Since we will be organising a drift competition in August in MAEPSMAEPS, we were given the opportunity to test the place out. As the course is fairly huge we thought it would be a good to conduct our own form of testing too. Drift House: Their Cefiro V8 and their SR20 TE71 and me with the Goodyear Duraplus tires.
Here is the world premier of Drift House’s Cefiro V8 in action..
Designed to provide outstanding mileage on Asia’s roads, Goodyear has launched DuraPlus for the passenger value segment. These tires had been tested on rigorous Thailand roads for 100,000km thus creating a new Goodyear standard for tread life in this segment. With its new TredLife TechnologyTM, Goodyear is said to be able to manufacture a tire which delivers longer mileage without sacrificing any of the safety and performance !
Having heard all this, I was eager to test these tires in Drifting application and was pleased when given 4 pieces of 185/60/14s for this purpose.
The first thing I noticed was the tires were asymmetrical in design which essentially a tire with mix tread patterns or designed and manufactured to put more rubber on one side of the tread than the other in an effort to make one tire out of two different tread patterns. These tires needs to mounted in such a way where there will be an inside and outside thus making tire rotation swaps impossible. However, drifters might see this as an advantage as we no longer need to worry about tire thread directions when bringing spares based on the course ( some drift course tends wear either sides of the tires more thus having us to plan ahead when mounting directional tires on our spares)
Next was the thread design, which incorporated deep designed grooves with what appears to have more rubber in its pattern on the outside shoulder of the tire. This I believe will help in wet conditions where the water could be channelled easily and the tires would be less prone to understeering. I had also noticed the side walls of the tires were softer then others which I reckon to help ‘roll’ the tires to its grippier ouside shoulder when taking a corner!
The MAEPS course had a fairly smooth tarmac and was big enough for me to do 3rd gear 90-100km/h entry drifts.
We first tried out these tires at the rear and later had them on the front too.
As advertised, these tires had a decent amount of grip, even when fitted to the front! At the rear the tires were able to take maximum abuse without any signs of breaking or chunking. Even after going through a few heat cycles , the tires were still intact. And most importantly; the tread wear was a lot less then the other tires that I had used before!! So more drifting and less tire changes. As the course in MAEPS tends to eat the rear passanger side tires more, I am able to just change one side of the asymeterical tires without worrying about not having enough of the correct sides. That’s another plus!!!
This the condition of the left rear tires ( the side the gets worn the most) after an excess of over 20 smoke filled runs and it looked like its good for another 10 more!!! The other tire that I used on this course before this only lasted half of what this tire went through. I was truly amazed with its performance and durability!!.
This is the front tire after going through 8 runs. There’s hardly any sign of wear and yet it gave ample amount of front end grip for drifting!
Guys don’t take my word for it. Go visit your nearest Goodyear dealer and try it yourself!
Though finishing embarrassingly 3rd last in my first GRA competition last year, I had so much fun that I vowed to join every single round if they werent any clashes of dates. Last weekend we so happen to be free, so Team Sync Optima/WHAT decided to participate in this round held in the Stadium Car Park Shah Alam. This first round of the GRA series is the inaugural round where a night run is introduced where participants gets to run on a slightly different course from the day . The best of two runs from each stage is added to get the final overall time!! This event was also the first for Jenshen and Cheaka and also for Cheaka and I running with Goodyear tires.
Ian Khong, the man responsible for this event..if you’re wondering , he isn’t the one wearing the skirt 🙂
Driver’ s briefing
Kenneth , Jane and Team Petronas Japan Super Taikyu racer ,Farid Haruman
YS Khong and Cheaka, Some people have Keichi Tsuchiya, I have YS Khong. This racing legend had taught me a lot and inspired me in many ways!!
The novice category run. Expensive high tech timing devices were utilized in the event.
Cheaka , Jenshen and I watched the novice runs under a nice cool shady tree before we got bitten by ‘Assects’…ask Jenshen what are those
Pro category run, Sean Khoo, Yoong and Cheaka waiting for their runs..Yoong was super fast that day..time travel fast!!! 🙂
Me waiting for my run
Jenshen and the Lowyat forumers members…thanks to Kev ( glasses in black) for bringing us dinner 🙂
The evening ended with Jenshen doing a lot better than expected but lack of experienced had caused him to do a few time wasting errors which had robbed him from getting a higher placing. I am confident he will alot better for the following rounds!!
Cheaka got 1st in the open Novice class and also the fastest female award
and I got 2nd fastest in the Pro Rear Wheel Turbo class and 3rd in the Pro OD category
I actually would like to dedicate my win to Mike Ng, whom ironically was my student during the SODA ‘Drift Lesson’ held at Bukit Jalil a week before. Mike being a Autokhana ace had given me a lot of tips on how to prepare and a list of do and don’ts during competition. So I suppose this is a huge pay back for what little I had taught him during our session in Bukit Jalil
Mike Ng, my Autokhana sifu , thanks buddy for teaching this old dog some new tricks 🙂
For more information on GRA please click below
Bridgestone’s Tan Tat Wei takes the crown for round 2 , with Falken’s Zulfika taking second once again. Johan Norman of Goodyear despite of a failing engine takes third. 
Fourth goes to Johari Mat Salleh, fifth to Federal’s Mervyn Mohd.While sixth goes to Wan Boss and seventh and eight goes to Derrick and Burn respectively. More update later..
Skagee