Toyo T1-R tyres

[josephmoore]

Just a heads up - if you didn't know already - they're discontinued (according to a friend of mine at Rare Rims) and being replaced by the T1 Sport which appears to be a slightly more budget oriented tyre. Camskill have just had a delivery of them and they're back in stock in 195/50r15 at least for anyone who's a fan of them. People certainly raved about them as a cheaper alternative to the Goodyear Eagle F1 from when I had the 200SX and they were cracking on the girlfriend's Puma (stuck with Pirelli "hopeless-in-the-wet" P6000s now, yuck) so I'm looking forward to getting rid of the hilariously awful Wanli s1088s for some half decent rubber when they arrive.

[stylussprinter]

You can't really make any judgement of the top end road tyres because they were designed for heavier cars . Today's cars are 1.2 to 1.7 tonnes as opposed to 30 yrs ago eg , my Manta GTE at 1tonne . With kit cars there's no grip to be had on Goodyears , Michelin etc ---- they're way too hard . Of course if you put my few chosen tyre manufacturers Tyres on tintops they'd be way too soft and wear too quickly .
Most of our cars are just under or over 600kgs so can be run at 16 to 18 psi or maybe 20psi on the rear if you happen to be in the 20st region

[josephmoore]

Bit of a follow up - the T1-Rs are decent as a road tyre, but having ruined a pair on my wife's Puma on some incredibly abrasive tarmac - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3-YlN3iYvw - I'm going to donate her the barely worn ones from the Stylus and try a set of Federal 595 RSRs as some stickier rubber for next season's competition. Anyone had any experience of them? Seem to be thought of quite highly - not quite R888 level in the dry but far superior in any kind of dampness and much less expensive at about £60 rather than £100 each.

[stylussprinter]

No idea what the Federal's grip will be like , as I'm always after the absolute max grip regardless of price , because my mileage is around 500 miles a year. What I would say is don't put more than 16/17 psi in them or you'll think they're not grippy. Everyone over inflates kitcar tyres . Loaded plus two up on holiday then possibly 2 to 4 psi more in the rear , depending whether you're my 80kgs weight or slightly lardy

[josephmoore]

Duly noted

They get some pretty good comments on Pistonheads, Driftworks and the like - of course, take forums with a pinch of salt, but the Federal 595 RSRs and also Nankang NS2-Rs seem to be reasonable bang for the buck with those looking for alternatives to the usual suspects. Will let you know if I use them and how I get on!

[stylussprinter]

Drifting requires totally different charactoristics to lightweight kit driving --- all they want is a hard wearing tyre that grips which is likely to be way too hard for kits.

[josephmoore]

They use them for the fronts where you want something extra grippy. Good praise from the Lotus and TVR boys too. We shall see...

[CMA]

I have T1_rs on my Stylus when I'm not running the R888s, and they're crap. No confidence in them at all in wet or dry.

A mate has the Federals on his Roadrunner SR2 and they are fantastic. It's the chosen tyre for one of the MX5 race series too.

If I had my time again I'd have 15s and the Federals on them. They work well in wet and dry unlike R888s and almost as sticky

Shame they don't (or didn't) do them in 13"

[josephmoore]

Got four Federals sat waiting to go on the car now

£53 each from MyTyres which is brilliant. The cheeky buggers wanted £15 per tyre surcharge to deliver to the Isle of Wight on their website, but interestingly their eBay account wasn't set up to flag my postcode as costing more - took a chance on it half expecting them to cancel my order but they arrived a few days later!