Track Day Tyres

[Rob]

Sorry if this is an old topic but I'm new around here!

 

Can anyone tell me the best tyres to use for track days and the optimum wheel size?? I recently borrowed a set of four 185 Yoko A032R on 13 inch wheels for a track day at Cadwell - I found them to be excellent with loads of grip and progressive. But I am told they are poor in the wet, which seems to account for 50% of track days! Someone said the A021R is better all round.

 

Can someone enlighten me?

[Alex Wong1697456877]

I'd agree that the 021's are probably the best all rounder.

 

Good in the dry and wet and decent durability. The 032's I had tended to let go more suddenly both in the wet and dry. They were grippier in the dry but definitely worse in the wet.

 

To confuse matters though, Avon's new Radial for the R500 should be available soon or maybe even now. The tread patteren looks wet road friendly.

 

 

 

Alex Wong

alex.wong@lotus7club.co.uk

http://www.alexwong.net

Home : 44-(0)121-440 6972

Fax : 44-(0)121-440 4601

 

Edited by - Alex Wong on 1 Apr 2000 19:36:08

[Gridgway]

The new R500 tyres look good and are reputed to be brill. However they are only avalable in silly sizes, skinny for the front and massive for the back (OK then maybe 175 front and 215 back, but I could be wrong!)

 

GRidgway

[V7 SLR]

You asked about track-day tyres.... which supposes you are prepared to change you wheels for normal road use, but still need a legal setup to get to the circuit. There are some people who bring their road-illegal track-day wheels & tyres (slick shod racers for example) with them to circuits and change them at the trackside, but I would guess the most common approach is to be able to drive your track-day setup to the circuit.

 

So... you will be only doing track-days in the late spring/summer/early autumn which means you *should* benefit from better weather. If it were a VERY wet day would you go at all?

 

Assuming you want a VERY good dry setup, go for Yoko A032Rs. They are radials, so don't need camber changes like the crossply ACB10s do, and they're not bad in the wet either. I'd say they're tons better than Michelin "anythings", and in a similar ballpark as ACB10s for dry grip.

 

Yoko A021Rs are a good all-rounder, yes, but they're best suited to road AND track use, rather than out and out track use IMO. Seems a shame to spend money on some track-day tyres and then go for such a compromise.

 

If you want the ultimate in road-legal track-day tyres you've gotta bite the bullet and go for ACB10s. You ought to get away without changing your camber if you're on normal 6 inch rims. I know a couple of guys who do this and have no problems. ACB10s are crossply's which is read STIFF. With wider tyres like on the back of my SLR (8 inch) you would need to reduce your camber or the outside edge of the tyre wouldn't be doing a lot. Crossplys should have next to no camber at all. I think mine are set to 1/4 degree whereas Caterhams with radials are set to something like just over 1 degree.

 

I love the ACB10s. They are so grippy it was unnerving when I first tried them, and other people's comments about them being crap in the wet really intimidated me. After having used them over the winter (as a road tyre too) I can say I find them the most predictable tyre I've ever driven on. They tramline like buggery on changing camber roads but I've gotten used to that, and if you use them only on circuit, you'll probably not find this out. In the wet I reckon they're more grippy than my old Caterham's Michelin Pilots. When they let go it is easy to either hold the car in the slide, or to recover it at your leasure. I feel in more control than ever before. In the dry, the stiffness means the turn-in makes radial-shod Caterhams feel as though you turn the wheel and then sometime later, the front of the car follows your instruction. They are soooooo fast-responding.

 

Also, I have a bee in my bonnet about unsprung weight, and the ACB10 is a fibreglass construction. This makes it very much lighter than a steel belt radial. If you are prepared to buy a new set of wheels for your track-day tyres, you should go for a set with spun alloy rims like either the SLR or the SLR500 wheels. This would make your unpsrung weight significantly less than your road setup. Makes for a lovely-balanced car.

[Slipper man]

If your going to buy a set for track days only, buy slicks - much better. You can get 4 in/around a Caterham if you are driving there in it.

[V7 SLR]

Our man was worried that wet conditions constituted the majority of track days in the UK, so slicks would be out. Somewhere a line has to be drawn as to how wet it has to be before you'd cancel a track day. If you were on slicks you'd more or less exclude yourself from all but the drywest of conditions.

 

Even ACB10s, my personal fav, would be pointless if you were intending to turn up to a track day which had standing water on the track.... but then I wouldn't. I would only go if it were "drying" at worst. Outside of that I can only see me trying too hard and having an expensive moment...... Each to his own..... and this is where the Yoko A021s come in. They're probably the best 50/50 compromise between dry and wet conditions.... unless someone has tried the new CR500s in the dry and wet...?

[Alex Wong1697456877]

CR500's are available now in 185/55 R 13 and 215/55 13 - Caterham have these in stock (phoned them today)

 

Not cheap though - 97 quid each before vat

 

Alex Wong

alex.wong@lotus7club.co.uk

www.alexwong.net

Home : 44-(0)121-440 6972

Fax : 44-(0)121-440 4601

[Jules Martin]

Alex,

If Caterham arew offering them for £97.00 plus VAT, take it. My local specialist supplier quoted me (also today) £133.45 + VAT for the fronts, and £148.45 + VAT for the rears, fitted and balanced. However they are saying that Avon are saying (!) they supply Caterham with 175/55/13's and 205/55/13's for the R500. I thought the vehicle was fitted with 185/55R13's & 215/50R13's. - Some of you might ask why I don't go into the garage and look ! The answer is my R500 is at Caterham having it's first service.

 

 

[Andrew Russell]

Alex and Jules!!! Good value at £97.00 each!! It makes the A021R at about £50 each the bargain of the Millenium, this one and the last one!! I know its good to experiment and to try new experiences but come on is any tyre worth twice as much as another when your in this league, remembering that none of these tyres are List 1A and so no competitive advantage is to be gained.

[Alex Wong1697456877]

Depends if you want to be competitive in a Class 1b tyre event. I'd agree that for the road, it makes little odds but at twice the price and half the life, I'd still be tempted by the CR500's if they're as good as people like Derek Moore (Classic Carriage) are saying they are.

smile.gif

 

Alex Wong

alex.wong@lotus7club.co.uk

www.alexwong.net

Home : 44-(0)121-440 6972

Fax : 44-(0)121-440 4601

[Andrew Russell]

Alex, Point taken....I'm just poor!!!