Tire review: Yokohama C.Drive2 AC02 185/60/14

[91BRG]

Details:
Tires: Yokohama C.Drive2 AC02
Profile: 185/60/14
Wheels: STD 'Daisy' wheels 14x5.5
Car: NA6CE
Previous tires: Bridgestone Potenza GIII, Yokohama C.Drive1
Price: $387 from Bob Jane Bankstown (yokohama promotion buy a set get one tire free)

Impressions
I've only done about 1000kms in them since I got them early July. Rubber still pretty fresh. Dry grip is good, but the wet grip is outstanding. The tires are very progressive in losing traction, and makes it very easy to control in dry and wet conditions even during spirited driving. The first thing I noticed was the steering wheel felt a lot lighter (maybe previous tires were rocks), and on the highway it is super quiet too. In comparison, the tires I had before, GIIIs, were slipping everywhere and would squeal on most corners when pushed (I suspect they were old and hard).




This is not a 'performance' tire and yokohama don't market it as such, it's more aimed at passenger market with emphasis on economy and wet grip. But regardless its actually a very good tire to use, especially with 14 inch oem wheels on an NA (there is not much options for sticky rubber in that size unfortunately). It can be considered for anyone who wants a nice comfortable ride in their stock-light mod roadster with occasional spirited driving. The tire guy said they should last about ~40,000kms.

Overall: outstanding wet grip, very quiet, suitable for those with NA w/ 14 inch wheels looking for a balance between comfort and sports.



bonus pic "testing" the tires at rnp ;)

[GTR4N]

Good to hear you like them, were running out of tyre choices for our 14" wheels

[manga_blue]

I had a set of the original C-drives. I thought they were a really good tyre for the daily driver: fairly soft, supple, good wet and dry grip and very quiet.

I even used them for a couple of track days. The lap times were pretty competitive and they didn't suffer from the heat or chunk up like a lot of other road tyres do, especially ones whose name begins with B.

Wear seemed OK until I terminally flatspotted them in a monster lock-up at Winton.

The only problem with them was that they had a huge amount of mould release compound on them when new and they were greasy as buggary until that scrubbed off by about the 700km mark.

If the new version are as good as the originals then they'd be a pretty good daily option.

[PhilM]

I used them as well on my Daisys, good initially but the harden after they are half worn out. I was told that they have 2 compounds in the tread - soft to start with and then they are harder. Good value for road driving - I did use them for a few track days until they no longer gripped.

[Dan-mx5]

I think I've reached the hard compound, I was really impressed with the grip and now I can easily get the car to slide accelerating early out of corners. Fun but I'd rather the grip.