I read the GRM article, what I found interesting, is that the 245 gave up 4 mph and 0.7 seconds to the 225 on a 2.39ish time. Sometimes, especially for stockish power levels, smaller is better.

 

GRM believes in us and what we do to publish a magazine about it, know what to test, spend the time and money to test in the hopes that you will buy a subscription, or at least that issue.

Sort of like me publishing free technical information that gets used by everyone in the hopes that folks will throw some business our way.

 

Great article, as usual by the people at GRM. 225 rivals on 15x9 seems hard to beat if you put longivity out of the equation, even for high power cars...

 

The most interesting thing about the article is the update to the rival. Be nice to know a date code for when the tire was changed. I bought mine in March and they could be leftover stock from 15'

 

So I got to pull the front coilovers and check clearance on my NA, Keep in mind I have drift knuckles, I don't know how these will clear with standard knuckles.

To clear the sway bar and control arm (v8roadstet tubular arm, and fm 1.8l sway ) I need to run a 5/8" spacer.

I will need 30mm flares, and also I need to change the bolts on the sway bar brackets to something lower profile like button head or non flange head.

The bumper/fender tab needs to be trimmed and the brace that goes to the chassis removed.

Also the tire rubs the bumper wheel arch, I'm still undecided about running a splitter and air damn setup, so either the bumper will be trimmed or the air damn installed.

All in all not as bad as I thought. No real pounding of metal needed.

 

which is why i have a 10 year subscription to grm.

 

^same here! I just ordered it! with a t-shirt too!

!!!

 

Bfg and nitto, please make a 245-40-15 tire

 

BFG, I'd love to see a Rival-S. Nitto, meh. The RC-1 does everything better and is cost less. What I'd really like to see is an RE71-R to complement the VR-1. VR-1 on the daily and hooning HPDE car. RE71R for the hard core time trial or autocross builds.

 

You have the current 2015 tire. 2016 is still not in stock in any size. Mine were test tires and I had to mark them so as not to get confused. They did have build dates two weeks apart, but that was irrelevant.

Per one of TR's higher-up's:
Further, in first-hand convo with TR on Saturday during the One Lap skid pad event, the running changes will appear in each affected size as existing stock is sold-out. This is typical for running changes made in the tire market.

You are confused. That aero-drag comparo was between the 245 VR1 on 9 and 10" wide wheels. Since the extra wheel width is entirely outward, the tire sticks out further into the airstream. That's why I love running dataloggers, 'cuz you find stuff like that. Surprised me how big of a deal it was.

 

About 7 years ago William conducted the tire shrouding test and shared the data with me. Even on a relatively low speed track the differences in terminal velocity were really surprising. One of the reasons supermiatas have that big air dam that shrouds the front tires.

 

Wannafbody lives in a state of confusion. I'm not surprised.

Emilio, was that data published anywhere? Curious how just a simple tire spat would do compared to a full air dam.

 

No it's common sense though. Air hits the tire causes drag and lift. We were just surprised at how much speed differential there was by blocking the front tires that's all.

 

Are the 245s sold out already? They are no longer on the Maxxis website.

 

They were pulled last time they were sold out, and re-added when they got a shipment. They've been selling like hotcakes.

 

Temporarily sold out. We have a small shipment arriving this week, which will likely go fast. A larger shipment will arrive towards the end of the month.

 

I checked at the Les Schwab in Snohomish, and they said the VR-1's aren't in their system yet, but they "might" get them. It would be nice, cuz they're the closest shop with a hunter.

 

Would it be wise to shave these for endurance racing/track use?

 

Consensus is that they squirm a lot at full tread depth, shaving will probably help this a great deal. Not my thing though

 

I do think shaving could help performance. Hard to say what will happen to overall tread life.