Rota Grid with Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1

October 28, 2010 in Equipment Review

Two weeks ago the group finished up the season at Watkins Glen with Niagara PCA group and their fall DE. While reporting on my car may seem odd for the One Lap site, all I can say is that it has not YET run on One Lap.  Remaining relatively stock so far, my car finally received an upgrade of new rims and tires.

The tires on the car earlier this year were the donated stock Yokohama tires from Chris Wirth’s car, after he moved up to a larger rim. At the first DE event in May, I had officially cooked those tires.  After holding out for some form of “tire fairy” to save me from buying new tires, a few weeks before the October event, I finally ordered some new ones.  Fearing that buying tires in the stock size now would lock me into that size for another couple years, I did what every car guy would do. I bought new rims, to accomodate my need for larger tires.

Let me start by saying that my dream set or rims would be a nice set of the Volk TE37SL that have about a gram of weight tolerance and weigh somewhere around the 17lbs range.  After reviving myself from the sticker shock of what a set of Volk’s were going to cost me, I opted to go for the knock off version and ordered a set of Rota Grids from WheelDude.com.  I only later found out that Sean and Chris running under the umbrella of their Canadian benefactors, would be testing out a set of the Volk TE37SL at the event.

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For tires, I ordered a set of the 265/35-18 Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec which are the tires that have carried us around One Lap successfully for a the past two years.  While I was already comfortable with the tires, I needed to test them on the track that I already knew and in my own car.

My first mistake with going to a set of new rims and tires is forgetting that the car has tire pressure monitor sensors.  They now light up the dash nicely with the absence of those sensors and I will have to invest in a mid winter tire swap again, just to get the sensors back in place.

Mistake number two was believing all of the forum posts that said the size wouldn’t rub.  With the combination of Rota Grids, which are 18×9.5 and the Dunlops which are 265/35, there are a few rubbing spots on the car.  If you crank the wheel all the way, the tire rubs on the front side fender well plastic. It isn’t drastic, probably won’t ever happen at speed, but it happens.  The second place is the rear fenders, which I believe you can only appreciate after filling the car with a few hundred pounds of gear and then drive.

Friday night in the paddock, while Tim so eloquently installed his front splitter, I used the jack handle to get rid of the lip under the rear fender and all was well.

Impressions so far?

The wheels look damn near awesome.  The finish on them matches the car perfectly and having a wheel open enough to be able to bleed my brakes without jacking up the car is freaking sweet.  The wheels survived a mild round at Watkins Glen, which does not compare to a season of One Lap.  The extra 4 pounds lighter Volk’s are not missed because I haven’t escaped the price tag yet.

The tires are predictable in their traction, but I don’t feel they are as adhesive as the Yokohamas that came with the car.  I am running on a full tread, which gives a noticeable amount extra give on any tire, so I will be interested to see how they fair after a few track sessions when they are appropriately worn.

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