jamest

I need to replace all four Conti Sport Contact 2's on my car. Primarily, I want a tyre that is going to perform well on dry track days but I do not want the expense or hassle of a second set of wheels so I need a tyre that is usable for wet and dry road miles to get me to/from the track and also the odd 50 mile Sunday morning drive.

Initially, I thought Toyo R888's were the answer but they seem almost impossible to get hold of at the moment and some say that they are very tiring on longer journeys (London to Spa is on the cards for early 2011). I then started reading great reviews on the Kumho V70a, has anyone any experience of them? The Yokohama AD08's also look interesting but I can't find any reviews other than the Evo magazine test where they compared them against a bunch of standard summer tyres. Any experiences or recommendations or gratefully received!

964russ

The toyo,s and yoko,s you mentioned are road legal track tyres, dont work below a certain temp, dont work with heavy rain, and dont last long. Perfect for the track and the odd sunday blast in good wheather.
Never used the kumhos, but have read that there ok.
My car is on bridgestone so2 at the mo, and there the best road tyre ive tried, worked well on the track and are fine on the lanes, they even grip in the wet (i dont drive in the wet often thou).
My bm track car in on yoko re070, they seem good allso.

beentherebaby

Tire Rack has some reviews on extreme/Max performance Summer tires that may be informative?

J richard

These are nice for a street cat that sometimes sees the track, do not recommend r comps they will pick up too much crap and wear too fast with no off track benefit ...

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....t+Z1+Star+Spec

941MXVET

I went from Michelin Pilot Sports, to Toyo Proxes 4. I like the Proxes 4's a lot, they are rather inexpensive, wear like iron, and provide very acceptable grip for AX, and track days.

There are probably plenty of members who would prefer a more track-orrented tire, but for the cost and comfort level the Proxes 4's are a good bet.

provoste

Dunlop Direzza z1 star spec is the best non r-compound track tire on the market... Grip is not far off r888's. Its a fantastic tire.

jamest

Thanks all. The Dunlop's look like they would fit the bill perfectly but they don't appear to be available to buy in the UK. Maybe I will give the S02's a go and stick a set of track wheels and tyres on the upgrade budget for 2011!

Cam Arnott

I have had good experience with the Kumho V70a's on a car used for tarmac rally. track and some road use. Good all round tyre which grips well from cold temps which is something a lot of the other R compound tyres do not do well.

J richard

I used to run the SO2s befor swapping to the stars, good tire as well just a little less gooey, even tho they have a lower treadwear (180vs200)..

evoderby

The Kumho's came out really well in a track test performed by Autobild Test&Tuning back in 2005.

http://www.kumhomotorsport.pl/prasa/AutoBild_0205.pdf

In 5 years time developments have of course progressed....Continental, together with Techart, AC Schnitzer and Sport Auto magazine have developed a Trackday tire that has just been introduced: Continental Force Contact.

Special attention has been given to wet weather performance, nevertheless when compared to the current benchmark of all benchmarks the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup+, the following was found on the Hockenheim Ring racetrack:

AC Schnitzer BMW ACS 3 : 1:13.8 Continental
AC Schnitzer BMW ACS 3 : 1:14,7 Michelin

Techart Porsche 997S : 1:13.0 Continental
Techart Porsche 997S : 1:13.8 Michelin

Seems Conti is a 'Force' to reckon with;-)

robmug

Don't rule out the Contis - my favourite tyre on the 964 - good for road and track.

R888s make a lot of noise but are supposed to be better than most trackday tyres in the wet. PCT ran them on their GT3RS in the Porsche Speed championship and had, IIRC, better results in the wet than in the dry.

jamest

@Cam Arnott - Good to hear you like the the Kumho's, what sort of temps have you tried them in?

@evoderby - very interested in these new Conti's. A google search doesn't seem to yield any results, do you know if they are on sale yet?

@robmug - I like the conti's also, although I don't have a benchmark for them as I am new to the 964. I was planning to just replace the rears but a fairly dramatic front tyre blow-out means that all four need changing. As such, I thought it was worth looking at the alternatives.

jamest

Found more on the Contiforce:

http://www.techart.de/no_cache/en/ne...html?tx_ttnews[backPid]=3&cHash=bc41dffa33

Looks great but only available for 19" wheels

evoderby

Just got off the phone with Conti in Hannover Germany.....wanted to get to the bottom of this;-)

The ForceContacts won't officially be intruduced until spring 2011, at this moment they can already be ordered through Schnitzer and Techart though. Current portfolio of sizes only includes 19" but Conti says they're open for 'the market to make some noise and request alternative sizes' in 17" / 18" .

Don't count on anything becoming available soon

jamest

Thanks evoderby, good to hear that 17's are a possibility at least. I would be very interested in them if they were available although I suspect that they will be priced closer to the Michelin Cups than the Toyo/Kumho.