And you thought we were getting rid of those Rotas out of charity, we really needed to make room for these: the all-new Falken Azenis RT660, a 200 treadwear tire. We had lots of fun with the RT-615K+ and are just about getting to point of having actually worn out a set from hard use. While the old tread pattern is still being sold, the RT660 seems nice that at least you can pull them off the rims and rotate them from side to side; whereas we would completely eat the shoulder of the tire in their first outing.
So it’s time for another go with the Porsche people in San Pedro. The track was straighter than last time, but did include a series of very fun up and downhill chicanes covering a variety of surface changes making it much more challenging than before. Especially being a bit down on power. The competition was also way more serious than our previous outing, as the level of car and driver was taken up a notch.
After taking notes from some of the faster Roadster owners, I believe that a set of Nitto NT05 (100 TW) and a much more aggressive dose of “hucking it” into the turns might result in lower lap times. So would not blowing the 180 before the uphill section as well as overshooting the last turn leading onto the final straight. However we did learn that the car weighs 2,000 lbs.
A good time was had by all, and while driving home under your own power always counts as a win I feel that we are beyond that at this point; so then the goal moves on to not being the slowest car there; which almost didn’t happen, until the times for that WRX were posted online.
Sometimes moving forward, means letting things go. While there was a somewhat not so top-secret plan to expand the collection to include a drift-specific NB in order to preserve the restoration we call the CLM; like most things that happened in 2020 plans changed. Seeing as how we didn’t want to bother with cutting fenders and constantly rubbing arches from a set of 16-inch wheels and tires stuffed under a first-generation Miata, it was off to a new home where they will get used as they were originally meant to be.
