I think ill try something different from my usual uniroyal rainsport 3's for next years track days. must be road legal for general use but quite sticky for dry track days....whats your preferences?
I seem to have traction problems off the line even though it is a diesel auto

 

 

Michelin pilot sport 4....are they the same as the cup sport?

 

R888's

 

 

my size seems to be odd, was looking at 245x35x18's but seem to be struggling !

 

Federal RSR is available in that size

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m118b0s69..._Noise%3A_70dB

 

Slightly conflicting uses....road.....1/4...trackday

A tyre that will be good for the 1/4 ( what surface ? ) probably isnt going to last too well at a track day

And a bog standard road tyre, probably isnt going to be too hot...or indeed last long at a trackday either.


888's, and especially the new R888R are overpriced, and in big sizes...have little tread so mileage will be crap. I've jsut went through a set without even putting any real hard use on them. I was shocked at how little tread was on them at 275/40x18. Oddly..these had much less tread than the front 235/40x18's

TriAce, popular with drifters off sizes similar to what you ask and are quite a soft tyre, for fairly sensible money and decent tread depth and appearance. I've just put a set on the back of mine, although havent had much chance to use them. But were recommended by a drift friend, and he said they were very very grippy. And the ones I got, 285/35x18 ( 100 ) are pretty soft.

https://tri-acetyreseurope.com/shop/

I had Westlake Sport RS before the R888R's ( again, another popular drift tyre ) and I thought they were good too, only went for the R888R when I did as Westlake didnt have the size I wanted. I was really unimpressed with the Toyo though which was a surprise.

https://westlaketiremotorsportseurope.com/shop/

But many do also rate the likes of Micheln PS2 or whatever names/numbers they use now. Lets face it....they've been around for long enough with enough motorsport, they're tyres should be good.
That said, I did use a pair of Pilot Sport Cup's a few years back and they were absolutely lethal. Might have been great after 20 laps or so...but for road use or anything like it, they were like driving on ice.

 

Nankang NS2R, very underated and good tyre

 

I use the Nankang AR1
Awesome tyre, decent price, good reviews

Cheers Paul

 

 

its on my weekend car. for general road use and 1/4 mile drag strip days that I only attend if its dry.

 

I always thought nankang were cheap and low end tyres. Ive not used them so I guess theyre better nowadays?

 

far from low end as they have come on a in a big way and give premium brands a good run now, I have ns2r on at moment and grip awesome but as mentioned the ar1's are well respected too

 

The track day road legal tyres these days that are made in Asia have improved a lot from the early ones and offer good quality at reasonable prices. I use Federal 595RS and found them very good for grip and wear. Nanking also do decent ones as well.

 

R888s by far the best for grip imo, but there borderline dangerous in the wet and tread depth is minimal even when new, but to get serious power to dry tarmac they are brilliant, my gtr had to have them on or it simply will not grip at circa 950 hp

 

Even my supra would clean hook above 60 mph with r888s on with almost 800 hp at the rear hubs

 

sounds like theyre a bit OTT for my use !

 

888's are good...but not that good !!

Although having used both 888 and the newer R888R...I would prefer the old 888. Mine had more tread to start with than the newer tyre so from a road use point of view that helps.

 

Stevie I have no reason to lie, they cleaned hooked above 60 mph in my supra at almost 800 at the hubs, 2nd gear was always a smoke fest though lol

 

I can still smoke them in 4th well into 3 digits ! lol

 

The supra was very soft rear end squatted well and on 295/30/19 r888s, it's a while ago now but I think 60-100 was 2.7 seconds 3rd gear iirc

 

Traction has always been my nemesis. To be fair, if the surface is very good, it would grip in 4th to hold a reasonable amount of power....such surfaces are rare though. Certainly any airfields here, or roads are almost all shite ! So there have probably only been a handful of occasions where it has seen decent grip in 4th on road type surfaces.
Although I never really have spent too much time playing with suspension to try and make a difference. Just never get the time to spend at venues to do that.

A good warm sunny day at Elvington wouldnt be too bad, but even the last few events there, weather has just been ok.

60-100 would be a very low increment for me due to traction and gearing. But best I can find here was back in 2016 at a local airfield with 265 Westlake Sport RS's. Strangely that day it was gripping better than it ever did on an asphalt airfield/surface and normal road tyres. That seen 2.9s 60-100 although that's 2nd going into 3rd. Traction control was still active throughout the entire 1/4 mile run so whilst it was my best run on normal tyres and normal surface....it still never gripped properly anywhere during the run. I've gotten close to that with 888's on one or two occasions but those cheap ass Westlakes were just better. And as they were cheap, didnt mind doing burnouts, which did help a little too, but it was also easy to overdo the burnout which did make the runs slower.

Last time at Santa Pod before the clutch slipped that dropped to 2.4s but on proper tyres, still a 2-3 shift. 2nd only goes to about 85-90mph, and 3rd would be a little tall to start as low as 60mph for a single gear pull.

It'll be next year before I can try anything with the TriAce tyres now, but as mentioned earlier, they definitely feel soft so hopefully they'll be good.

I also see on another forum a few guys praising those Extreme remould tyres from Poland as very grippy for light track and hillclimb type use. Any prices I've seen seem high for remoulds though, and they also dont have particularly high speed ratings, which in this day and age could have legal issues for a road car regardless of speed limits.