bravocharlie

For those who have run both the Michelin and the Yokohama racing slicks, I was wondering if you can tell me which you prefer and why. I've run white label Michelins in the past, but due to availability problems for 993 cup car sizes in the U.S., I've been forced to use Yokohamas.

The Michelins are only $85 more per set, so price isn't the issue.

Larry Herman

I think that based upon previous threads, the Michelin was the preferred race tire, followed closely by the Dunlops. The Yoks are quite a bit slower. For the record, all of the East Coast Eurocup guys (GTC1) went from Yoks to Dunlops & their times dropped by well over a second at the Glen.

Geoffrey

Larry, I'm not sure that the GTC-1 guys are a good comparison between the tires. The GTC-1 guys run a front tire on the rear of the car with a soft flexible sidewall. In fact Yokahama says the tire they run (250-650), as well as the 280-650 (GTC-2) are not designed or recommended to be run on the rear of the car. If you've driven a GTC-1 car with yoks, you'll feel the car float on the tires and is not as responsive as the Dunlops. Michelin does not make an 18" that will work on the GTC-1 so no comparison has been made. Yokahama does make the correct size tires specific to the GT3.

It would not surprise me that the Michelins or Dunlop are faster than the Yoks on a GTC-3 car, but I doubt it is as significant as on the GTC-1 cars where they really aren't used appropriately.

4 Kurves

Out here on the Left Coast we have some very fast guys running Yoko's and they don't seem to be slower then the Michelins runners. That said I believe there are some set up differences for Cup cars having to do with the clearance for the front tires (the 250's).

Yoko is tire testing with some Cup cars tomorrow at Buttonwillow Raceway for the new Compenent Motorsports Yokohama Cup Series and I've been told by the principal that the new correct size front tire (240?) will be there.

Availablity is the issue - Michelin has declared that the Blue label Cup tire will now only be available to IMSA GT3 Challenge competitors and ONLY at the events (ie: no testing tires) but that they have decided to bring in a supply of Yellow Cup stickers for club racing.

Yokohama has always had good track support here due to Trackside Performance but I wonder how the availablity will be around the weekends that the CM Yoko Cup series is running.

I've been spanked by fellow Cup car runners using Yoko's to my Michelins so I think in terms of performance I certainly can't blame the tires.

kev

I have run Yokes on a 993 Cup and Michelins on my current gt3 cup. With the Yokes I ran the correct 680 rear tire, not the 650, but know some very fast 993 Cup drivers who run the 650 front tire in the rear and they seem to do very well. I will tell you that the 680 rear BARELY fit under the fender and probably did a tiny bit of rubbing. I personally like the Yokes very much, they are cheap, durable, and pretty quick. I hear Michelins are a bit faster and Dunlops more so, but I don't think that I was driving the car that the 0.5-1.0 second difference came into play.