Best 14\" tyre for occassional track work

[Steampunk]

but if they were asymmetrical then you can get away with swapping them for any other corner, do you mean they are symmetrical, and thus can only be swapped for the other corner on the same side?

[StanTheMan]

on the racetrack you can swap them any which way. its only when it rains you get into trouble.

No?

[Steampunk]

Well no and yes.
Most, if not all, symmetrical tyres are made so the leading edges are more rounded/chamfered and/or made of a slightly softer compound to reduce tyre noise. Water and debris channeling is the main concern with tyre groove design, so the tyres' rotational direction matters alot more in wet than dry, but it still matters regardless.

You are unlikely to see asymmetrical tyres on race or fast road-going cars.
The only real advantage of asymmetrical tyres over symmetrical is the ability of interchangability of all corners. But when you think about it, on normal road-going cars, what conditions would you be driving in, in order to take advantage of that?, unless you drive like that weird lady with a phobia of right-hand turns, so she can only make left-hand turns.

[timk]

I talked myself out of the Falken Azenis RT615 last time I purchased tyres (got Yoko S.Drive instead) but next time I am getting them for sure!

Not good for a dedicated track tyre but for mostly street and the odd track day I think they are a great compromise.

[Steampunk]

You talked yourself out of them cause they would have been close to $300 each at the time
It's only money though, right Saboteur?

[timk]

I think the best price was $240 a tyre in 205/50/15. I wish it were \"only\" money!

[kitkat]

Phatmx, I was running 32 psi at QR and it started to feel like it was "folding" under on the last flying lap. Mind you, my alignment settings are not the best (needed more negative camber).

Im no expert but i would have thought 32psi is a bit low... i was running 40psi all round. 32psi would be good for street or an R compound i thought.

Anyone confirm?

[faijai]

I use r888 for daily street driving and when it rains, it gets abit scary. Car sometimes aquaplanes and when theres water stuck on the side of the road the tyres will pull u in as well as any little bumps and things on the road. The tyre itself like someone has mentioned is abit whinny and noisy but ive gotten use to it as my car (dc2r) is pretty loud anyway.

For the track, at wakefield 2 slow laps were JUST enough to heat the tyres up. I tried hitting it after one lap and just flew off. (in dc2r) I actually think the r888 are abit over rated. Ive also used kumho v700 and and think these tyres are better on track.

I generally run around 25-28 on track depending on conditions.

If you are not looking to purchase semi's why not try toyo t1r's? or the bridgestone adrenalins which replaced the g3.

[Brad]

I talked myself out of the Falken Azenis RT615 last time I purchased tyres (got Yoko S.Drive instead) but next time I am getting them for sure!

Not good for a dedicated track tyre but for mostly street and the odd track day I think they are a great compromise.

I went from 75% worn 14" RT615's to 16" S-Drives and the S's have way more grip then the RT's when I changed over. Sure a lot has to do with the lower profile and less age, but for street use the S's are much better. On the track may be different though as the RT's handled long stints on the track really well. I guessing the S's are a much softer compound and will go off quickly.

[Sasso]

I have 14\" wheels and also use the same tyre for street and track. I first bought GIII's and lasted me 20,000km including 4 track days at wakefield. If I had rotated them I could probably have doubled the life, one tyre was worn to limit and another was still new looking, but I wanted semis.

I thought they were pretty good until recently I bought some Toyo R888's. Holy crap these things are amazing, best grand I've spent on the car. They worked out to be $230/tyre for 185/60/R14.

I thought they'd be a pain on the road but they're not. Slight hum when you're braking but are quiet relative to other things on my car. Grip when cold is fine, they are FAR better than the GIII's in all conditions, even in the wet the car is far more stable and I have much more confidence now. I managed to aquaplane them last night in the wet (on purpose) when I took a roundabout to see how good they were, I was impressed, you couldn't accidentally go fast enough to be dangerous, you would have to be on a mission. Not scary in the wet to me at all.

In the dry though, they're fantastic. I use 32psi cold for the roads and The wear is tiny, I think they could last as long as GIII's on the road.

The only complaint I have is the ride is a bit harsher because of steel sidewalls (so you dont need to have low profile to get performance). The car seems to follow the imperfections in the road and darts around a bit on very bumpy roads like if you had bigger wheels. The grip outweights that minor point though.

On the track they were pretty good but I had the pressures all wrong. I had them at 30psi cold and they were hitting 40psi+ hot which is way too much. THe car felt so planted but with not enough camber and too high a pressure I could go so much faster. THey wore badly in the middle of the tyre because of the high pressure but the biggest problem for me was that I massively flat spotted them (happens more easily than the GIII's) so now the car vibrates slightly as you drive, if you're careful on the track then they should be fine.

I do 12ish laps at a time and I got good grip straight away so if you do only 5 the higher pressures would probably be ok, you just need to experiment.

