Ian Lockwood

Well, it was £1250 in the message you first sent. From all the comments about the original Trofeos, I'm expecting the ZZ-Rs to last considerably longer (and possibly grip better too), so I guess the cost will balance out reasonably close in the long run.

Cocked up my reading of the available sizes, the 205/40 or 215/40 sizes aren't available yet, no reply from Nankang UK yet on when they will be (website says Q3/Q4 2016). So have gone for ZZ-Rs for now, £816 inc. VAT and delivery.

Got myself a nice set of LF1 wheels for track (thanks Tom!), now need some tyres as the front Trofeo Rs on them at the moment are too far gone. Had a look around and in order of price (ascending), the options I could find are Nankang AR-1 (just over £600 per set), Toyo R88R (about £750 per set), Avon ZZ-R (just over £800 per set), Trofeo R (about £1150 per set if you can find them). So, I'm going to undertake the experiment of trying the Nankangs as the little I've read suggests they're pretty good. The fronts have to be 215s as per the ZZ-R, but I don't see that as too problematic. Anyone tried these or have a dire warning before I purchase!?

Well, I decided to take the car out properly to see what it's like at higher speed (I only drove it up the road before). It seems the "swish" is actually just the pedal hitting the end of it's travel when you push all the way down when stationary - it doesn't happen whilst actually driving, because braking that hard is lock-up territory. Explains why I've never heard it before! The brakes are actually OK, just not as good as they were, which makes me think it might be pads. I did notice a little bit of grabbing from one side or the other at the front (i.e. happened slightly on either side), which I suspect may also be worn pads? I've got to drive down to Hofmann's next week to get my Nitrons fitted, so I'll take new pads and fluid down and ask them to take a look and do what they think necessary to get the brakes back to 100%. Hopefully it will just be a bit more bleeding as there's quite a bit of meat left on the pads. I would do another bleed myself, but I don't really have the time before it's due at Hofmann's and I've got through almost two bottles of SRF already, so this time it needs to be right as I don't want to use more than the three bottles I've already have to buy!

Fingers crossed that sorts it then. Still not sure how that makes for a "swishy" pedal if the air is in the calipers, hopefully it's just one of those things...

There's an inner bleed nipple!? Can't see one on the diagram: http://deroure.com/diagrams.asp?TBL=6248&MAK=1&MDL=40&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=&SC=0 However, I can see they sell spares as 8 per car, so I guess there are inner ones: http://www.deroure.com/partinfo.asp?MAK=1&MDL=10&TBL=918&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=A132J6058S&SC=1&PBID=247221 That could explain a lot... I presume it should be inner first then? Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon...

So, bled the brakes again under pressure (Eezi-bleed job, not pumping the pedal). No air came out of any caliper that I could see. The pedal still makes a "swish" noise when depressed and the brakes are not what they could be, although not as bad as the first time. I wouldn't say the pedal feels spongy. The question then is: Was the fluid actually OK and it's the pads that have gone (even though they look OK on visual inspection)? And secondly, why does my brake pedal now make an airy "swish" noise!?

I had that from Central when the Aygo courtesy car wasn't available. Unless they changed the brakes (or at least the fluid) in the couple of weeks between when I had it and that video being posted, they would still have been a bit crap after someone took a customer round Donington in it. The interior was a bit messy too (driver side mat was in the boot).

Thanks guys. I believe the correct order is the same as Bibs stated? It looks like it should be anyway, as usually you start with the wheel farthest from the reservoir and as it's on the driver side, RF last looks correct. I will definitely be using a pressure bleeder this time! I will open the bleed nipples the absolute minimum I can too. Imran, thanks for pointing me to Dan, I may well get in touch with him before I attempt this again!

My brakes were not as good as they could be post-Bedford trackday, so I thought I'd change the fluid for Castrol SRF to avoid that happening again. The first thing I discovered was that it's rather tricky to loosen the bleed nipples, as there isn't much space around the nut to fit an 11mm spanner. Anyway, I was using an Eezi-Bleed kit (just the non-return valve into a canister, not the pressure thing you can attach to the fluid reservoir) and as a result of the nipple sitting so snugly recessed in the caliper, couldn't apply the collar that normally clips the hose in place on the nipple. I didn't think that mattered, as the rubber hose of the Eezi-Bleed was hard enough to fit on anyway, i.e. pretty darn tight. So, got the missus to pump the brakes as I watched the fluid come out, kept the reservoir topped up above minimum, tightened the nut and moved on to the next caliper. Repeat. However, not too long after starting the first caliper (OSR), the pedal started making a "squish" sound, like air was being dragged in or pushed out when depressed. There was no sign of air coming out of the calipers though. So, finished the job and took the car up the road. Oh dear. Hardly any stopping power over 10mph. Check each caliper - slight leak out of OSR, looked like the nipple wasn't quite tight enough - although I could only manage a very slight further tightening. Took the car out again, still as awful, but no more fluid out of the OSR caliper. So, £41 of SRF fluid later, I have terrible brakes and will need to bleed the whole system again. But am I missing something? There was no air in the system to start with and I can't see how it would get in. Could air get in around the thread of the bleed nipples? I've never had that before. Could it get in around the hose, even when it was very tight (but didn't have the collar on)? Most importantly, why does the air sound come from the pedal!? Any experiences to share would be appreciated. Next step unless I hear otherwise is to do it again, this time using the pressure cap on the reservoir to push it through. I suspect I'll need more than the 1 litre of SRF for that though (gulp!)

