i was watching a touring race the other day and noticed the type Rs were sporting 17s instead of 15s !!?
pretty cool huh,
did they do that to help with the handling and cornering? anyone know what kind of rims they have?
they look really cool, and i liked the idea of seeing the type Rs beat the BMWs haha
also how do u guys like that new protege..he crashed on the last lap
i liked it
later

 

If they are gunmetal color i think those rims are made by SSR. SSR competition is the name. You can get them at the tire rack.

 

That last race they were running the SSR with the dry tires and the TE37s with the rain tires

 

In certain competitions, they are allow to use R compound tires, so they use 15" TE37 rims and 225/50/15 RA1 or something becuase there are
not that many choices of racing tires for 16" and 17"

However, if R compound tires are not allowed, using 17x7.5 rims will
definitely help in handling, since these rims are light, so acceleration
will not have a huge impact, but they will get awesome handling feedback
by using bigger rims and lower profile tires.

Hope this help.

 

What races are they allowe dto run R compound tires?

 

I thought I read somewhere they have their choice of 15" or 17" wheels on street tires only.

 

i thought because toyo was the official sponsor this year, they were forced to use a toyo street tire thus the use of the 17" rim. maybe i read that wrong or something or remembering something else, but that's my understanding of it this year

 

Sam ~ that sounds right.

 

Sams on the money with his thought, they have to use the Toyo tires as do all competitors. And they cant switch between tire sizes during the race unless they switch out there trannies also, because for the 17" they get a 4.55:1 FD but can only use the stock FD with the 15 or 16"

 

the only diff between dry & wet is:
dry = shaved Toyo T1-S tyres
wet = full tread Toyo T1-S tyres

yoshi - who watches the SVWC races at aoigsr's new place

 

it's only for this year because Toyo is the tire sponser and they are all using T1-S. Since the tire size for 17" for ITR is available, so they choose 17" over 15" because 17" will out handle 15".

 

citanest,

so which events will they be running the RA-1s?

 

SVWC never runs the Toyo RA-1. Previously they ran BFG G-Force R1, and in that case the 15" setup was definitely faster than 16". Lighter, smaller outside diameter, and the tire construction had a very stiff sidewall that resisted flexing.

Now that they are using the street Toyos exclusively, they use the 17" wheels because the street tires have such a weak sidewall compared to the BFGs. To compensate for the larger outside diameter, the competitor bulletin specifies that ITRs running 17" wheels are allowed to use the JDM final drive ratio. You can still run 15" if you want, but you must run the stock final drive.

 

I was under the impression that Realtime WAS running the 16inch set up previously on their Gforce. They have been running on the NSX Fronts for quite some time now, granted until they moved to their current setup on 17s.

 

does anyone know about the quality of the SSR? I've heard that it's too "soft" for daily driving (ex: bump) , is that true?

 

Yes, they did that for about 2 years (97, 98?), and Michael Galati came in on his own and won the '99 championship running on 15s. When he won the first four races, they did some testing and switched down to 15" partway through the year.



[Modified by Gansan, 3:03 PM 6/22/2001]

 

SSR

I had my SSR typeX since 1995 and they never had a bend until this year... (but, any wheels would've bent on a foot deep ditch ). Highly recommended!

 

I've had my SSR Type X's since 1997, only a minor dent on the inside of the rim because of camber + railroad tracks. I have SSR Competitions now, the semi solid forging is exceptionally strong. This is my fourth set of SSR's, man I love their styling

 

how much are these beauties