Oh and when I tracked the GIII's I used 32psi cold and they were great, grip straight away and it didn't fall away at all in 12 laps. THey also wore evenly in the middle compared to the outside however I didn't have enough camber. Pressure was good though, Higher pressure made the tyre go off after a few laps, then I tried lower pressure and the car felt crap from start to finish, so I stuck to 32, which happens to be the pressure I run on the road as well.

Regarding pressure for racing, toyo has some data.
http://www.toyo.com.au/Pit%20Lane.htm#H ... 0Pressures

I think that page is pretty useful. I guess our cars fall under the upper end of \"light\" so 20-26psi cold and 24-32psi hot. I was running 30psi cold, whoops.

Although if you dont have enough camber for the track you can increase the pressure a bit to compensate but its a compromise. They recommend 3deg camber or more, I was running 2 deg.


I know the R888 is twice the price of the GIII but they're 5 times the tyre. Try and save for them, they are the best mod I've done.
My 2c.

[RaYmO]

I am presently on the Potenza GIII's at the moment as well and I don't mind them... HOWEVER I just called Bridgestone and they no longer make the GIII's for 14\" (or ANY sports performance tread for that size)

So I guess I'm stuck now...

I want a good performing tyre, but at the same time something that will last for a while as I don't do trackwork (the R888s are tempting but if I can only get 10,000k's out of them then it is just too costly in the long term)

Also, is 195/60 R14 too big for a 14\"x6.5\" ? if not then I may go the RT615s as the S-Drives don't cater for 14\"ers

Any other suggestions guys?

[Steampunk]

Strange why Bridgestone would take themselves out of the market with not making any \"sporty\" 14\"s. My GIII's came with the wheels I bought

Raymo .... are you sure you want RT615's or similar?

The reason why I started this thread was because I will be doing numerous track days p.a., with relatively low road mileage (<7,000km), with the main aim being improving lap-times at the expense of tyre longevity.

If you are not doing any track-work whatsoever, then from what the others have written, R888, RT615 etc. would not be the most suited just for road-use.
Yes, these tyres provide massive grip, but they have to be warmed up in order to achieve their potential, whilst GIII's and similar do not. Not to mention wet-weather suitability.

[RaYmO]

I just saw this in another older thread:

Kevin,

The Adrenalin is only in lower than 60 series, currently. However a 185/60R14 will be later in the plan dec or Jan . 195/60R14 is available in Grid 2 (previous pattern to G3) made in Aus, and in the Wide oval.

SO there are still some performance tyres available.
Phil Burnard,
Technical Field Service Manager, NSW.
BRIDGESTONE AUSTRALIA LTD
148 Silverwater Road, Silverwater NSW, 2128
Ph: (02) 8756 4500 (I.D.D. 61-2-8756 4500)
Fax (02) 8756 4540
E-mail: pburnard@bridgestone.com.au

w00t
good news for 14s

[Kvision]

From: ^^ [mailto:kvision@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 3 January 2008 7:33 PM
To: Philip Burnard
Subject: Re: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT

Hi Phillip,

Just wondering if the Adrenalin is still being planned for 185/60/R14 in the near future?

Cheers,
Kevin


From Philip Burnard <PBurnard@bridgestone.com.au>
to ^^ <kvision@gmail.com>,
date Jan 4, 2008 9:51 AM
subject RE: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT



I have spoken to product planning and they tell me that Adrenalin 185/60R14 size wont be made till august now. We have ordered the G3 to fill the gap - these are coming from Japan, due in February, and we have some in Victoria currently.

[Kvision]

From: ^^ [mailto:kvision@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 3 January 2008 7:33 PM
To: Philip Burnard
Subject: Re: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT

Hi Phillip,

Just wondering if the Adrenalin is still being planned for 185/60/R14 in the near future?

Cheers,
Kevin


From Philip Burnard <PBurnard@bridgestone.com.au>
to ^^ <kvision@gmail.com>,
date Jan 4, 2008 9:51 AM
subject RE: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT



I have spoken to product planning and they tell me that Adrenalin 185/60R14 size wont be made till august now. We have ordered the G3 to fill the gap - these are coming from Japan, due in February, and we have some in Victoria currently.

to Philip Burnard <PBurnard@bridgestone.com.au>
date Jun 2, 2008 8:52 PM
subject Re: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT
mailed-by gmail.com
Hi Phillip,

With August just a couple of months away, I was just wondering if the 185/60/R14 Adrenalins are still on schedule to be available in Australia during August.

Thanks
Kevin


Philip Burnard <PBurnard@bridgestone.com.au>
3:38 pm
to ^^ <kvision@gmail.com>
date Jun 5, 2008 3:38 PM
subject RE: BSAL web enquiry - Tyres NSW / ACT

The start of production for 185/60r14 Adrenalin is early July, being made here, we should get stock by late July /early Aug