V1 BAustin's Extended Track - 06 SS/SC Donor - #157 Registered

[baustin]

I'm always curious to get the perspectives of folks with similar, but not the same, choices as mine.

What draws you to the A052? And what led you to the V730 over the RT660? I'm running the RT615K+ in the same size and like them. I chewed up my fronts with bent lower rod end mounts (since replaced and realigned) and thought about replacing with the RS4 but decided to stick with the RT615K+ as my rears were still good and wanted to match. Thanks for your input!

I'm sure there are a bunch of good answers for tire choice and it probably just comes down to preference and if the cost is acceptable to you. I used grassroots motorsports info, tire rack research, and if I looked at any car specific forums I tried to limit it to lightweight/open like Ariel and Lotus models. There's a lot of tire research but a lot of it is focused on typical weight cars that just impact their tires very differently than a Goblin. It seems like most of 200 tread wear tires get compared to either the RT660 or A052 if reviewed on 1 on 1 basis.

Priorities:

• fits 17" x 7.5" wheels, likely sticking with 225/45R17 unless the actual dimensions are similar but listed as alternate size.
• grip level - Especially easy warm up to get grip since the Goblin isn't a heavyweight vehicle overstressing the tires, Miata's are still heavier so even their data skews to more heat in the tires.
• price - I'm not going to be buying tires every year and prefer to have a set that last more than just 2-3 years.
• tread wear - I don't want to be beyond all of the good rubber on the tire after a few autocrosses. Previous tires were 340 tread wear and had great grip initially but it too quickly faded to being hard. I'm concerned the 100 tread wear category won't like my primary street driving, including into the cold mornings in later fall and early spring.
• easily available to buy

Minor Interests

• I prefer to be able to swap wheel locations for a full front>back / back>cross rotation, I have a square wheel setup for this reason. I prefer an inside/outside tire not directional so the wheel can go to any corner if needed.
• noise, quieter here is much better

From grassroots motorsports testing (link):

Tire Racks testing report:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=273

The resulting list from tire rack (excluding closeout options) in order from low cost to higher:
$146 - RT615K+
$164 - V730
$168 - RT660 - directional
$190 - RS4 - directional
$197 - N Fera Sport R - I have no recommendations for/against Nexen but I don't want to be the guinea pig here
$207 - Proxes R1R - directional
$213 - Rival S 1.5
$216 - Direzza ZIII
$226 - AD09
$231 - Extremecontact Force
$237 - RE-71RS
$238 - A052
$258 - AD07

Given the costs available from tire rack, that narrows the list down to RT615K+, V730, RT660. In my opinion, the RT615K+ would be better for a heavier car or if I was seriously tracking/racing frequently. Since the RT660 is directional and the V730 is inside/outside, that tipped the scales to say the V730 made the most sense for me. I think when I was looking a few weeks/months ago, the V730 was more towards $185 but it wasn't when I checked this week.

 

[Rauq]

Are you me? If I were looking for a set of 4 right now I'd probably pick up the V730's as well. I believe the Nexen's predecessor was the OEM tire for Hellcats for a while so I don't put them in the same box as Linglong, but still, I'd rather run something a bit more proven. It's nice to have my thought processes validated!

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

One option missing from the list:

https://www.federaltire.com/en/products.php

Not a big name company. Federal is out of Taiwan and is working their way up in the performance market. Their tires are in expensive and may be worth a try?

 

[baustin]

Are you me? If I were looking for a set of 4 right now I'd probably pick up the V730's as well. I believe the Nexen's predecessor was the OEM tire for Hellcats for a while so I don't put them in the same box as Linglong, but still, I'd rather run something a bit more proven. It's nice to have my thought processes validated!

Ha, great minds do think alike

 

[baustin]

One option missing from the list:

https://www.federaltire.com/en/products.php

Not a big name company. Federal is out of Taiwan and is working their way up in the performance market. Their tires are in expensive and may be worth a try?

Probably just fine as tires but they wouldn't fit my want for easy to buy. Probably great for a different situation than mine.

 

[JBINTX]

Proxes R1R have been very good tires for the street. Just OK at autoX. I would buy them again. My $0.02

 

[Rttoys]

Proxes R1R have been very good tires for the street. Just OK at autoX. I would buy them again. My $0.02

Your next street tires need to be r888r’s. Does street and autocross well.

 

[k.rollin]

Your next street tires need to be r888r’s. Does street and autocross well.

Or you could just swap wheels at the event lol
My street tire is the 205/50R15 Maxxis Victra VR-1 and the autox setup is the 225/45R15 Hoosier A7 (only because I was able to get a slightly experienced set for $175 rather than $300+ per corner).

https://imgur.com/mGAcxce

 

[Rttoys]

Or you could just swap wheels at the event lol
My street tire is the 205/50R15 Maxxis Victra VR-1 and the autox setup is the 225/45R15 Hoosier A7 (only because I was able to get a slightly experienced set for $175 rather than $300+ per corner).

https://imgur.com/mGAcxce

I’m trying really hard not to swap tires for street to track. To compete with JBinTX, I may have to though. I can’t hang with his slicks.

 

[baustin]

New tires are now installed

 

[Rttoys]

It’s going to be a different autocross now.

 

[baustin]

New headlights are installed! Definitely brighter lighting and sharper cutoff than the Dominator's with LED bulbs. A lot more expensive but these are way better. Not cheap but I was feeling blind when driving under green lights since my headlights couldn't shine bright enough to illuminate the road beyond the brightness of the intersection + green lights... Yes it's possible my LED bulbs had darkened with age.

JW Speaker Model 8632
https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/led-headlights-model-8632-evolution/
Specifically I got the 2 light kit with side marker for US traffic (part number 0551983). This kit comes with the pedestal mount which is an exact fit to the DF Goblin bolt points, this is as close to bolt on as aftermarket parts can be on a kit car. These are DOT stamped lights though it hasn't mattered for me yet.

