Track & road tyres for a toyota mr2

Track & road tyres for a toyota mr2

Author
Discussion

Tedwards

Original Poster:

4 posts

116 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
quotequote all
Hi all,
I have just registered as last night I completed my 1st track evening at snetterton. It was awesome and I was surprised how friendly and helpful everyone was...thanks to you all.
I have a toyota mr2 mk2 2.0 gt and as I discovered the standard tyres don't stand up to much after 4-5laps. Can anyone suggest a decent set of tyres that won't break the bank and that are road legal.

Thanks

Tim

QBee

20,904 posts

143 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
MR2 is a reasonably light car - I have a 1100 kg TVR and have found Federal 595 RS-Rs to be a good compromise tyre. I struggle to tell the difference between them and Toyo R888s on the track, their road grip is good and the price is far less than Toyos. Beware - there is more than one spec of 595s - you want the RS-Rs.

There are others - Yoko AD08, Toyo R1-Rs etc etc - look on the manufacturer's websites and the one you want is not their out and out track tyre, but the second choice.

So for example, Federal do the FZ201 as their track tyre, but it takes about three laps to warm up and is useless in the wet.The 595s take half a lap to warm up and can cope with a certain amount of rain.

No track tyre is going to be 100% on the road, especially in a monsoon.
The thing that makes a good monsoon tyre is the ability to shift huge volumes of water fast and keep rubber blocks on the road surface. It does this by having many deep grooves and flexible tread blocks.
The thing that makes a good track tyre is having a limited tread blocks that don't move much, allowing the tyre to keep gripping without over-heating.

If you think you are going to do lots of track days, then it may be worth investing in a spare set of wheels (don't have to be new or as per the manufacturer) and some track specific tyres. But get advice on what dimensions, offset etc you need.
But before you spend a fortune on tyres, get your suspension set up checked first - have a full geo done and get the dampers and suspension checked by someone who knows the cars and settings.

LukeKerr

45 posts

116 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
We have no experience of the Federal tyres mentioned above but we can say the Toyo R888 and Yokohama Advan A048R are great but more track focussed than road.

Continental has a new tyre called the Conti Force Contact - it is designed to be better to use on the road than the two above but still excellent on the track. The Continental will probably be more expensive though.

I hope this helps.

TypeRTom

502 posts

156 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
Hi Tim,
Good to meet you the other night!
My shortlist of road legal trackday tyres would be:
Yokohama AD08R (what I'm running on the Clio)
Nankang NS-2R
Federal 595 RS-R

The above tyres also work well on a damp track but won't deal as well with standing water as a high performance road tyre.

Tedwards

Original Poster:

4 posts

116 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
TypeRTom said:
Hi Tim,
Good to meet you the other night!
My shortlist of road legal trackday tyres would be:
Yokohama AD08R (what I'm running on the Clio)
Nankang NS-2R
Federal 595 RS-R

The above tyres also work well on a damp track but won't deal as well with standing water as a high performance road tyre.
Hi tom, I wondered if I might bump into you on here! Thanks for that the Clio did seem to handle well so might give them a go.
Cheers
Tim

Tedwards

Original Poster:

4 posts

116 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
QBee said:
MR2 is a reasonably light car - I have a 1100 kg TVR and have found Federal 595 RS-Rs to be a good compromise tyre. I struggle to tell the difference between them and Toyo R888s on the track, their road grip is good and the price is far less than Toyos. Beware - there is more than one spec of 595s - you want the RS-Rs.

There are others - Yoko AD08, Toyo R1-Rs etc etc - look on the manufacturer's websites and the one you want is not their out and out track tyre, but the second choice.

So for example, Federal do the FZ201 as their track tyre, but it takes about three laps to warm up and is useless in the wet.The 595s take half a lap to warm up and can cope with a certain amount of rain.

No track tyre is going to be 100% on the road, especially in a monsoon.
The thing that makes a good monsoon tyre is the ability to shift huge volumes of water fast and keep rubber blocks on the road surface. It does this by having many deep grooves and flexible tread blocks.
The thing that makes a good track tyre is having a limited tread blocks that don't move much, allowing the tyre to keep gripping without over-heating.



If you think you are going to do lots of track days, then it may be worth investing in a spare set of wheels (don't have to be new or as per the manufacturer) and some track specific tyres. But get advice on what dimensions, offset etc you need.
But before you spend a fortune on tyres, get your suspension set up checked first - have a full geo done and get the dampers and suspension checked by someone who knows the cars and settings.
Thanks qbee

T0MMY

1,558 posts

175 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
AD08Rs (the R is important I think) are pretty cheap and very hard wearing on track compared to a road tyre and will hang onto their grip for ages, albeit not being all that sticky for a track tyre. Good option if you're not fussed about lap times and just want a tyre that lasts more than one trackday and doesn't overheat within one lap. For outright grip I think most people say R888s (never used them) but they're way more expensive.

I've just put 595RS-Rs on my MNR but only used it on the road so far. They seem very grippy but that doesn't say much about how they'll be on track...hopefully find out shortly. I actually have 4 brand new 195/50/15s still in their wrapping if you're near Peterborough and want them? Cock up on the order...they sent me 8 instead of 4rolleyes Sadly they also took the money twice thoughlaugh

Dakkon

7,826 posts

252 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
I run the Kumho semi slick V70 in the hard compound, just under £500 for a full set of tyres, so far they have done four trackdays including the 'Ring and Spa this year, good grip and they are lasting well