ZCAT3

My "new" 87 Carrera came with a set of Yokohama A-008R 7x8 tires on BBS rims. I am doing a DE next week and was wondering if I should use these tires or my street tires (Bridgestone RE 730S on 7x9 Fuchs with lots of tread).

I have never used R compund tires so I have no idea how to judge tread wear. Can anyone help me out based on these pictures:

Front Tire:


Rear Tire:

Bill Gregory

Bill,

A008R's? They were good tires! On track tires, regardless of tread depth left, the rubber is spent when there is a bluish tint to the rubber. If you drive to the event, watch the tread depth if it drops below the tread safety bars, in the event the local law doesn't consider that legal. Also, some driving events don't like you driving with street/R tires below like 2/32".

If I had any concern with the 008's, it would be with the age of the tire. You probably know that Porsche says not to use street tires older than 6 years. Don't recall anything similar for track tires, though.

ZCAT3

Thanks Bill - I may have my wife drive a second car so we can take the tires down and maybe chaneg to them during a mid-day break. There is no bluish tint and the rubber is still soft. I just don't have a clue about the wear bars and such as almost every track tire I have seen just look flat (i.e. no noticeable tread). You can see in the pictures there is some tread on them, but it looks like the wear bars have been reached on the back tires.

I presume that these tires should outperform the RE730s, even through the rears are larger and the tread wear is less?

Tom Tweed

It looks like there is still a lot of rubber on those Yokos. I say use 'em up. If you will have another street set for backup and to get home on, then put them on and check them after every session. When you see any signs of cording, they're done.

If they're old, the compound won't be as soft and sticky as a new set, but they'll be faster than the RE-730s. I used to run the A-008RSII until they quit making them. They were the same tire but with an autox compound. I loved them.
Have fun,
TT

Noel

Make sure that there is not any Chord showing through. I usually use them until they get close to that point. Once the chord shows it becomes a safety issue.

Noel

Jim Michaels

I agree with above advice. Tire in the third picture (a front?) seems to barely have any center grove remaining (from slight over-inflation perhaps?). Try to find out how old the tires are. I don't think they've made 008Rs for years. I took some R-1s that had already been used for 2 seasons to a DE because they still had enough tread. I could feel them "going away" (losing grip and feeling different) during the third session. When I checked them after the session they looked like something I wouldn't want to go back out on, so my weekend on track was over. Thus, it might be a good idea to have those street tires as backup.