A little bit of cutting/soldering to reuse the connectors I had on my previous lights:

These lights have: high / low / marker (aka parking or position) / turn / DRL. There is a white halo ring and a yellow halo ring, the yellow replaces the white if both are active.

In my '06 setup I don't have a dedicated DRL circuit, Chevy just runs the front turn signals solid for the DRL. I decided to hook up the yellow halo to the turn circuit which means I have front yellow halos and side mirror yellow bulbs on when DRL is active. I connected the white halo to the marker/parking circuit so I have some front light when using marker lights in parking decks or similar. The marker circuit is also active when the low and high beam lights are on.
Low beam on:

DRL on (actually flashers when lights are on):

 

[baustin]

I also now need to track down the connector/part that is causing my cruise control to only be intermittent. Previously it worked perfectly. I started to notice it would cut off going over large bridge bumps like I had pushed the brake or clutch but this only happened 1 in 100 times I used cruise. After the headlight install with hood and footwell cover off, I can only get cruise to turn on maybe 1 in 5 drives and even then it may only stay active for seconds. I think my issue is at the pedal box with 1 of the sensors on the pedals but it may be at the button soldering like a few have dealt with.

I'm not implying my new headlights causes cruise to not function, I think while doing the rework I must've bumped or loosened something and it is no longer making good contact.

 

[Robinjo]

Mine has started doing the same thing recently. It’ll come on ever once and a while and immediately shut off. I just checked the sensors and they are ok. Next is the DF switches.

Edit: Check your switches, they are pretty sensitive. I went for a hail mary late last night and adjusted the clutch one a bit more. Cruise works again today. I'm going to go back and add a small bump in the spot that the sensor trigger hits the pedals as it can only go flush in the current configuration. A small bump in that spot would make sure it's completely engaged. I also cut a piece of hard plastic to cover the foam on teh barke pedal. The foam had gotten really old and compressed.

 

[neodied]

New headlights are installed! Definitely brighter lighting and sharper cutoff than the Dominator's with LED bulbs. A lot more expensive but these are way better.
...
JW Speaker Model 8632
https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/led-headlights-model-8632-evolution/
Specifically I got the 2 light kit with side marker for US traffic (part number 0551983).

View attachment 40848

Wow those look really great and it's nice that they have the pedestal mount that fits our mount point. I might have to grit my teeth at the price and just pay up for a set of those since I've been having a tough time finding a combination of good quality lamps with a simple mounting solution.

 

[Rttoys]

Love the lights. That brand was high on my list, but just couldn’t stomach the cost if they were not going to be much better than the cheap stuff, without some sort of real life review. If I change up mine, that brand will definitely be high on the list again.

 

[baustin]

It's been a few weeks now since I revisited my cruise control almost entirely not working. I'm checked the brake and cruise pedal switches, both looked like they were in the correct position and I tested with multimeter and got the change from open to closed, or vice versa, that made sense.

Next up was the wiring on the back of the cruise control buttons. My dash button set was one of the early sets DF sent out where they soldered it all together for me before shipping. I have the entire dash routed to a multiplug so I disconnected this and toggled the buttons to see the total resistance values (mine being early model is different than later models for cruise) and compared them to the info that Lonny posted paying attention to the early model differences. I couldn't get a good resistance value which seemed odd, it kept changing.

The wires were all fully soldered to the tabs just like when I received the dash button set, but looking closer I found 1 wire from the set/- button had failed insulation going around the other set/- tab. I think the BCM kept seeing that I was pressing the set/- button to drop the speed down since the dash button was being bypassed. This arcing through the insulation also explains why it would feel like cruise dropped out occasionally going over large bridge bumps since the wire would move and touch.

The resistors and wiring inside the original heat shrink was all just fine, full image of that side is below. The only concern is the tan wire from the set/- since it didn't have any additional insulation where it was tight around the upper tab.

I took the dash buttons to my workbench and cut away the existing heat shrink so I could loosen the wire bundle and apply some targeted heat shrink and electrical tape on these wires. Now the tan wire isn't tight against the upper tab of the set/- button. Cruise has worked perfectly since then, no issues whatsoever. I just didn't take any pictures before reinstalling in the car. Easily a few hundred miles of driving since then and cruise works again each time.

All the original soldering was still good, all the pedal switches were working correctly, that 1 tan wire where the soldering had melted the insulation and it finally wore through enough to arc seemed to be my problem. Not a big problem, I just didn't catch that would turn into a problem during initial assembly.

 

[baustin]

For July 4th weekend, we took a family trip but I would need to come home before my wife and kids. Solution was to flat tow the Goblin behind my wife's car instead of my truck (have done that setup multiple times in the past). Her car is a 2012 VW Jetta Sportwagen 2.5L 5 cylinder gas engine, typical style 6 speed automatic not DSG. We've had a 2" tow hitch on it for years for hitch basket or possibly a utility trailer but didn't have any light wiring installed. I got the light module installed to plug in the Goblin wiring like I do on my truck and it was ready to go!

We sure got a few odd looks from folks confused by what they were seeing but it worked well. I did put the VW transmission in sport mode to hold torque convertor lockup and I think we got about ~18-20mpg depending on speed while towing which isn't too bad from her normal of 23-25mpg. The gas 2.5L doesn't get anywhere close to the mpg that diesel VW's get.

 

[Rauq]

I had just about that exact same cruise control button issue. Fortunately mine was close enough that I was able to just heat the wire with my soldering iron and push it into the solder that was already on the switch. I have seen the current offering uses spade-style plugs for the switches.

 

[Ross]

This is a revision to the early cruise control wiring.