[jprestidge]

I've been running R888s, which are a very lightly treaded, road legal semi slick (List 1b for those of you who know what I mean) as my only set of tyres for the last 5 months, and thought I would report back on their performance.

Wear: not quite as bad as I thought - the rears still have plenty of tread left after several sprints and a test day. The fronts didn't fair so well, and needed to be replaced after about 4K miles. Lifespan is around 10K miles for the rears, with road and track use, but only about 4K for the fronts, depending on how much track use they get. Sprints at tight tracks, such as Dunkeswell, seem to kill them, although I'm sure an LSD would help (or a lighter right foot), as the problem seems to stem from power understeer.

Dry grip: miles better than any standard road tyre, especially once warmed up. On track they cut around 3 seconds off my lap times at Castle Combe. Grip is such that most cars on standard road tyres (including Elises) will struggle to maintain the same speed mid corner.

Compound: probably a little bit too hard on the rear for sprints, as the fronts seem to warm up fine, whilst the rears stay fairly cool.

Wet grip: better than expected, but resistance to aquaplaning is seriously diminished as the tread wears.

I'm taking them off the Puma now, as the front tyres' tread is fairly low, and has caused some interesting moments in heavy rain, but I will be putting them back on for any dry sprints.

Hope this is useful.

JP

[Turby]

Good report

FWIW due to popular demand in the UK, Toyo are in the process of developing different compounds in an effort to break into the proper competiton market (as opposed to track day market).

According to a technical rep I spoke to earlier in the year, these should become available sometime next year, (hopefully at the start) in the more common sizes.

When they do, we'll be trying a set out... until then I'm sticking to the even softer Yokohama A048R's.

[jprestidge]

Thanks Toby.

Not sure what to do for the Pegasus Sprint in October - I'll have to choose a tyre the day before, as I don't have the luxury of a spare set of wheels. Wouldn't want to go on track in the wet with the fronts as they are now - fast corners on the road with any standing water result in some very twitchy handling - hence why I'm taking them off.

JP

[David]

I run Yoko A048s on the Focus and have to agree with all your comments. Never tried the Toyos, but I would think they'd be fairly similar.
They are so much better than 'normal' tyres in the dry, and only play up in the rain if there's standing water about. The wear rate on my 'medium-hard' compound ones is fast, and they are really loud. I wouldn't fit them to an 'everyday' car in a million years, but for something that only gets driven hard and infrequently, I'd definitely recommend them.