Exotek Wheels
Hey guys, I have a F104 with the 187 width. I was having a ton of issues with traction rolling. There are a bunch of guys that run at the Banana Raceway here in Texas and they helped me sort out my car after months of frustration!
That being said, the key things to do on a high grip carpet track was to use tire glue on the sidewall of the fronts and fill in the little ridge that is between the sidewall and the tire contact patch. That made a huge difference. Just be careful not to get glue on the contact patch. I use a q-tip to apply the glue so I have more control.
I was then lucky enough that one of the guys let me try a set of his tires that were mounted on the Exotek rims with the +3 offset. WOW!!! My car went from skitish in low speed turns to planted! I was able to come off the last turn and onto the straight by punching it instead of having to be more gentle on throttle. Overall they just allowed a much more stable car. I noticed that it was much more stable down the straight under power and I was able to take the high speed sweeper flat out. My lap time went from mid 12's to mid 11's immediately. It just provided that confidence in the car that allowed me to be much more consistent.
When tightening up your shock, make sure you don't tighten it so much that you end up causing flex in the deck. (Upside-down U shape). Check your ride height all around to make sure it doesn't get out of shape. I run 4mm all around on our track and that seems to be perfect.
I apologize if this comes across in any way as a know-it-all as it is not my intent at all. I just happened to be testing, and most importantly learning, from the pro's at our track last night and saw this post. This is what worked for me to transform my car drastically from one that flips on low speed corners and the straight to one that I can put some seriously fast laps on. I drive in a mini class and a touring car class too so the driving style between all of them definitely helps.
I hope this helps someone as much as it helped me. If I can be of any assistance to anyone, please PM me and I would be happy to help in any way I can.