Project DBA R35 GT-R: Getting More Grip with Advan and Toyo!

,

This recess of the wheel nut pockets into the spoke area was the result of FEA analysis to gain strength and fatigue resistance in this area.

Every bit of material that could be safely removed was removed to pare every gram safely possible from the wheel. Check out this lightening groove in each spoke!

Don’t worry about strength or durability though because every wheel Rays produces must pass stringent strength and durability testing to meet all JWL and DOT standards.  This includes rotary and radial fatigue testing, impact testing, drop testing and bead retention testing.

Our wheels were very light, 26 lbs in the rear and 24 lbs for the front, amazing for the size.

 

The stock Nissan tires are hampered by their run flat construction.  The GT-R like many exotic and semi-exotic cars has no spare tire, presumably to save weight.

Some Porsche models have no spare but they give you a container of sealing goo and a small onboard compressor to fix flats.  Nissan’s run-flat tires have super stiff sidewalls.  Although this can help cornering to an extent, because their stiffness can help keep the tread on the ground, we also feel that the noncompliant tires can also hurt handling.  The stiffness of the sidewalls can make the tires more sensitive to tire shock and make it difficult to generate mechanical grip, especially on rough surfaces.

For a replacement tire, we choose the Toyo R888.  The R888 is a racing rated DOT legal tire that has its bias more toward longer life and multiple heat cycles. This makes it more of a grassroots race tire that is durable and long lasting before ultimate speed, but it also makes it a pretty damn good ultra high performance street tire.

Most exotic and many semi-exotic cars are spec’d with tires like this, so don’t sweat the race tire moniker. You are not going to get 30,000 street miles out of these tires, but you won’t get that sort of mileage out of the stock tires either!

 

We ran a huge 315/20-20 on the rear and a 285/35-20 in the front. This is considerably wider than the stock 285/35-20 and 255/40-20.

Since the GT-R is AWD, the diameters are critical in keeping the center diff happy and these tires are within a few tenths of an inch or so in diameter so all is good.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*