Too much grip and not enough

[Antong]

Having now owned my Nomad for a couple of months I can finally say it's starting to get under my skin. If I'm honest the first couple of trips out left me feeling a bit concerned i'd bought the wrong car. I was finding it difficult to judge on road, struggling to find places to stretch it's legs off road and more than a little worried about running out of tallent and crashing it!

On sunday it clicked, perhaps because i was in a bad mood, driving in a slightly more exubarent manner or just the absolutely filthy roads with almost no traction. So it occurs to me perhaps the problem is on the 18" a/t there is just too much grip. Has anyone else out there sought 15" wheels in the quest for more fun, if so what wheel and tyre combo.

I'd also be interested to know what options there are for 15" wheels out there? I like the Ariel Motorsport ones but they're fairly expensive, i've found some speedlines whcih give a pleasantly different look too...

Help me waste the holiday fund, Wales is liekly to be a prison for the next 6 months!

[A7DUO]

Yes I hear you - and can relate to some of what you are saying there. I concluded fairly early on that Nomad is not a car you hop in and drive in anger or try to drive fast straigt away (especially the supercharged version). In fact I find its a quicker and more satifying point to point machine the slower & smoother I try to drive it. This is particulary true in the supercharged car - where you really don't need to put your foot to the floor all the time to get away quickly. I really didn't like the gear change much either when I bought it and kept missing gears; but even gear change comes together with practice and when you're not in a mad rush or trying too hard. Nomad is pretty special when the planets are aligned though - ie the righ place/time/weather/mood/road. Enjoy.

Re. your wheels - I have the Geolander AT's on the 15" rally wheels - they look great and you can fit and forget them, but maybe not the optimum experience on road or track, but then I've the 18" wheels too on Avon ZZR rubber too, but I doubt I'll use them, for me its not that sort of car. Once you get the hang of gradually leaning on the AT tyres on the small wheels: it is pretty good fun if you remain mindful of their limits and are ready to correct the car when the car starts to get out of line a bit. However, with the right rubber fitted Nomad essentially becomes a fully caged Atom to some extent, and will keep up with most things on track too.

If you have the 18's already - consider the Geolander's for them - as its will save you buying another set of wheels and you will get a similar experience and still think Nomads look good with the 18's on Geolanders too, especially if you have the upgraded brakes.

[TBev]

I fully understand, I originally had mine with 15" at tyres but felt the steering was a bit heavy and vague, so opted for 18" with AD08. This transformed the car completely to being a lot more precise, but like you say less sideways, so then I tried 18" with at which is a good compromise for longer journeys. Now however I run the original 15" with mud terrain tyres which are crazy, look amazing and you can wheel spin in 5th in the wet. The car is still very forgiving but you must add some time for breaking in the wet. In the dry though I think these give a perfect combination of grip and fun.

[Lighty]

Having completed just about 10,000 miles in my supercharged Nomad, my self & my son have mastered this shopping trolly almost 100%
We have always used the 15” Rally wheels with Geolanders.
I have sat next to my son at Donnington & he can just about slide the whole track including coming down Craner curves at about 100 mph !
The car is so forgiving, but perhaps we are just good with it.
One area it does catch you out is braking, it’s so easy to get too fast on the road & it just doesn’t have the grip to stop quickly , so you have to be mindful of this when pressing on.
I have some great video of it being driven hard, but dare not post it on here .
The steering takes some holding onto when pushing on, all these things make it exciting though.

[Antong]

Thanks all for the responses, they're really interesting to read.

It doesn't sound like the switch to mud tyres will improve the stopping performance but i'm currently not on the the big brake setup either so my tactic is avoid the crash rather than hoping to stop... To be fair the mud's on our defender are horrendous on tarmac but it's not what they were designed for - much like trying to using a fountain pen underwater!

I have the 18" with the Geolander AT. These are reasonably progressive in their breakaway although i've not tried drifting it at 100mph just yet. I'm fairly used to arse weight having a 911 and coming from an elise into the Nomad. The bump steer is fairly off putting at first but that is just familiarity and i've dialled a lot of it out with the Fox dampers. I have a huge temptation to try some sticky tires for a track day but i may have to have a play with the MT's before that, it's winter afterall.