Road legal track day tyres

[10AE]

My MX5 10AE has recently been relegated to a 'sunny Sunday' car with the purchase of my 306 daily runabout. It currently sits on 4 Pirelli P6000s as did my previous MX5.

On the previous MX5, I changed from P6000s to the Toyo T1R and the difference in cornering grip was very, very noticeable. I deliberately chose the T1R as the car was going to be used in all weathers and the T1R seemed the best tyre for the job.

However, this time I don't need to concern myself with wet-weather traction or wear rates so I am considering purchasing some road legal track tyres (Crossover tyres?) to replace the P6000s.

I have the choice of:

Toyo R888
Yokohama AD048 or AD08
Hankook RS2
Federal 595 RS

Any opinions? The MX5 is quite sensitive to different tyres but I am interested in general views of the above tyres or perhaps suggestions that I might have missed.

[deadalfa]

I have R888s on my (track and road-going) Seven. They're bloody impressive but to be honest I think there's too much grip for the car. When cornering, you're going much, much faster before traction reaches its limit compared with 'normal' tyres. When braking, everything overheated before the wheels locked up so I had to uprate my pads and fluid, and when accelerating it's near impossible to spin the wheels up in dry conditions.

Obviously it depends what you want from your driving. I have no doubt they can improve track times but they took some of the fun out of the experience for me, and I'll be going back to a 'normal' tyre next time round.

Not as bad in the wet as I thought they'd be though.

Edited by deadalfa on Tuesday 11th January 20:43

[Exige77]

Yoko AO48's

Ex77

[JQ]

So, are the tyres actually for track use, or just for your Sunday hoons?

Personally, I have Michelin Pilot Exalto 2's on my MX5 for both track and road use, and they've been absolutely excellent. Can't comment on those on your list I'm afraid.

[10AE]

JQ said:

So, are the tyres actually for track use, or just for your Sunday hoons?

.

Hoonage, now I only do 2k a year in it in the dry only I thought it worth investigating. If I go the "normal" tyre route it'll almost certainly be Toyo T1Rs again as they were excellnt and only £40 fitted per corner.

[h4muf]

deadalfa said:

I have R888s on my (track and road-going) Seven. They're bloody impressive but to be honest I think there's too much grip for the car. When cornering, you're going much, much faster before traction reaches its limit compared with 'normal' tyres. When braking, everything overheated before the wheels locked up so I had to uprate my pads and fluid, and when accelerating it's near impossible to spin the wheels up in dry conditions.

Obviously it depends what you want from your driving. I have no doubt they can improve track times but they took some of the fun out of the experience for me, and I'll be going back to a 'normal' tyre next time round.

Not as bad in the wet as I thought they'd be though.

Edited by deadalfa on Tuesday 11th January 20:43

Mindreader!

[Exige77]

10AE said:

JQ said:

So, are the tyres actually for track use, or just for your Sunday hoons?

.

Hoonage, now I only do 2k a year in it in the dry only I thought it worth investigating. If I go the "normal" tyre route it'll almost certainly be Toyo T1Rs again as they were excellnt and only £40 fitted per corner.

Hardly "Road legal Track Day tyres"

Ex77

[GravelBen]

deadalfa said:

Obviously it depends what you want from your driving. I have no doubt they can improve track times but they took some of the fun out of the experience for me, and I'll be going back to a 'normal' tyre next time round.

Similar experience here with turbo MX5 - they reduce the fun of road driving somewhat, I'm planning to keep the stickies for track use and buy another set of wheels to run normal tyres on the road.

[Exige77]

10AE said:

Exige77 said:

10AE said:

JQ said:

So, are the tyres actually for track use, or just for your Sunday hoons?

.

Hoonage, now I only do 2k a year in it in the dry only I thought it worth investigating. If I go the "normal" tyre route it'll almost certainly be Toyo T1Rs again as they were excellnt and only £40 fitted per corner.

Hardly "Road legal Track Day tyres"

Ex77

Yes, that is why I said "If I go the 'normal' tyre route" i.e. not a road legal trackday tyre.

Try here: www.specsavers.com

Yes I should go to specsavers but atleast I don't have "Normal Route" tyres on my weekend car

Ex77

[aww999]

If it's for road use, I suspect the grip levels of the 888s will be so high that you lose some of the sweet handling characteristics of the car. Unless you drive like a maniac, it will just grip and go. On a track day, you get a much better feel from the 888s than you do from a road tyre (stiff sidewalls, and no large tread blocks squidging around) which I find very confidence inspiring. I find then very progressive at the grip limit as well, even in the wet; even a ham-fisted buffoon like myself was going sideways around Bedford with some aplomb.

R888s = better steering feel, higher cornering speeds, more load on brakes, bushes, diff, balljoints etc.
Road tyre = more fun on road due to approachable grip limits (eg throttle adjustability in corners)

All IMHO, based on my experience with a Zetec-powered Fury.

Edited to add - there is such a big difference between hot and cold grip on the 888s that I don't push them on the road. I find that throwing the car around a lot on the first lap of a trackday session totally changes the feel of it on the second lap. On the road, I can rarely corner hard enough for long enough to get enough heat into them. This may be due to wussiness on my part though

Edited by aww999 on Tuesday 11th January 22:29

[Panayiotis]

I had never heard of them until I came to Australia, so Im not sure they are sold over there, but I hear that the most popular road/track tyre on MX5s here is the Dunlop Direzza Z1 'Star Spec'. I have some on my S2000 and think they are brilliant, excelletn wet performance as well as dry and not too loud either!

[300bhp/ton]

10AE said:

My MX5 10AE has recently been relegated to a 'sunny Sunday' car with the purchase of my 306 daily runabout. It currently sits on 4 Pirelli P6000s as did my previous MX5.

On the previous MX5, I changed from P6000s to the Toyo T1R and the difference in cornering grip was very, very noticeable. I deliberately chose the T1R as the car was going to be used in all weathers and the T1R seemed the best tyre for the job.

However, this time I don't need to concern myself with wet-weather traction or wear rates so I am considering purchasing some road legal track tyres (Crossover tyres?) to replace the P6000s.

I have the choice of:

Toyo R888
Yokohama AD048 or AD08
Hankook RS2
Federal 595 RS

Any opinions? The MX5 is quite sensitive to different tyres but I am interested in general views of the above tyres or perhaps suggestions that I might have missed.

Not sure if they still sell them, but I had some Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres, these were very very good IMO and even pretty good in the wet so long as you remembered they weren't designed for water dispersion