best road legal trackday tyres?

[JakeR]

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

cheers guys

JakeR

[fergus]

JakeR said:

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

ACB10s (A30 compound, although if you're not bothered about wear, try the A24 compound - I think they make a DOT approved tyre in this format)

[Shaun_E]

Track use only or road use?
On track any "soft" compound tyre is going to go off within a few laps and wear very quickly. Medium A048Rs are about right (do they even do "soft"?).
There are lots of alternatives at different price points.
For road use only I would recommend Avon CR500 or if you don't want to pay that much then Toyo R888 in medium (GG/2G) compound. The Avon ZZR is now (or shortly will be) available for 13" wheels but again that will cost more than the R888s or A048Rs.
For track use only then A048R is fine. An alternatives is the Kumho Ecsta V70A (medium compound or hard for higher powered cars).

Edited by Shaun_E on Thursday 3rd December 15:49

[Shaun_E]

ACB10s is a good call but you will probably need to change the geometry on your car to get the best out of them (they are crossply).

[sam919]

Have tried the lot over the past three years. Kumho Ecsta V70 are the ones to get for dry grip, half the price of ACB and twice the performance.

[JakeR]

interesting guys... thanks a lot...

I have a set of CR500s, and I think they are a great all rounder...

was after something a bit more dry grip focussed.

I had discounted the ACB10s, due to the geometry thing, but will investigate those Kumhos.

Interesting post about the soft tyres going off...

[BertBert]

fergus said:

JakeR said:

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

ACB10s (A30 compound, although if you're not bothered about wear, try the A24 compound - I think they make a DOT approved tyre in this format)

I think that this is the only topic in the caterham world that Fergus and I actually agree on

Also regarding geo, it's pretty easy to change the DD ears at the back to get the right camber and the front is just a geo setup. Neither are too challenging.

Bert

[JakeR]

BertBert said:

fergus said:

JakeR said:

Hi folks,

just wanted to gauge opinions... what do you think are the best trackday tyres for a 7 on 13 inch rims. Gotta be road legal.

I am only talking dry grip here by the way...

is there anything to beat soft compound A048Rs?

ACB10s (A30 compound, although if you're not bothered about wear, try the A24 compound - I think they make a DOT approved tyre in this format)

I think that this is the only topic in the caterham world that Fergus and I actually agree on

Also regarding geo, it's pretty easy to change the DD ears at the back to get the right camber and the front is just a geo setup. Neither are too challenging.

Bert

when you say 'too challenging' are we talking about something that can be done quickly, trackside, by a dufus (that's me that is)? I mean if, halfway through a trackday, i wanted to change back to radials?

[sam919]

It would be something that would detract from your trackday, an hour spent pi##ing about to no real advantage

[JakeR]

sam919 said:

It would be something that would detract from your trackday, an hour spent pi##ing about to no real advantage

yeah... that was kind of my thoughts.

I have no problem with changing from wets to drys or vice versa, but too much other fiddling about would be a right old kerfuffle methinks...

[fergus]

BertBert said:

I think that this is the only topic in the caterham world that Fergus and I actually agree on

I may need to take you up on your historical offer of borrowing your engine hoist if the option is still available?!

[Mars]

Set the car up for ACB10s when you're on the track, then use those same settings for CR500s when you're on the roads again. It just works. CR500s seem to work fabulously with 0.25 neg camber at the rear and a lot less neg camber at the front than Yokos or Khumos (sp?).

[fergus]

Mars said:

Set the car up for ACB10s when you're on the track, then use those same settings for CR500s when you're on the roads again. It just works. CR500s seem to work fabulously with 0.25 neg camber at the rear and a lot less neg camber at the front than Yokos or Khumos (sp?).

What's the preferred setup for the Kumhos? I currently only run ACB10s and occasionally CR500s, so have zero experience with radial tyres on the 7! I'm only after general setup indications rather than your hard earned race setup! PM me if you like!? thks

[Mars]

fergus said:

Mars said:

Set the car up for ACB10s when you're on the track, then use those same settings for CR500s when you're on the roads again. It just works. CR500s seem to work fabulously with 0.25 neg camber at the rear and a lot less neg camber at the front than Yokos or Khumos (sp?).

What's the preferred setup for the Kumhos? I currently only run ACB10s and occasionally CR500s, so have zero experience with radial tyres on the 7! I'm only after general setup indications rather than your hard earned race setup! PM me if you like!? thks

Not having used them myself, I can only point to the experience of others I've encountered... and they seem to have them as alternatives to Yokos, which means they use similar camber settings for them.

By the way, CR500s are radials but they just work differently to the other brands. Don't really know why.

[fergus]

Mars said:

.... they seem to have them as alternatives to Yokos, which means they use similar camber settings for them....

thanks. Do you happen to know what these are?

Does anyone have actual experience of running the V70/V700s and can advise on a suitable baseline setup.

Anyone who's used a pyrometer to arrive at their camber settings can send me a PM if you like!

[JakeR]

Mars said:

By the way, CR500s are radials but they just work differently to the other brands. Don't really know why.

phew... i thought they were, got well confuseded when someone said you can swap between them and acb10s!!

[Shaun_E]

At least 2.5 degrees negative camber for the Kumhos on the front and parallel (0 toe) although some people prefer slight toe out. Radial (can't remember what the angle is) de-dion ears.
On sprints and hillclimbs, cars with Kumhos are beating records set by cars on ACB10s.
We use soft (or supersoft if available) compound for sprinting/hillclimbing and hard compound for track days. Some of my fellow competitors tried medium compound on track but with 200+bhp they were going off after about 5 or 6 laps! The hard compound take a good couple of laps to get some heat in them but then perform as well as the mediums and last longer.

[Mars]

JakeR said:

Mars said:

By the way, CR500s are radials but they just work differently to the other brands. Don't really know why.

phew... i thought they were, got well confuseded when someone said you can swap between them and acb10s!!

The CR500s are a real oddity. They're **properly** lightweight, like the ACB10. They lend that immediacy to your steering input, the sort you normally attribute to crossplies. Yet they don't tramline.

I recognise that they are often more expensive than equivalent-sized Yokos or others, but they're so suited to the Se7en that I (personally) wouldn't consider anything else.

[fergus]

Guys, thanks for the detailed responses. Is the extra weight of the kumhos (over the ACB10s) felt in the steering, general ride/responsiveness. The car is only used on circuits btw. chrs

[DaveK-S1]

Might be worth waiting for the cr500 extreme replacement that is due out soon.

Its designed for the 7 so should be lightweight as per the cr500, but from what i've heard its more of a dry weather tyre with less tread pattern.

Dave