…. or is it?
July 2012. Our first race. Early days sure. Not exactly running the lap times we are achieving now …. A variety of reasons, lack of testing, uncertainty of our racing future and suitability of Fossa and her preparation ….. finances … We entered the race using the tyres that we bought Fossa on, General 175/70 R13’s. The weekend before we attended our very first run at a Super Trax Day at the Zwartkops raceway. Our times as newbies were around 1:48’s. Race day proved the times in the same range. Being new and after some experience we were regular visitors at the Super Trax Days. Our second race at Midvaal ….. and we finished the season on those Generals. Excluding our racing endeavours we completed more than two hundred laps around Zwartkops on those tyres. Despite that those tyres are still used as backup tyres for our Cortina with approximately 50% life remaining.
December 2012 we wanted to test the semi slick “advantage” and Annalie bought our first set of semi slicks, Yokohama 185/60 13’s. There was definitely a difference and the additional confidence in the semi slicks helped us along to improved lap times. In this year we were also very regular visitors to Super Trax Days. We also competed in all the seasons racing at Zwartkops Raceway, Midvaal Raceway and Kyalami. At the end of our season the Yokohama’s was doubtful for a complete 2014 season and we started looking for replacements.
With finances being an issue we shop around, strangely all we seem to find is a set of Dunlop Durezza ********* 175/60 13’s. Sure, there have been some improvements to our setup. Will that ever be final? Nothing new since our first race. We experience a serious drop in visits to Super Trax Days, mainly due to finances also supposedly reducing wear on our tyres …. We attend all local races with quite a few engine failures early in the season resulting in reduced track time. In July it is very clear that two of the Dunlop’s are at end of life. The other two can only be saved as backup with at the most one race left in them.
Our options ……. ok, option. Replaced the failed Dunlop’s with our used Yokohama’s. We have since raced at an Extreme Festival and our recent race at Zwartkops Raceway bettering our best lap times at both events, now topping 01:26.89. The Yokohama’s are fine for our next race at Kyalami and I feel confident for our planned demo day at Midvaal Raceway late December.
I have had both brands on “should have brought a boat” days and dry days, hot days and cold days. Despite the Yokohama’s being 185’s and the Dunlop’s 175’s, comparing the wear the Dunlop’s should still have lasted the season. With the Yokohama’s being slightly wider it can be expected that the wider surface would aquaplane easier, this is not the case. The traction in the wet offered by the Yokohama’s is very surprising and confidence boosting. Ask any spectator on corners five and six at Zwartkops Raceway if I have been easy on the Yokohama’s or Fossa …… They make a beautiful melody! Sure there is always a chance of a slip up, but that will be be more due to lack of concentration or mechanical failure than the Yokohama’s.
We are now shopping for our next tyres. Yes, we got new Yokohama’s!
Fossa Ford Anglia’s shoes for 2015