chancecasey

Where do most people in the SF bay area get their toyos, and what kind of prices do you pay - for the tire itself, shaving, mounting, and balancing? I have seen 205/255x40x17 as low as $160/tire unshaved, with $60 for shipping 4 tires. I'd still need to get them shaved, mounted, and balanced, though.

Also, most people claim 3-4 weekends of useful life - does that mean 6-8 days?

Wreck Me Otter

AIM Tires at Sears Point. Have them do the shave, mount, and balance. At the very least have them do the shave, they do a good job.

Pricing can be found at: Tire Prices

Mike Buck

My shaved Toyos have 13 days on them (6 race, 7 DE) and are still getting faster.

Wreck Me Otter

That's pretty good Mike. My 4/32 shaved RA-1's on the SM last MAYBE 6 total days (Two 3-day race weekends including a test day). Although, on a newly surfaced track, the older tires are faster so I have on set of 23 heat cycled tires that still work great at the recently repaved Laguna Seca...but suck anywhere else....

Todsimpson

Just as a point of reference I ran mine unshaved. They have around 15 days and are just starting to get fast.

The car is a 2200lb '71 "RS" with ~240hp, used for red/black DE.

They were quite squirmy for the first few days, but still predictable and reasonably fast.

Tom W

I got mine at Roger Kraus or AIM. Both great shops to deal with.

Unshaved they were unimpressive (they sucked) compared to MPSCs (on a 2800 lb car). They were getting better after a couple days, but I never ran them very long due to changes I made to the car.

Sean F

I'm running them unshaved after running shaved MPSC's and they are very squirmy versus the MSPC's after 3 DE days.

Greg Smith

I'm getting them shaved 4/32's and am getting 4 days(4 25 min sessions/day). Wear drastically depends how hard/fast you drive.

DanS911

Don't forget to watch the wear patterns and flip them when necessary, after they are shaved (or worn down) they are no longer directional.

Greg Smith

Actually they don't even have to be worn down to be directional, they can run either direction in the dry at full tread depth.. They're only directional in the rain(when they have tread blocks still).

Mike Buck

that is the most unfair comparison in the history of comparisons. the toyo almost has to be shaved for any dry track use. my car was flat scary on full tread toyos.

my shaved toyos are right on pace to cord just as they heat cycle out.

gps-marc

you should try Vilven Tire in Royal, IL. They do all of the Toyo track support for the Speed World Challenge series, and Toyo is the spec tire there. They do the best job of shaving of anyone I've ever seen.

chancecasey

Awesome feedback guys - thanks! One more thing, if RA-1's were not spec and you wanted an all-out dry track tire, keeping costs in mind, what you pick? Would you still stick with the RA-1's for bang for the buck, or do the hoosier or hankook "R" tires (don't know the model names) become more appealing? I've heard they are a wee bit stickier, but presumably they would wear out a bit faster? Anyone driven both RA-1s and something else and feel faster or notice a difference in usable life?

Wreck Me Otter

For racing, I'd pick the stickiest tire no matter the cost. For DE, I'd pick the stickiest cost effective tires. I've heard good things about Nitto NT 01's from other Rennlisters but never tried them myself.

M758

Well, thank GOD they are a spec tire in our class. Frankly speaking the Toyo's are NOT the fastest tire out there. I do feel they provide an excellent value in that the provide nice grip, long life and reasonable initial costs. If I were in an open tire class I would have a hard time running them. It would depend on how fast I was compared to my competition. If was with in a second or two per lap o Toyo's then I would probably swap to a hoosier or V710 to make up that gap. If was way off the pace in class due to all kinds of other mods then I'd probably give up and just run the toyo and save money.

In fact on reason I continue to run 944 spec after 4 years is due to the spec toyo. It allows me to compete on level playing field and not have to buy fresh tires every weekend. I could in fact take my 944 and run many many places, but then I'd need to run the "fastest" tire and that would only increase costs, but not really increase the fun. I think it would fun one day to bolt on Hoosiers just to see how much time I can get from the. Problem is that ALOT of money for a fun day.

BTW... I used to run Kumho Victoracers on this car and was getting about 1/2 the tire life as get from the RA-1's. That was with similar car & feeding, but now driving the **** out the car running 2 second a lap faster at most tracks than did when ran the Kumho's. The speed was not from the tires as I slowly got faster as pushed harder and learned to be a better driver. No real speed change when I put on the Toyos athought over a lap or two I think the Victoracers are faster. During a 30 min race I think they are pretty even, but the Toyo may be more consistant such that you may cut fast lap on the Kumho, but then it falls away, but the toyo stats consistant during the race.

BTW... I hae used 5 sets of Kumho's and 6 Sets of Toyo's