Something tells me the original "LeMons" concept has significantly lost its way...

Racers got to it..... See what happens when you can remove the :wb: !!!!

Something tells me the original "LeMons" concept has significantly lost its way...

The rules say wheels and brakes are safety items so they're "free". We already have AD22 brakes, so time for wheels. This is a Sentra, after all.

The 15x8 25ET WideOpens requires significant fender work up front and lip roll in the rear AND stiffer springs. 205/50-15 made lots of contact at our recent race. We removed front fender bolts and drilled new holes while pulling on them in addition to some serious hammer work. Ugly gap along the hood.

If these came in 30ET they might work in the front with no work. Not sure about the rear, might contact the strut. Plenty of room for BABK, though.

For a straight-up race care, these mods are irrelevent in re aesthetics. The Star Specs felt great on these wheels.

The 15x8 25ET WideOpens requires significant fender work up front and lip roll in the rear AND stiffer springs. 205/50-15 made lots of contact at our recent race. We removed front fender bolts and drilled new holes while pulling on them in addition to some serious hammer work. Ugly gap along the hood.

If these came in 30ET they might work in the front with no work. Not sure about the rear, might contact the strut. Plenty of room for BABK, though.

For a straight-up race care, these mods are irrelevent in re aesthetics. The Star Specs felt great on these wheels.

The main issue I have with that approach isn't aesthetics, I just really wonder when using a Star Spec street tire if it gets and stays warm enough to overcome the add rolling resistance of a bigger, treaded contact patch. The tire is slightly stretched at that width which would be nice for time attack stuff, but just can't see the need for wider with 140-150 whp.

My approach has been to use enough tire to keep me on the black stuff, not get too far afield worrying about 1cm or 2cm more contact. This is esp true in the 2-timed lap Time Trials, I need those tires warm NOW. Most events I will get 1/2 to 1 lap at most to warm them up then expect them to perform at 10/10ths. With a street tire, no wonder I was running 0.5, 1.0 s faster hot laps when the tires were run for 20 minutes. And most well run events find a way to discourage you from getting your tires hot before you hit the start line.

....Time trials and racing: Wider tires are faster if you're fast enough to keep them hot enough. Otherwise you are not going to get a measurable return for the added expense and may actually lose tenths or more....
Phil

^+1

Phil's comments echo my own, 15x7 with the right 205/50/15 tire will give a Sentra w/o FI or other large power mods plenty of traction. Worse, going too wide means I may not get the temps up to make them work as well as the 15x7's. I see ~180 def F as an average front tire temp for example after an extended practice session. I bet it doesn't get to even 170 deg F before I ask it for maximum traction. At least at my current power levels, I feel like that is the sweet spot for the B13 run at the track. Enough traction, lower rolling resistance, and plentiful choices for tires make it pretty compelling. It's easy to butt-dyno bullsh*t your way into assuming the car has more traction due to a larger footprint, just don't ignore the role of temps, weight, and rolling resistance.

There's a great example here of over-driving the tire into the first turn after the green. I'd been hitting that turn more aggressively all day and the 2 days before. The difference other than some abrupt steering on my part was the tires had 2 laps or less to warm up. You can see where they break traction. These were Kumho XS' which normally have excellent dry traction for our cars.

Half a lap warm up watch the first turn at ~1:10. Wider tire would have been even cooler. My pads had 3 hard days running at Pocono so excuse the near metal on metal sounds ;) Stupid mistakes and all, still beat the Miatas and took second in class with 12-15 cars. Loving the sounds at the start, too. Man, I love driving my car!!! :biggthump

YouTube - EMRA Pocono North Time Trial Sunday August 30 2009

For any regular road racing event, where instant heat isn't needed, the wider rims offer better feel at the limit. That was the sole reason we put those rims on the car. We already have two sets of 15x7 rims. Car was very controllable as we were backing into corners.

There's a great example here of over-driving the tire into the first turn after the green.

Half a lap warm up watch the first turn at ~1:10. Wider tire would have been even cooler.


I look at it from the other side. I run 225's, and I just make sure I spend my first half a lap warming the tires. If I don't the car tries to kill me! In watching your vid, I didn't see any effort to generate any heat from the start line to the worker with the green. Was it specifically banned?