Chasing perfect handling - the last piece of the (my) jigsaw

Since I moved over to this supra from my last one I have been chasing a hadling nirvana, as I love the Supra, but I have always struggled with the handling. It's grippy on track, pretty much whatever you do and I love the RWD, but on the road it's skippy, unsure, tramlines and can go out of balance mid corner very easily.

I've had some horrific sets and some not bad sets, and have changed many aspects over the years; I've owned 4 different sets of wheels, of varying offsets and size, 5 different shock setups, 2 different makes of poly bushes, and have played with a lot of different settings.

In January I threw in the towel and let Chris wilson do the shocks and geometry, according to the optimum (in his opinion), letting him specify the wheels. The wheels that were closest to his ideal for my brake size were the Lexus GS3000 wheels, at a +40 offset, wighing in at 12kg per rim. This set was a massive improvement; it was very good cross country, but still suffered a bit of understeer, even with chris pushing the stock adjustment to the limit for 18" rims - (his geo is non rim specific - simply the best geo for the car - when it has the right wheels that is)

In the meantime I have been trying to source some lighter rims with a close to optimim offset to finish the job. I sourced one from Gaz, and with a bit of digging found the other three... eventually fitting and testing them today. They are CE28N Rays, 7.4kg a corner, with a +47 offset (stock is 50), in 8.5 and 9.5" rim for 245 and 275 width tyres... The fronts neede the brake system moving 5mm inboard to get the fitment on the +47.. but I wanted to do the job properly.... so it was done!

If you have a look at some of the images of Wes's car on track you will notice just home much further into the chassis the stock 17" rims sit... That's the first thing I noticed on these new Rays. +47 offset is very different to the eye...

On road the difference is very noticable. Miles more turn in, lots of front end grip. the car feels aggressive into the corner, and balanced through but I can feel the prospect of oversteer, balanced oversteer, but oversteer none the less... it's not something I care to push to the test on public roads. I guess this is much closer to the way the car should really feel as opposed to what a lot of us drive on.

Rear end straight line traction is excellent, possibly better on the right offset, but this went through the roof when CW set it up anyway.

The biggest difference is in the lack of tramlining and chop soaking. It's very composed, very solid. The front wheels save 6.5kg a rim, and to rotora brakes are 4 kg lighter than uk spec, and 18" tyre feels lighter than 19" - although I did not measure tyre weights... so it's a big saving and you can feel the difference over rough potholes etc...

I'm almost to the end of mechanical work on the car, will be doing some cosmetic over the next 6 months, but it could be time to put down the spanner....surely not!

I took my old man to get his R34GTR tonight.. it makes about 420.. he said of my car; "it's just too fast..".. lol

First pic is of my refirbed trusty 19" racing hart evos, (will be on Ebay soon) and new pics of the Rays (still missing centre caps!)

Last pic is the Lexus rims with the slicks on. +40 offset at 12kg a corner.

Nice work Mike.

not sure about the look.. but I'd rather have it drive right....

Yea i know what you mean, im a glutton for a mean looking offset but dont do much for the tram lining.

Great work Mike, I think I need the CW treatment