Best tires for 1000-mile road race?

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Tom King

Registered Member
Joined
26 March 2003
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80
Location
Nipomo, CA, USA
I'm running the Chihuahua Express road race in Mexico this April. It's the first race in the International Open Road Racing Championship series, and it's 1000 miles over 3 days on paved mountain roads. It consists of 350 miles of special stages (pure time trials on closed sections) and 650 miles of transit runs (brisk speeds but no time penalty as long as you get to the end on time). For the other races later in the season, I'm running Michelin PS2 tires that are rated for over 186 mph (the coveted "(Y)" rating as opposed to the regular Y rating). But for this event in Mexico, where I won't be running sustained speeds over 160 mph, I think there might be a better tire for the curvy mountain roads. I'd like to run 215/40R17 in front and 255/35R18 in the rear. I'm considering the Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08, but I'd sure appreciate some recommendations, especially from you track experts.

Thanks!
 
Thanks, Billy! Yeah, the R compound is tempting, but this IS an endurance race, and these ARE Mexican roads ;-)

I appreciate the feedback on the AD08's. It gives me a lot more confidence.
 
You could safely run an unshaven NT01 for 1,000 miles... I have heard local guys say they drive them to and from the track and get 3k miles out of them.

My personal street tire preference is the Dunlop Star Spec Direzza, it seems to be a little more consistent throughout its life compared to the AD08. The AD08 gets a slight edge in lap time, but mine heat cycled out and fell of like a brick long before I ran out of tread.
 
Scin said:
You could safely run an unshaven NT01 for 1,000 miles... I have heard local guys say they drive them to and from the track and get 3k miles out of them.

My personal street tire preference is the Dunlop Star Spec Direzza, it seems to be a little more consistent throughout its life compared to the AD08. The AD08 gets a slight edge in lap time, but mine heat cycled out and fell of like a brick long before I ran out of tread.
Click to expand...

I use to drive my NT01 and R888 to and from the track. I think 3k is unrealistic wear when you add in track time. However, a street type race like the OP is talking about is probably doable with R comps because you are not really pushing the car 10/10th consistently like on a track. I think you could easily get 1000 miles of canyon type driving out of either NT01s or R888s. That being said, if it rains forget about it. If it were me, I would stick to the AD08 or Z1 Star Specs. The amount of overall grip you are giving up is marginal compared to the "what if it rains" factor.
 
CL65 Captain said:
I use to drive my NT01 and R888 to and from the track. I think 3k is unrealistic wear when you add in track time. However, a street type race like the OP is talking about is probably doable with R comps because you are not really pushing the car 10/10th consistently like on a track. I think you could easily get 1000 miles of canyon type driving out of either NT01s or R888s. That being said, if it rains forget about it. If it were me, I would stick to the AD08 or Z1 Star Specs. The amount of overall grip you are giving up is marginal compared to the "what if it rains" factor.
Click to expand...


I'm running the R888 on the GTO and have been VERY impressed with the dry grip.

When we had the heavy rain a month or so ago it did decent and I didn't feel any lost of grip. As long as there wasn't any deep puddles.

I do like the AD07 and Z1 on the NSX. Haven't tried the AD08. Is there any difference?
 
Can you change tires, or do you have to run the same tires for the entire race?

There's no way you're going to get 3000 miles on the NT01. In my Integra Type R, they would typically last me about 1200 miles from full tread new tires to showing the belts, and that's a lighter car on which the tires were flipped and rotated. At least with the RA1 I could get around 2000 miles.
 
BATMANs said:
I'm running the R888 on the GTO and have been VERY impressed with the dry grip.

When we had the heavy rain a month or so ago it did decent and I didn't feel any lost of grip. As long as there wasn't any deep puddles.

I do like the AD07 and Z1 on the NSX. Haven't tried the AD08. Is there any difference?
Click to expand...

I run nitto NT01's on street & to/on track... great tire.

the ad08 offers ALOT more grip than the ad07 in my opinion....


n
 
BATMANs said:
I'm running the R888 on the GTO and have been VERY impressed with the dry grip.

When we had the heavy rain a month or so ago it did decent and I didn't feel any lost of grip. As long as there wasn't any deep puddles.

I do like the AD07 and Z1 on the NSX. Haven't tried the AD08. Is there any difference?
Click to expand...

