andrewhake

Nice! I look forward to driving your Lotus. Right? RIGHT?!

Ricky_Flowers_

By the time he moves up there he'll have bought and sold that car three times over, and not tracked a single one of them.

Sebring AP1

By the time he moves up there he'll have bought and sold that car three times over, and not tracked a single one of them.
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Yes - this. lol

andrewhake

For anyone interested. The WedsSport TC105n 17x9+49 with new AD08R in 255/40/17 weighs 42.5lbs. I measured the Weds at 15.7lbs so the tire weighs in at 26.8lbs. These were measured with the tires mounted and at the same pressure.

The CE28N 17x9.5+47 with new Bridgestone RE71-R in 255/40/17 weighs 41.2lbs. I measured the CE28N at 15.9lbs so the tire weighs in at 25.3lbs so 1.5lbs lighter per tire than the AD08R. Tirerack lists the RE17-R in this size at 24lbs, and the AD08R at 27lbs. The RE17-R are a good deal lighter, but tirerack's measurements cannot be trusted...

I was also comparing the RS3, RE71-R, AD08R, and ZII at the tire shop today unmounted. The RE71-R definitely has the most rounded shoulder of them all, AD08R and RS3 pretty similar, and the ZII the most squared off of them all. The ZII has the most noticeably stiff sidewall, just as stiff as most R-compound tires, with the RE71-R slightly less stiff, then the AD08R very slightly less than the RE71-R, and the significantly less stiff sidewall of the RS3.

To me the clear winner is the RE71-R. It seems to have the great feel and response of the AD08R, with even more general grip at a much lower cost. I have never driven with the RS3 or ZII on my car, I have driven other cars with them, although not for extended periods of time. If there grip over lifespan is anything at all close to the RE11/RE11A this is going to be one hell of a tire.

andrewhake

Yes sir. It makes perfect sense but I never would have thought how much of an effect this would have on the change in direction of the car. This is such a huge factor in making the car fun to drive. The stock S2000 already has pretty excellent change of direction, but doing a better job of fixing the mass of the engine and drivetrain better to the rest of the car goes such a long way. Not only is the engine and throttle response noticeably better, EVERYTHING responds noticeably better. When braking hard the transition from accel to decel is definitely more linear, as is the transition from hard braking to hard acceleration. When shifting the car side to side quickly there is no longer that tiniest little settling of the engine that can sort of numb the feel of that transition. Particularly hitting a bump or curb or something at high speed the suspension can just deal with it as one solid mass rather than multiple.

The improved feel in shifting is amazing and everything, particularly with the engine at the top of it's range, but I didn't expect it to have such a positive effect on the entire car. Downshifting is fantastic now as well, I just downshift unnecessarily because the feel of the gear engaging and the immediate response of the pressure of the pedal against my foot after is lovely. The feel of the clutch engaging/disengaging is just much more clear now.

I will do a more detailed review after my day at the track at Sonoma, but man. For anyone that spends a decent amount of time at the track with their car, I would recommend doing full engine/tranny/diff mounts before doing anything with the suspension, especially if the car has a good amount of mileage. I am sure the difference is very obvious even with a car with fresh OEM mounts though. Any suspension setup you have can do a better job with a mount setup like this. Will there be more vibration at idle? Yes. Particularly your first few times driving the car, but once everything settles in all of that is very minor, and I am sure it continues to improve over time.

Soviet

Do you know what the stiffness rating is for those mounts?

andrewhake

Here is what Spoon says about them:

"The hardness of the mount was changed from 55 to 70 and the spring constant, from 6 to 14 kgf/mm. As a result of these changes, it is possible to realize a sharp steering characteristic and it is also possible to eliminate unpleasant vibration in the idling-speed range."

Spoon Sports Europe
"With the Spoon engine and transmission mounts the rubber hardness is increased from 55-75 (Shore D) and the effective spring rate of the bush is increased from 6kgf/mm to 14kgf/mm"

grubinski

I think the key here is *directness* of response. These mounts just make the response of the car that much more transparent ... which is the whole point of a car like this.

Junkno

love your build Andre as well as your youtube videos I have my own Rasta boy G-meter as well hanging from the rear view mirror haha

I look forward to trying the RE-71R but they dont get them here so i have to ship them from US just like how i did with my advan neova ad08R .. not cheap XD lol

//steve\\

Yeah. Nice build Andre