Thanks guys, messages sent. Good jumping on someone else's thread there JG220. I saw the Cup wheels on SL, but not sure they're worth the extra £330 over TD wheels for the marginal weight saving?

Cheers Bibs! I'm right in thinking that these are lighter than the TD Pro Race 1.2s? So worth the extra £220 (I'm trying to convince myself...) Just noticed it says "has been sold", so back to the search...

On the offchance anyone has a set of wheels they want to sell, I'm after a set for track use. Let me know if you have any (OEM or Team Dynamics)!

Haha, yeah, that crossed my mind! 0w40 and 10w60 are quite different though!

So I guess the 360 Cup info was published before that page showing 0w40? The older page shows 10w60 for track use. That begs the question, which should it be and why did Lotus change their mind!?

Hmm, 0w40 for track use, I have 5w40 Pro S in as that's always done me proud on track, but now I'm wondering if I should go 0w40 (although I do more road miles than track...)

I've been told by a mate using Cup 2s on his S2000 that you need to get -2 degrees of camber to get the split compound design to work. There's a little Michelin man symbol in the tread pattern and if he's not getting scrubbed, you don't have enough camber (or possibly if he's getting too scrubbed, I forget now!) I think you need some aftermarket suspension on the Exige to achieve that amount of camber?

As long as the car you try isn't on Trofeo tyres, you'll be fine in the wet (although like any car, you won't be able to push it as much as in the dry). If it has the Race pack, I doubt you'll be able to explore that on the road (it requires the car to slide a bit first to learn the surface, but as our roads have highly variable surfaces, I'd advise against testing it out...) The gear shift on a 350 should be much better than on previous models - it's the weak spot of the driver interface and from what I understand, a bit variable as some cars are worse than others. Bear that in mind if you try the 350 but buy an older car. The geometry has been altered on the 350 too, I haven't driven one so can't comment personally, but the original V6S understeers a bit, the 350 might have had some of that dialled out. It's also a bit lighter of course, so you might find the driving experience a little different to what you might buy. I suggest you try and find roads that allow you to test the braking and cornering, handling on different surfaces, some roundabouts to get a feel for the balance of the car. A mix of a few A roads with roundabouts and mostly country roads is probably best. Take some sunglasses if it's a bright day, the sun visors on a Lotus aren't worth the name!

Thanks Marc, that's useful, good find! Interesting that this chap was using them on the road - I presume from the comments that he is referring to road rather than track use anyway.

Thanks Dom, that's very useful info. Would you say the NS2R lasts about as long as the 595 RSRs?

It does say "approved for road use" in that Demon Tweeks listing, but likewise I thought they looked pretty "interesting" for the road.

Just chucking these into the equation too: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/competition-tyres/nankang-ar-1-tyre Rumour has it they don't last that long but grip like billy-o, so I probably won't try these, but at that price if they perform as well as Trofeos, they might be of interest to some. Looks like you'd have to use a 45 profile for the fronts though.

Well, is it? Are you saying that more expensive tyres are automatically better? The Far East brands are very keen to get into the European premium market, hence you can now get track tyres from Nankang (I think!?) They're cheaper than the European brands by some way. I have no idea if they're as good, but the chances are they're not bad. Say they're 50% of the cost of a Trofeo, I'm willing to bet they're more than 50% as good, even if they don't quite match the Trofeo. It's then a question of where you want to sit on the price:performance ratio. It's also possible that great road tyres can be more expensive than good track tyres, but the track tyres still deliver better dry grip at high temperatures. So this is my question - on track, does the P Zero Corsa offer better dry grip than the Federal 595 RS-R?

OK, so do people think that the 595s are no better than a Corsa? I was under the impression that the 595 RS-R is a proper track tyre (like a Trofeo), not a road tyre that can be used on track (like the Corsa)? There wouldn't be any point getting a spare set of wheels and tyres just to get the same level of grip on track as I already have!

I'm very tempted to get a set of Team Dynamics wheels for track. The question is what tyres to put on them. I know people who have used Federal 595 RSRs on other cars and rate them and at £350 for a set in our sizes, they're less than half the price of Avon ZZRs or pretty much anything else. However, they need to be notably better than Corsas on track otherwise there's no point spending over £1k to get a set of wheels and tyres specifically for the job, as I might as well keep using my road wheels/tyres. Has anyone tried them on an Exige V6 and would you say they were better than the Pirelli Corsas?