My 12 month California T odyssey

I had a proud parent manners moment yesterday:

My younger son and I had some errands to run in my Cali T before he went back to finish his junior year at U of Miami today. We had a break in the rain and put the top down, with lots of upshifts and downshifts to listen to as we went to several stores. At one point, he smiled and said "I've been pausing my conversation when you're about to shift, I thought that if I spoke when a nice pop or crackle was going off it would be as if I was interrupting...".

 

Saturday the temps were down to where I ran the "country circuit" with the top closed. Bright sun and very dry road conditions, so I did a lot of brake testing to see what the effects of temperature had on grip via stopping distances. Severe braking from 60-0 produced ever decreasing sliding as the tires warmed, as shown below, but it showed how the Pirelli P-Zeroes are much better at warmer temperatures.

I then drove over and ordered a set of Pirelli Sotto Zero for the cold months, expecting much better cold traction on dry. I will go out on a similar day and post results.


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I had an interesting situation yesterday when I left the office. It was 24 degrees F and my Cali T was parked facing east-west on a cold but not windy and very sunny day. When I turned the key my TPMS screen showed my right rear (north side of the car) at 2 lbs lower pressure than the left rear, but a temperature difference of over 15 degrees. The fronts did not have as much of a difference between them, but it was enough for the right rear to be highlighted in yellow for the drive home. I did some heavy braking to speed up the warming of the tires, and eventually they all warmed up, and temperatures and pressures matched from side to side, as usual, but the yellow highlight stayed on. I should have taken pictures.

When I got home I proceeded to shut down and start back up to see the condition of the settings on the TPMS screen, and as it turned out the TPMS needed recalibrating, which it did when I selected it. Good work, actually, by the software to make sure everything was working correctly. I was impressed.

Tomorrow I get my new winter tires put on that I had ordered, Sotto Zeros, thanks, Rick, for the strong recommendations. We expect our first light dusting of snow tomorrow, so good timing.



Mitchell, snow is what you think it is, but without the choice of cherry or grape or pineapple syrup. Instead of being handed to you in a little cone and colorful, it remains all white and covers the ground, roads, houses, etc. I cannot explain why they call it a dusting, since it is usually wet or frozen... White everywhere. Totally not an MSA environment... You may have seen pictures...

 

Perversely alluring...

 

Wow. I just had my first wet and cold day to and from the office on my new SottoZero tires. 36 F, wet from all day mist and rain...

WHAT EXTRORDINARY GRIP!

In full acceleration in first gear at 5500 to 7000 RPM on my PZeroes on dry at 55 F I would get a lot of traction control activity, stumbling the engine every 300 RPM.

In the same range on the SottoZero at 36 F in very wet, only a single short blip on the traction control with the tires at 40 F, and no slip at all when the tires were at 52 F.

Like Rafael de Simone says, "we need to help the tires find the grip"...

These find it...

 

Not that I was able to ascertain...

The thing that was interesting to me was what the temperature differential (and thus the pressure difference) being due to the south side of the car being bathed in direct sunlight (with no wind) on the tires and the asphalt parking surface, and the tires in the shade of the car being on asphalt also in the shade. I watch the TPMS all the time, and see the effect of tire temperature on tire pressure, which in this case evened out upon driving and braking. Each other time I have seen the TPMS the left-to-right pressures match. Admittedly, likely more interesting to me than to most...

 

Bright sunny day today, dry road surfaces, 36 F, tires at 55 F and the SottoZeroes have amazing grip on my "country road circuit".

Looks like fun, fun, fun even in the cold months. *



* Mitchell, in the northern hemisphere, the cold months are December thru March, just so you know...

 

I cannot find Pirelli SottoZero tires for my Cali T scale model. Not AN-E-WHERE.

However...

...now that I think about it...

...I don't push it around in my freezer, either, so...

...I think I'm OK...

 

Keith, you mentioned celebrating your good first yearly service with a drive home with the top down at 56 degrees to celebrate. I've been daily driving with the top down whenever it breaks 50. Winter tires and top down, a great combo that I never would have anticipated...

...daily driver at its best.

On Saturday it reached a very unusual for January 68 degrees F, lots of open top cars that day...

... a downright bone chilling day for Mitchell...

 

Mitchell,

Have you been able to catch the action when the face on your rev counter switches out?

Mine is yellow much of the time, but at other times it is black. Occasionally it changes when I am driving, but as I am paying attention to the road, I have not seen the swap out mechanism, I'm thinking it is Swiss (advanced cuckoo clock technology perhaps...).

I can't find a pattern for when it is one or the other, and after a lot of searching, I have not found any settings, or even mention of this, in the owner's manual.

I'm asking you specifically as a means to try to rule out temperature as the trigger, since your temperature is constant 24 hours a day...

 

Rick, it's funny, I was about to post, anyway, about noise myself, but not brakes.

Here we get some nice weather days in the winter months, hitting 64F today. I did some driving on my normal country circuit, and I find the SottoZero Zeroes have fairly good dry stopping power, but they let out a shriek that has me turn around after each heavy 70-0 braking, expecting to see tires marks. None. But it sounds like the sound of heavy skidding on the road. Crazy. Likewise, I have a 120 degree right turn off a main road I go out of my way to turn on, at speed, typically silently at 45mph, and this first time with winter tires and dry conditions also caused a wake-up-the-neighborhood shriek, but no marks either.

Good having them for true winter needs, especially cold dry traction, but still looking forward to getting the summer treads on...



Mitchell, when my first summer set needs replacing I'm looking forward to trying out your tire replacement choice...

 

Very cool!!

Where did you do the configuration work?

 

I did mine there also. Nice place. Nice staff.

More pics when you get all sorted out!

 

My younger son was visiting us as part of his spring break at U of Miami, and we found a break in the rainy weather here in Western Tennessee to head out with the top down to my "country circuit" and switch driving duties a few times. He's got the 1-2 shift with full throttle gun shot sound down now. Almost brings tears to my eyes...

When we got back to the house there were opposite errands to run, and his eyes lit up when I asked if he wanted to take the Cali T to the store for his errand. Lit up is an understatement.

The fun part for me was watching him head down the winding driveway and down the street, for other than transporters, I have always been in the car when it was driving. Quite a sight to see, actually.

Fun day.