Bout time we did another blog post, we’ve got a lot going on at the moment with new products and some sponsorship announcements, so we will fill you in on these later.
As promised in the last blog we were going to give you an update on the testing of the Kenda Kr20a tyres.
A couple of Fridays back we rocked up to Barbagallo Raceway to compare the Kenda Kr20a (regular) with the cheaper Newtons I was contemplating running for the season due to their price and rumoured higher grip. We only took 3 pairs of tyres as the weather forecast wasn’t the best. I hadn’t driven at Barbs since September last year, and more importantly hadn’t driven there since we got the car dialled in through the D1WA season. Man did I underestimate how many tyres we’d use even with the weather coming in?
We left the car set up the same as we had it for Matsuri and Ken Leongs Drift School day, with the only change being the addition of a new Accusump thanks to our mate Adam and Team Tyre BBQ. First run out we put on the Kenda Kr20a (regular) 235/45/17 tyre with pressures balanced 32 psi (same as the front). As with the normal Kr20 the car felt good and didn’t notice a need to warm the tyres up, driving out of Cat Corner we were able to kick it in third straight up into 4th and bang out the rest of the section up V8 race into the short section hair pin and back out to the run down the hill. Next run was a big entry into cat - I had completely underestimated how intimidating that entry is, but none the less managed to try a 4th gear entry somewhat untidy with a lot of handbrake but at least I didn’t end up off the track #sandstorm. Got 5 laps out of the Kendas including the warm up, the last lap was pretty sketchy with nothing left in them and having a spin in front of Brendon Greaves at the top of the hair pin, other than this they were the same from start to finish and seemed to have a bit more side bite compared to the normal Kr20.
Next was the Newtons again a 235/45/17 tyre with pressures at 32 psi. First lap out they were very slippery in comparison to the Kendas, though started to grip up half way up v8 race. 2nd lap the tyres definitely felt like they had more grip then the Kendas, really having to kick the car to get it out of cat corner in 4th (not enough entry speed combined with a bit more grip made for a sketchy moment in front of Adam). 3rd lap there was not much left eventually delaminating one tyre at the end of the section.
Next was another pair of 235 Newtons, this time we upped the pressure to 36 psi to see what it would do. This seemed to help for some reason as we got 4 laps out of this pair but again the tyres went from nothing to grippy to nothing in 2 laps.
Will definitely be staying with the Kendas, they last as well as you can hope for over Barbagallo’s long section and the consistent performance being the big bonus having a tyre that stays consistent is one less thing to worry about.
Stand by for our latest sponsorship announcement and new production reviews.
Thanks again to all those that help with the Drift Car, DC Autos Yokine, Hyper Drive and Penrite Oil
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