference between RE002 and F1AS2. They are not like other Potenzas I have driven on in this respect. RE050 are weak, and RE070 pretty sketchy. These are more akin to the Turanza I used to have on my Colt, great driving feel and wet grip.


Try some, and stop running the dampers in rock solid mode, let the suspension do it's job instead of trying to mask the uber damping with soggy tyres.
 
I have tried Bridgestones and these are the RE050A not RE050, they are firmer but too skittish and not as good in wet. I drive my car everyday so want a good all rounder.

All the RE070 comments on S2000 forum state they aren't great in the wet/cold, tyres are discussed a lot over there. I was in your place about thinking i needed ultimate feel to get a car to drive how I want, however Im happy to lose a tiny bit of stiffness and gain much more elsewhere. Tyres grip better when they conform rather than bounce anyway and my commute isnt silverstone otherwise I'd be going back to Bridgestones.

What is odd is how loads of s2000 owners say the AD08s are soggy but you think they are stiff, i guess profile and tyre sizing comes into this though. Plus the amount of camber affects things


Some comments (prob relevant for anyone else reading too):
'I had that combination for 6 months or so. Ad08s are great for traction,possibly too good, and much better in the wet, so it's not a bad combination. But the sogginess does spill things a bit, but not nearly as much as they would on the front.

I now have S001s on the rear and it's better balanced, but I do have to be careful with my right foot so far, but then it's January. Haven't had any decent dry road yet.'
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'I now have S001s on the rear (and RE002s on the front), which seem pretty good as far as it's possible to tell in cold, wet December. Much stiffer than AD08s as you'd expect, so much more immediate steering feel though not as good on traction as AD08s (if anything AD08s are too grippy on traction). That means the ride is worse, though they are significantly quieter. It's just a shame Bridgestone don't make either in both sizes - but I think as far as mixing and matching goes, they're pretty similar'
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'I switched to a set of 4 Goodyear Eagle Asymmetric 2s before doing my Wales road trip. Covered 1000 miles on them now, on various road surfaces and conditions. They are great all round and will be buying them again! In the dry they feel noticeably grippier than the Potenzas I had on before and more progressive when starting to push the back end. Its more grip and go whereas on the same corners I'd find the bridgestones flexing and you'd start to feel the car move under you earlier.

In the wet the goodyears feel very planted, the Bridgestones weren't bad in this area but they did feel a bit loose at time. The Goodyears feel like theres a lot less difference between dry and wet handling and on the way home from wales, we took the scenic route through various twisties, I was pretty tired and it was raining but the goodyears never once tried to catch me out.

The goodyears are also a little quieter when rolling. Would recommend.'
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I got mine from Black Cirlces which only had the C rated so now it's wearing some 245/40/R17 95Y on the back to match the front.

Just done my first 200 miles in them so nicely bedded in.

Firstly dry grip and feel. Like the effect of the front not quite as pin sharp as RE50's. Overall cornering speed is probably the same it's a feel issue.

Wet grip. Wow!

It feels absolutely planted and I've not spun them yet. The Bridgestones would always feel hard, plasticky and skittish in the wet, and that led to cautious driving, which worsened the problem as they would get no heat in them. Often after a wet drive they would be cold to touch. There may have been the grip there from them used properly, but on the public road I'm not brave enough to have faith.

On the Goodyears their slightly softer feel is so much more reassuring in the wet and damp, which means you get some heat into them and they are even better. Now rather than having FWD rep mobiles hustle me on roundabouts and country lanes I can finally use the grip I have under me and at the end of a journey they are warm to touch where the Bridgestones were cold.

Finally Fuel economy. I used to get 230-260 miles a tank. Now I've just serviced with new spark plugs and air filter as well so not completely scientific but 200 miles and I have ~1/3 of a tank left.

Like I said small loss of dry feel so if your car is a dry day weekend warrior the Bridgestones would be preferable. But for everything else The Eagle F1's destroy them
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Clarkey said:
Try some, and stop running the dampers in rock solid mode, let the suspension do it's job instead of trying to mask the uber damping with soggy tyres.
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Best go tell F1 engineers they are masking 'soggy' tyres using stiff suspension.
I have set my car up for the tyre to give the final compliance, you can probably do the same with ultra stiff tyres and softer bushes/dampers, but then you will have unwanted geometry change, and a loss in ultimate grip.
A bit of tyre twist helps the rear wheels react to the front input too.


Anyway its very much subjective and dependant on many things, i just picked up on your point about you saying they are crap. They aren't
 
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Not really, damper adjustment on mine and every other adjustable kit I've seen is anything but subtle. Full stiff basically stops the spring from working.
 
Audi S-Line mode? Of course spring rate governs suspension travel!


Im pretty sure they dont stop the piston moving, new topmount and bodymount time. :p
 
Like this? ;)
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I don't know, probably should have used the spreader plates like I was recommended. Apparently it's common for them to tear when using dampers with strong rebound damping. I know it made an unbelievable noise when it ripped itself apart though :p
 
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