After several years of running our R-compound rubber on the stock 15x6 wheels-even thought the car only ran a few events in stock class shortly after purchase-we finally dropped the necessary coin to do a bit of tire and wheel switcharoo and get the sticky rubber on some wider wheels. Our 225/45R15 Yokohama A032RS’s served us well up front, but they were pretty well cooked, which was our impetus for the change.
We’ve got a set of 15x6.5 Rota Slipstreams with Falken Azenis that we’ve been using for HPDEs (and more recently as street tires as the tires on our Volks are as bald as billiard balls), but with a pair of new 225/45 R15 Kumho V700s for the front, we decided to go ahead and unmount the Azenis from the Rotas and put the Kumhos on two of them, and swap the 205/50R15 Yokohama A032RS’s from the stock rims to the Rotas as well for use on the rear. Naturally, running fresh tires all around would be best, but sometimes the budget means you end up running Kumhohamas for a few races.
Thanks to the good folks at Granada Goodyear here in Ormond Beach for taking care of us in double-quick fashion; we made the decision to swap just hours before we had to leave for an event, and they had everything swapped with time to spare. We’re more comfortable with the 225s on a wider 6.5-inch wheel, and the Rotas are lighter than stock, an added bonus. Plus, the dark finish on a black car looks pretty wicked, particularly with the bulging tires up front.
We made it to four East Coast CFR SCCA Solo II events this season with the Type R (three official and one fun day), and managed to win Street Modified each time. In fact, our three wins out of 18 events was enough to land us in second place for the year in the East Coast standings, thanks in part to equally sporadic attendance by most participants in SM. Next year, we’ll try to get out to a few more races.
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