tyres for the contry

[drac]

After ideas regarding best 111R tyres for all weater performance on very windy roads with uneven sufaces. The type you find on the best back lanes. The bridgestones are ok but front end loses grip in the end in the dry but ok in the wet. Anyonr experienced with the Yokohama Neova AD07 LTS Tyres? or other suggestions?

[bogie]

The new AD07 are meant to be a lot better....nothing else to choose from really as the 175 front is quite a rare size....unless you get new wheels that is

[Beachbum]

You can fit 185s on the standard rims. You can allegedly fit 195s, but that is most probably pushing it.

The new tyres for the 06 111R are Advans and are supposed to be substantially better than the current Bridgestones, not sure of the new Advans are the AD07 though.

[shangani]

I phoned lotus a while back to enquire about the tyres as they have only been available for about 4 weeks. I was told that they were an alternative to the Bridgestones which were £20 more expensive per tyre. They are the same as the US spec elise tyres ie the AD 07's.

They felt that they were slightly better in the dry, but not as good in the wet. Durability probably not quite as good, but better than the )$*'s. They emphasised that it was not a track orientated tyre.

At the time noone bar Andy Walsh had used them - he goes through a set in a week at times. He didn't think they were better than the Bridgesones - felt they had less braking feel. Still only a 175 front, so unlikely to kill the initial understeer.

Spoke to Simon at Brooke Kensington yesterday who was much more upbeat: he has put on about 10 sets so far for customers and all the feedback is good so far. Obviously too early to know about durability.

I was faced with this choice 2 weeks ago. The Yokohamas are only available through Lotus, therefore a fixed price. I was initially quoted over £500 fitted and balanced. Currently £435.90 incl vat but excluding fitting / balancing etc (see Bell-Colville website) Probably near £500 then at £12 ex vat per corner.

I found the Bridgestones fully fitted with ultrasonically cleaned alloys etc for £370 and hence went for this. (Micheldever) I have 048's for track in the summer (when I get new suspension)

Makes for a tough choice - I wanted decent wet weather performance and got nearly 16000 out of my old Bridgestones. Walshy day finished them off.

>> Edited by shangani on Wednesday 9th November 11:26

[drac]

Thanks for the feed back guys, 15000km on the bridgestones and they look ok. As you guys probaly know i'm in NZ along with Esprit and so we need plenty of notice to get anything. I need good wet performance because the heavens can suddenly open here even in the middle of summer. However this happens infrequently where i live and so most of the time its dry. The roads are all coarse chip and so anything to soft will get ripped to shreds.

Bank account permiting i may get another set of wheels eg RAC monolights and put tyres just for summer/track. But i guess this means Nitrons or similar too, any comments guys? Do the A048 cope with the back roads?