Tyres, Tyres and more tyres

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:19 pm

OK, I have bought my 15x7 Advanti Storm S1 wheels. Now I am intending to put 195/50s onto them. I have deliberately gone down the light weight path thus far with the wheels. Now for the tyres. I could put 205/50s on these wheels but, let's be honest 195s will be lighter and it is not like I have massive power with a fairly standard NA6 so 195s should give me plenty of grip.

I intend to use the car more often on the track, hence the start of an upgrade, but it will still be used on the road, though not too often. So, selection of tyres is important.

The Federal 595RSR seems to be a good tyre for track and street, reasonable price, but, at 22lbs, fairly heavy when you are looking at lightening the load.

The Yoko AD08R is well regarded but not cheap. I cannot seem to find a weight for it.

The Dunlop ZII Star Spec seems to have good wraps on it and at 18lbs, has a weight advantage. Not cheap but not bad either.

Hankook RS3, Bridgestone RE003, Toyo R1R, Achilles 123, Nankang NS-2R all good tyres. I'm spoiled for choice!

Are there any there that you would immediately rule out for what I want them for? Would appreciate the thoughts of the forum thanks!!

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:40 pm

I have some R888's in 205/50/15 that I can weigh.

What about DZ01's?

Trackphotos · Postby **Trackphotos** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:41 pm

The grip difference between those tyres will be much, much more significant than any imagined performance difference by tyre weight. Buy the quickest tyres you can afford. Consensus seems to be that AD08Rs seem to be pretty much the best you'll find before you move up to real semis. RS3s have a great reputation. I ran RSRs for a while, they were decent but wore quickly. More to do with me running them underinflated than anything, but with factory suspension they will roll over onto the sidewalls if you're trying hard enough on the track. R1Rs seem to be very highly regarded too, in both wet and dry weather.

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:36 pm

Magpie wrote:I have some R888's in 205/50/15 that I can weigh.

What about DZ01's?

Hi Magpie,
The R888s in 195/50 come in at 19lb which is pretty good. But I think they might be a little hard core for what I want at this stage and kind of expensive. The R888s and the A05 are something I will look at if I take a further step up the ladder.

Cheers,

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:40 pm

Trackphotos wrote:The grip difference between those tyres will be much, much more significant than any imagined performance difference by tyre weight. Buy the quickest tyres you can afford. Consensus seems to be that AD08Rs seem to be pretty much the best you'll find before you move up to real semis. RS3s have a great reputation. I ran RSRs for a while, they were decent but wore quickly. More to do with me running them underinflated than anything, but with factory suspension they will roll over onto the sidewalls if you're trying hard enough on the track. R1Rs seem to be very highly regarded too, in both wet and dry weather.

Thanks Trackphotos,
Yes, I am wondering if I am worrying too much about the weight! The AD08Rs are my favourites and I like what I hear about the RS-3 as well. Hard to go passed the RSR!

Cheers,

The American · Postby **The American** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:45 pm

Have you spent much time tracking other cars?

If you start out with a tyre that has fairly ordinary grip, and a little harder wearing, you'll be able to find and practice the limits easier, and at lower, safer speeds than on a high quality/grip tyre.

If you go all out on a high performance tyre, you be finding out how not to destroy (under steer, flat spotting etc) tyres at a higher cost.

The Achilles 123 is pretty cheap and apparently grippy (at least to begin with).

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 11:06 pm

The American wrote:Have you spent much time tracking other cars?

If you start out with a tyre that has fairly ordinary grip, and a little harder wearing, you'll be able to find and practice the limits easier, and at lower, safer speeds than on a high quality/grip tyre.

If you go all out on a high performance tyre, you be finding out how not to destroy (under steer, flat spotting etc) tyres at a higher cost.

The Achilles 123 is pretty cheap and apparently grippy (at least to begin with).

I currently have Yoko C. Drives (?) on the car and I have used them on the track - nice tyre but time for a step up to something with a bit more grip. You are right about 'not to destroy' but I am not a particularly aggressive driver on the track and like to build up my pace and rhythm as I go along which, I hope will suit the higher performance tyres.

Cheers,

Dan · Postby **Dan** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:16 am

You can’t go wrong with AD08R's or RS3’s. Like someone said before they are probably the best two street tyres available and close to entry level semi’s.

You were saying you were going to start going to the track more often, if you can pull it off I’d say having 2 sets of wheels might be something to consider (keep the ones you already have?).

The main advantage of a second set of wheels is that you can run the tyres down to the canvas which means you save money on tyres or you at least avoid having to drive around on tyres that could get you defected or insurance declined if you have a crash (you still take a risk driving to the track but you don’t really have another choice).

The other advantages are that you don’t have to buy a compromise tyre and when you are at low tread on wet days you can take your street tyres.

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 3:02 am

Yep Dan - That sounds like some very good advice.

Thanks,

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:16 pm

Well folks, I was all set to buy the Hankook RS3 but was distracted and ended up buying the Yoko AD08R instead. I admit that the Yokos were always my favourite but I was talking myself out of them because they are a good bit more expensive than the RS3. In the end I knew that I would wonder why I did not buy the Yokos plus I got a good price from Bob Jane at Castle Hill and that tipped the balance. So now I have wheels (on their way from the US) and tyres.

What's next???

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:41 pm

Bob Jane at Castle Hill actually do have pretty good prices on AD08Rs - I bought a set for the Lotus from them, and nearly did so with the Integra but they couldn't get stock (16" is a real PITA).

You won't be disappointed with the AD08Rs.

smy0003 · Postby **smy0003** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:50 pm

Pretty jealous of the advanti/ad08r combo.
What colour wheels?

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Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 11:17 pm

smy0003 wrote:Pretty jealous of the advanti/ad08r combo.
What colour wheels?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Black wheels with a red car which will probably get a red stripe. Should look pretty good!

Cheers,

Batdog · Postby **Batdog** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 11:19 pm

Apu wrote:Bob Jane at Castle Hill actually do have pretty good prices on AD08Rs - I bought a set for the Lotus from them, and nearly did so with the Integra but they couldn't get stock (16" is a real PITA).

You won't be disappointed with the AD08Rs.

Ben was really helpful to my wife recently and I thought I would do the right thing and at least get a quote off them. Surprised at how good it was!

Cheers,