Tyres for the Mk2 Golf GTI Championship are sold to competitors at a discounted rate firstly. In terms of use, check with the guys at a race, but 2-3 sets possibly a year? Some buy more, but if you have a wet weekend, suddenly lots of tread saved!
Its quite illuminating to look at these treadwear figures Toyo T1R - 'proper' road tyre, considered soft-ish, treadwear (TW) 280 New Yoko Advan AD08 - getting good reports, heading towards a trackday tyre, TW180 Toyo R1R - a 'rain' trackday tyre? TW140 Toyo R888 - trackday tyre, and quite a soft one at that, TW100 I would think a TW50 tyre like that Hankook V2111 wouldnot last very well on a trackday at all - I had R888 GG's overheating in 4 laps at Anglesey this year Anyone know of any TW0(zero) tyres?
About Toyo R1R: it's a road legal NOT semi racing tyre, as allowed in Belgian regional rally series. Everybody fits them since Bridgestones S01 & S02 has disappeared, they are around 1"/km faster than any other brand on dry roads, but melt like ice in the sun, 120 km of special stages are too much on a (very good) Corsa (Nova) in 195/50-15. About the performances on the wet: awfull if a lot of water, very bad aquaplaning performances. About the price, one can find 195/50-15 from 50€ in Belgium. Worth the trip?
thats a very good price - almost worth a van.... I found 2 tyres with TW zero ratings, one is a drag racing tyre and the other is a sprint tyre Given an R888 is 100, these must be mega soft http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=g-Force+T/A+Drag+Radial https://www.rsracing.com/rscatalog/asppages/rt-dotsrb.asp
Just to add this ^^ from another thread, and this: Toyo R888 - UTQG: Treadwear 100, Traction AA, Temperature A Might be intersting to pull in numbers off other tyres?
Got a delivery of these today: 195-50-15 Federal RS-R's Treadwear: 140 Traction: A Temperature: A Gurds
Most places are listing them at 75 per corner but Mytyres.com came out top at 62 each inc delivery. 251 all in. So a lot more expensive than T1-Rs but these are supposed to be close to the R888s as you can get. Given that the title of this thread is a cheap alternative to R888s then hopefully the Federals are them. Gurds
Very good track day tyre, as a former tyre test driver, I can recommand it. As good on wet as on dry, I used it at the front of the Golf in a wet race in Zolder while I fitted R888 in GGG compound at the rear. There was a lot of water and the Federal was opened enough to avoid aquaplaning. It was in the Belgian Historic Cup, and finhed 4th overall (16 th in dry practice). The other 2 ones ran a lot in Spa on dry and Zolder in track days, and are not yet half worn. Just have a look at the R888 GGG (medium cpd), NO markings like on the GG, not the "DOT", just the E and the dot references.
Ive got a couple of these off the nurburgring clio fail but not tried them on the golf yet. Will get them fitted and test on track end march.
Not bad at all... as Billb's experience backs up, they look like more of an all round profile (wet&dry) than the R888s. Save the 888s to shave the last couple of tenths at Curby and take those round the 'ring
Had the Federals fitted and they are wide!! The old Toyo T1Rs were 195-45-15s and came in at 195 wide according to specs. The Federals have come in at 200 wide even though they are also 195-50-15s. 1st impressions are that they have much more grip than T1Rs & Eagle F1s. Before 1st gear was useless and 2nd gear used to spin up if very aggressive and kinda skipped along a bit with only really 3rd provinding proper grip (and thats in the sub 10 degrees we have now). Now it all seems to have come down a gear. 1st is like 2nd was and 2nd has almost full on grip. The tyres aren't even scrubbed in yet. Damp conditions are even more shocking! On the old tyres, a bit of damp weather would see me into wheel spin city until roads were fully wet and even they required some careful throttle application. The Federals have an unreal amount of damp/wet weather grip. More than any tyre I have ever driven so far. I have yet to try them on fully wet roads or puddles. I can't comment on cornering characteristics are I can take most corners faster than is safe on a public road but they do seem eager to turn in and the car feels lively. Gurds
The softer compound will be lending itself to grip far better on the cold roads. Proper wet weather like today will probably be useful feedback too.
Right, been out on thoroughly wet roads and I'm still impressed. They don't seem to require a warm up either. Straight line traction in the wet is similar to the T1Rs and Eagle F1s in cold dry conditions. Corners still feel confidant and the diff can be felt more in wet low speed corners than before. Puddles don't upset direction either. I won't know about high speed aquaplaning as I do my best to avoid that scenario. Just got to see how long they last, if performance remains consistent and most importantly, how they fare on track. Gurds
Do you want to borrow some R888s to compare grip levels? Only problem is they're not balanced on the new rims yet.
Just a quick note on Tread Wear ratings: 1) There is not an industry standard for computing tread wear ratings so manufacturers come up with their own ratings which are fairly arbitrary 2) It is a tread wear rating, not a compound or softness rating. deeper tread with the same compound would get a higher rating.