Toyo r888

[Kierandc5]

So I recently got a z4 and the tyres on the car are hifly. Yea I know never heard of them before so must be budget.

Question is would any of use run r888 on a weekend car. The idea behind it was loads of grip in the dry and no grip in the wet so fun can happen at much much lower speeds.

[Crazy Harry]

No - wouldn't even run them on my Caterham for road use I value a) my life and b) my no claims too much

[BMWZ4MC]

R888 are fantastic on track days where increased grip is an advantage if you’re chasing maximum acceleration and cornering speeds, and trying to reduce braking distances. However, they grip and grip and grip then let go with no warning, so can only be safely pushed to their ultimate limit on good tarmac with run off available.

On a dry road, broken tarmac may unsettle the car whilst you’re cornering at ten tenths flicking you off in to the trees at enormous speed. On a wet road, they’ll grip fairly well until you hit standing water, at which point you’ll be telephoning your insurance company to ask if new pants will be covered in your claim

I ran R888s on my Westfield track car until I realised that >95% of the grip could be obtained from the soft compound Nankang NS2Rs for half the price.

If you want to lose traction on a wet road, it doesn’t matter what tyre you’re running as your right foot will overcome the available grip.

[Kierandc5]

Cheers for the replies. I'll have a quick search on here for the best alternative. The vredesteins get a great review so maybe the r888 was a crazy thought

[Crazy Harry]

I run uniroyal 'rain experts' on the Caterham and was considering them (I think they are Uniroyal 'rain sport' now) for the Zed but I'm too tight to change the run flats with the tread depth they have at the moment. There was a post last year about the rain sports but no comment about how he's getting on with them.

[Kierandc5]

The car I bought came with 4 new tyres about 500 miles on them but I don't rate them. Very unpredictable and the tramlining is horrific. A post on a few hours ago About the mps4 and the guy rates them over quite highly

[Mike.]

Sorry but I’d say a lot of these comments are bollocks.
I’ve used:
Kumho V70A (Mini GP2)
Avon ZZR (Lotus Exige 260 RGB)
Michelin Cup 2 (BMW Z4M)
Pirelli P Zero Corsa (Lotus Exige Sport 350)

All on a multitude of cars all year round as a daily driver and not had a single issue. Standing water can be tricky for some of these but it sounds like OP is using for fair weather weekend use only.

Adjust your driving to the conditions and these are all fine and not waiting to bin you into the next hedgerow, in fact the Cup 2 was better in cold, damp winter than the Continent Sport Contact OEM tyre.

So much scaremongering with these trackday/semi slick tyres and a lot of the apparent “issues” can be resolved by just managing your driving...

[Crazy Harry]

Sorry but I’d say a lot of these comments are bollocks.
I’ve used:
Kumho V70A (Mini GP2)
Avon ZZR (Lotus Exige 260 RGB)
Michelin Cup 2 (BMW Z4M)
Pirelli P Zero Corsa (Lotus Exige Sport 350)

All on a multitude of cars all year round as a daily driver and not had a single issue. Standing water can be tricky for some of these but it sounds like OP is using for fair weather weekend use only.

Adjust your driving to the conditions and these are all fine and not waiting to bin you into the next hedgerow, in fact the Cup 2 was better in cold, damp winter than the Continent Sport Contact OEM tyre.

So much scaremongering with these trackday/semi slick tyres and a lot of the apparent “issues” can be resolved by just managing your driving...

Thank you for your considered view... but the OP asked for would you? In my neck of the woods with sand and gravel road edgings; mud on the road even when the sun shines and the odd patch of spilt diesel from tractors I would not. I can control driving but cannot always see the condition of the road surface well enough in advance for semi slick tyres. It doesn't make my opinion open to derision. I am happy for you to disagree with me but not to devalue the contribution I and others make.

[jimmybell]

I'd argue slicks in crap weather add danger, not fun, as has been said - you'll get less progressive release of grip (thus snappier more surprising instances of the tyres letting go). That adds potential for crashing, not fun. Getting to the end of the corner is more exciting than understeering off of it :p

If you want more fun in crap weather, buy winter tyres.. you can go faster, grip more and be confident you've picked the right tyre to minimise risk of write off.

In my experience the Z4 is a pretty snappy car as it is, made much worse with summer tyres on cold/wet roads. The compounds used on tyres also differ, so winter rubber is less brittle in colder temperatures. There's a noticeable difference on every summer tyre I've ever driven above/below around 8-10oC.

[ph001]

It's really just a case of R888 being a pretty dangerous aquaplaning risk with standing water so you'd have to be fairly pigheaded to fit them on a road car with UK weather. Even the brightest of days can soon turn to a downpour and you'd be driving home with nail marks in the steering wheel on R888's. You'd have to drive like an absolute loon to get enough heat into them on the road in the dry to see any benefit.

You may also find the very stiff sidewall contributes a lot to tramlining.

[Paulr]

Put any old tyres on, turn your traction control off, wear a heavy right shoe, and you will get to know the local constabulary intimately within half an hour or so I suspect.

[Kierandc5]

See I wasn't aware of the snap when the r888 let go in the wet as never owned. I guess it does depend where In the UK you live. I'm in the Highlands where the roads can be smooth but weather is unpredictable

[2skiddy]

Had some R888s on my Z4MC, for track use mainly, pretty good grip on the circuits, never pushed it on public roads, as I would rather do that on track, but I did notice they are a fair bit noisier on the road.

[Mike.]

Being pig headed to use them and nail marks in the steering wheel... All of this talk of R888 performance - Is this from personal experience or a perception from third hand accounts? I'd argue that any of the List1b semi slick/trackday tyres are better in most conditions than any road orientated ditch finder. So straight away an improved tyre over what many people consider a good deal to save some money for a car to travel from A-B.

The key input here is driver, adjust your driving to the conditions. Personal opinion in a multitude of cars (speaking from experience) and having covered upwards of 50,000 miles across the board on varying trackday rubber - I see no issue with the OP's request. I'd maybe look at the R888R though, big improvements.

Best all rounder would be the Cup 2 imo, Used for a very wet trackday and the performance was sublime. Best for a dry day would be the Avon ZZR but they're pricey and limited size options. The Kumho stuck like glue but wore fairly quickly. I'm still building an opinion on the Pirelli Corsa but so far very similar to the Cup 2, just a little more pricey to replace.

[Steve84N]

I had R888s on a DC2 Integra Type-R and they were not well suited to road use. They need heat to work properly and you can't achieve that unless the roads are clear, which they hardly ever are for more than a mile. In moderate rain you'd be aquaplaning at 50-60mph and you were slower than normal cars. They also make a rumbling/whining noise that gets very tiresome.

Nice thought but bad idea.