RA-1's faster than R888's?
 

Was about to pull the trigger on some R888's but the supplier says racers are preferring the old RA-1's. Any other folks noted differences in relative performance?

If you do a search, you'll find a lot of info on the characteristics of the 888. Personally I don't like them as much as the RA1 or Nitto NT01.

Aren't all three made from the same compound?

I don't believe the R888's have slowed the World Challenge cars down...

Vendor says the world challenge drivers were the one's saying the R888's were slower. Not a lot, but slower.

I'm running Toyo RA1's on my GT3. I've got about 6 track days on them. They were unshaved when new... and a bit squirmy until they wore down a bit. They feel fantastic right about now. I figure I've got about 6 or so track days left on them.

I already ordered a set of Toyo R888's as replacement tires. So, I'll be able to report back in short order on my comparison between the two designs.

My understanding is the tread block configurations are different between the two tires. RA1's can be effectively "shaved" down for track use. I've heard that shaved R888's pretty much trashes the life of the tire.

FWIW

Really? I would imagine that none of the teams has the set up right, versus 10+ years on the RA1's.

Racers that perfer the RA-1's have not learned how to optimize for the R888. Right now I run RA-1's and know how they work as I have been racing on them for 6 years (9 sets). I have 2 sets of RA-1s left that I am using. I just got a set of R888 and don't even know the optimal tire pressure.

Change takes work even if the car will ultimatly goes faster.

I would think that the tread design cant help much even after being shaved, vs the faint lines left on the old RA1s after shaving.

I was going to grab some tires at the LB grand prix, but just cant make it down. Im down to my last 6 sets of used RA1s :)

mk

seems like the reports on RL have been focused on problems with shaved 888's and that they go away pretty fast.

I bought a set of shaved R888's as the test dummy for our Spec Boxster class. They were remarkably slower then the unshaved R888's and dangerous.

I had been consistantly turning low 1:35's on a used set of unshaved Toyos starting out the day with 11 HC's. On a set of brand new shaved R888's, I couldn't get below 1:38. They became so slippery in their first race (2nd. HC) that I retired halfway through out of safety concerns. I then put on a brand new set of unshaved R888's and promptly turned a 1:34:2 effectively trimming 5 seconds off the shaved tires best lap. I ran the shaved set twice more under different bar setups trying to get them to grip to no avail. After 6 HC's the tires were basically worn out, almost corded on the outside edges of the outside tires.....

This makes absolutly no sense. I presume you are refering to Willow Springs,right?

anyway, the WCGT folks and Touring cars have not seen any time differences at their first race, and i would have a hard time believing that the new tire is any different, especially since its supposed to be made from the same compound. They will be at long beach this weekend, so it will be interesting to see if anyone has any dangerous feelings about the tires. if so Im in trouble!

you are talking about a 4 second difference between the same tire, but one shaved (which is usually always faster) and one that is not shaved, and that is usually always slower with more tread and a heck of a lot more noise! That difference was like the 280 tread wear toyo T1S street tires and the RA1s! (about 4 seconds )

the fact that you corded a set of tires on the very outside edge tells me that there is some other things going on. if you could post some pictures of the corded R888s and the full tread R888s maybe we could see something that might have caused you this issue.

If there is really an issue with the shaved toyo R888s, i think we will see some big problems in Long Beach with the GT cars. Maybe the tempuratures in Sebring allowed the cars to turn some good practice times. they didnt have a qualification, and touring cars ran fine and the same times as the prior year.
(235x40x18s and times of 2:25ish which is as fast as many of the slower PCA GT cars) In practice, the GT cars ran their extremely fast near 2:10 range.


Mk

edit: as a side note, if the full tread toyos work as well or better than shaved, then that would add a heck of a lot of life to my garbage can tire strategy, providing i can fine some used full tread tires this season!

World Challenge has only been running RA1's since the 2003 season, but the point still remains that there is likely still some speed to be gotten from adjusting to the new tires.

Mark nobody was more shocked than me. I had gone into that weeked expecting a huge advantage being the only Boxster with shaved R888's. I wish I could show you the pics of those tires but I threw them away. Several of us made a thorough examination of them including Mike Essa and Blake Rosser and we were all shocked how worn out they were after 5 HC's. It wasn't just the outside edge, it was the complete tire though WS will wear the driver's side tires more. I have 16 cycles on a full depth set and the outside tires look so much better than the shaved set. We took temp reading across those tires in Friday's practice and got acceptable readings on all 4 tires. Spreads of no more than 30 degrees inside to out. There was a veteran 944 spec driver also using shaved R888's for the first time and he suffered the same type of results.

Two things cross my mind. One is perhaps the company that shaved them overheated them or damaged them in some way. Second perhaps it's something to do with the Boxster's weight balance though that seems like a stretch. I look foward to talking to a few of the World Challenge racers after Long Beach....

I'm loving my R888's as much as I did the RA1's, the R888's took a good day at the track to finally wear in a bit and feel comfortable on them though!