Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

So, I had the second day of the Autocross school and throughly roached the front tires of the TL. I rotated the tires on Tuesday and the fronts have almost no tread left on them. So, we got about 4 times the amount of runs that we would get during a normal weekend, and we were required to have instructors in the car for each run except for the final run of the day, or our graduation run. I was really frustrated throughout the day because I was learning stuff and I still wasn't going any faster around the course. My best time was only 1.5 seconds faster than my first run. So, this either means that my first run was dynamite, or i just stunk the place up. According to the instructor that rode along with me on my first run, it was pretty dynamite. The best time of the day was a 29.8 and that was in a Mitsubishi Evo 9 running slicks, my 31.4 didn't sound too bad after I heard that.

I had a couple of the instructors take the TL out for a spin with me riding shotgun during lunch break so that I could see what a fast lap in the TL really felt like, adn I learned that I was not braking hard enough, cornering too hard, trying to carry too much corner speed, and turning in too early for most corners. After lunch I tried to incorporate what I learned and had a really hard time with it.

So, after I rotated the tires, I decided to find out all the specs of my tires. It turns out that the treadwear rating of my tires is 500. To put this into perspective, the R-comp slicks have a rating of 40. So I am essentially riding around on bricks. Note to self, never get all-season tires with a mileage warranty! I wonder if I could take my tires back to the NTB and get them to honor the warranty, hmmmm, I wonder.... Nah, anyone with half a brain would look at those tires and know it is not normal wear and tear that caused that kind of damage. What kind of damage you say? Well, the middle tread of the tires is pretty much worn away. There is a high spot, but there is no edge to the tread. Then, on the edge of the tire you can see where it is starting to delaminate. Yup, I have absolutely destroyed them, totally roached. My friend took pictures while we were rotating them, but I am still waiting for him to send me the photos so that I can post them.

I picked up a set of brand new Michelin Pilots that come on the TL from the factory for a whopping $10 per tire, so I have a backup in case the Yoko's finally give up the ghost. I am planing on leaving them on until I finish the next race on the 29th and then swapping out the Michelins. I would like to get a new set of wheels that I can put summer tires on and race on those, but I have not been able to find anything on CraigsList that either I like, or weighs less than the factory wheels. I found some bitchin 19's, but they weighed something like 40 pounds each and the tires were 25 or 30 or something like that. Autocross performance would really suck if I added 30 pounds per corner! I may just have to buy some wheels/tires from the Tire Rack so that I get what I want and also get a decent weight for the wheel/tire combo. I still have that set of tires that E committed to purchasing for me when she was going for her new job, so that covers half of it, but with a joint account, it all comes from the same place anyway...

Well, my rents are coming up the last weekend of the month, so I'll see them soon, but for the rest of you, you'll have to wait until Travis' shower. Megan and Dan, see you for the 4th, I look forward to seeing Hancock, it looks hilarious!