There is a HUGE difference between driving a car on the street in the rain and running canyon Mexican roads in a rally type race. You are NUTS if you think that the R888 is anything but extremely marginal running hard in the rain. I have tracked my car in the rain with with almost full tread R888s - this is the result. R888 or NT01s I won't even go out on the track in the rain any more. My Goodyear F1GS3D and Dunlop Star Spec Z1s were actually pretty decent in the rain on the track.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g_UmIBG2jdo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Last edited:
CL65 Captain said:
There is a HUGE difference between driving a car on the street in the rain and running canyon Mexican roads in a rally type race. You are NUTS if you think that the R888 is anything but extremely marginal running hard in the rain. I have tracked my car in the rain with with almost full tread R888s - this is the result. R888 or NT01s I won't even go out on the track in the rain any more. My Goodyear F1GS3D and Dunlop Star Spec Z1s were actually pretty decent in the rain on the track.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g_UmIBG2jdo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...


Good recovery. Almost looked on purpose.

How fast were u going?

I was in the GTO doing 55-65 MPH in very heavy rain.

Of course the GTO is about 1k lbs heavier and has a near 50/50 weight distribution with a little more weight biased towards the front of the car.
 
BATMANs said:
Good recovery. Almost looked on purpose.

How fast were u going?

I was in the GTO doing 55-65 MPH in very heavy rain.

Of course the GTO is about 1k lbs heavier and has a near 50/50 weight distribution with a little more weight biased towards the front of the car.
Click to expand...

Looking at the speedo, it appears around 45 mph. Normally I'm at about 75+ and accelerating in the dry at that point.
 
Last edited:
CL65 Captain said:
There is a HUGE difference between driving a car on the street in the rain and running canyon Mexican roads in a rally type race. You are NUTS if you think that the R888 is anything but extremely marginal running hard in the rain. I have tracked my car in the rain with with almost full tread R888s - this is the result. R888 or NT01s I won't even go out on the track in the rain any more. My Goodyear F1GS3D and Dunlop Star Spec Z1s were actually pretty decent in the rain on the track.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g_UmIBG2jdo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...
I don't like rain lines either :tongue:


JK :)
 
You guys are the best! I greatly appreciate the willingness to share expertise and experience. To answer a couple of questions, I could change tires if necessary, but the cars are locked in the parc ferme overnight, so it would cost me some time penalty to make a change. I'm thinking, based on the mostly positive feedback, that I'll use the AD08's on new wheels and keep the Michelin PS2's (mounted on OZ Ultraleggera wheels) in the support vehicle just in case. And I agree with the rain comments - it's unlikely to rain at that time in that location, but it could happen, and I don't think I'd like to be on R tires in the wet. In addition, I'd like the extra puncture resistance of regular road tires.

Anyway, thank you!
 
I hate the NSX steering rack, here is my video from two weekends ago on Star Spec Direzza's in the rain. If you play the first episode of me getting loose in slow motion I actually do 2.5 turns of the wheel to catch it (Fast Forward to 1:05 or so)!

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZI47VK_euAk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

BATMANs said:
Good recovery. Almost looked on purpose.

How fast were u going?

I was in the GTO doing 55-65 MPH in very heavy rain.

Of course the GTO is about 1k lbs heavier and has a near 50/50 weight distribution with a little more weight biased towards the front of the car.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Reminds me of the R&T P.S. picture many years ago showing a guy standing on the side of the road looking at his wrecked Ferrari up against a tree. The caption was, "Good tires," mused Bob, casually lighting a cigarette, "But certainly not great tires."
 
Michelin PS2 is what I would recommend.

I have had these on the Viper and the 300ZX and have been very impressed with the traction on both in all types of conditions and road types.
I even drove 10 miles in a few inches of snow with them on the Viper.
 
Thanks, I'll have the Michelin PS2's as spares for this event and as race tires for the next two shorter, higher-speed events. This gives me good confidence on both choices.

All the best,
 
nils said:
one of the hidden benefits of tirerack.com website are their tire test....

you might find this test useful... :biggrin:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=118

check out the ad08 dry test results... this is why i luv them.
Click to expand...

They are quick when new but they heat cycle out and fall off like a brick with plenty of tread left. I may lose a tenth with Dunlops but by the end of their life they are *seconds* faster then ad08's that are similarly used.
 
nils said:
one of the hidden benefits of tirerack.com website are their tire test....

you might find this test useful... :biggrin:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=118

check out the ad08 dry test results... this is why i luv them.
Click to expand...

It's a pity that both RE-11 and AD08 aren't offered in 275/35/18, which I run in the rear of both my GTO and NSX as well as all 4 tires on my brother's RX8.

I just don't get why they don't make that size.

I will say that I agree that the Kumho XS takes corners better than the Z1. But the tires sound noisy.
 

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