Noob Question On Tyres

[scatty]

I'd slap some ad08s on it if they come in your size. Mine have been on for nearly a year, with 4 Trackdays and are still going strong. Brilliant in the dry and good in the wet, well apart from donington, but I put that down to the weight of russ and my crap driving....but overall they are a good compromise....

 

T1r's get slated for the elise/exige. Have. A search of seloc, there's loads of threads to give you an idea of what's good and bad...and if its that fruity I'd get the geo checked as well....

[Hammered]

The yoko ad07's are a great tyre dry,wet and when worn to limit as mine are. I need 2 new rears am I correct in thinking the ad08's are replacements for ad07's??

[Acehole]

hello, another noob question,

the factory geometry set ups ( using the posted link) . does the 111s come under standard s2 settings?

thanks

acehole

[R.I.B.]

Yeap, the standard S2 settings are what you should go for if you want it to tend to understeer rather than oversteer .

 

Hammered... I'm in the same situation as you with almost bald ad07s rears and i'm going to stick a set of ad08s on the rear. They're cheaper and apparently better (can't be any worse than my bald ad07s, they seem to of lost all grip now the tread is very low)

[Acehole]

thanks for the replies, hopefully my final noob question for an hour, can i change just the rears for AD07s and leave the fronts on the bridgestones as they have loads of tread on them.

acehole

[Scottish Scrutineer]

thanks for the replies, hopefully my final noob question for an hour, can i change just the rears for AD07s and leave the fronts on the bridgestones as they have loads of tread on them.

acehole

You can, but it will probably be horrible with lots of understeer. I'd replace with AD07/8 and take the opportunity to increase the front tyre width to 195

[russelld]

thanks for the replies, hopefully my final noob question for an hour, can i change just the rears for AD07s and leave the fronts on the bridgestones as they have loads of tread on them.

acehole

 

Give it a try and see how the car feels. For normal road driving if you are not near the grip limit you should be fine.

 

Standard S2 settings for the geo are worked out to be safe and give predicable understeer which is easier to cope with than the back end stepping out.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[Acehole]

car booked in thursday for geo, going for factory settings,

where is the best, quickets place to get the AD07s from ?

acehole

[DeanB]

Try MGW racing in Nottingham?

 

Or Seriously Lotus?

[R.I.B.]

I found my bridgestones went bad/hard before they had worn out and gave no grip especially under hard braking.

If you do change to ad07s / ad08s take it easy for the first 100 miles or so as I found them really slippy until they had scrubbed the stuff they put on for storage.

[M@r]{]

Before you pay £600? for a set of AD08s consider what you are using the car for, your driving style and how many miles a year you're likely to do. I know the Lotus community rave on about the AD08s, but don't just follow blindly. They are a fantastic tyre in the dry offering superb grip bettered only by the road legal slicks. However the wear rates are poor and they are expensive. So in two years you could spend £2400 on aD08s (x4 sets) or £1200 on a.n.other (x3 sets) (figures are just for example purposes)

 

So you are paying a LOT more for the privilege of driving on AD08 and depending on your driving style and what you use the car for you may not even see any benefit. Most people won't take their tyre to the limit on the public road. And if you take an AD08 to the limit on a public road arguably you're a cock!

 

IMO its easy. Ask yourself these questions:

 

Are you going to take the car on track? If "no" buy T1r/Bridgestone or similar. If "Yes" move onto next question:

How often are you going to go on track? If "less than 3 times a year" buy T1r/Bridgestone or similar. If "more than 3 times a year" move onto next question:

 

At this point its a little bit less black and white. A combination of factors:

 

Do you use the car on the road all year around? Ie in our appalling wet weather? AD08s have poor wet performance (comparatively speaking. Better than A048s etc but not better than most decent tyres)

How many miles will you do a year? If its a lot the poor wear rate of the AD08 is not ideal. Unless of course money is no object

Are you a driving God? In other words are you really going to exceed the limits of a normal performance tyre and therefore make use of an AD08?

 

I must be in near triple figures for the amount of track days I have done, I've been on many Carlimits Activity days and have managed to 'win' events. I've also competed in the British Drift Championship and although I had a tyre sponsor I used many different tyres for practice events. I've taken the A048s off my Exige and fitted Michelin Pilot Sport 3s. On my last Elise (Audi engine) I run Toyo T1rs all round. I've done many track days with those tyres, many miles on the road and never had I felt i was 'missing' the A048s. So taking this into account I'm not even tempted by the AD08. IMO its a compromise. Personally I'd prefer to have a tyre that performs very well in the wet as well as dry (lets face it wet days make up a huge part of our year) Then if you really want decent dry grip have a second set of wheels with A048 / R888's fitted. Then if you're going on track and know its going to be dry stick the semi slicks on.

 

However if your Elise is just a fine weather car, a toy car just to take out when the weather is nice, then maybe the AD08 is the best bet. The wear rates / cost matter less if your mileage is low. Then if your occasional use includes track days in the summer then another tick in the AD08 box, at least you can still push the car hard in the wet on them (opposed to the A048s)

[Phil S1]

Good answer!

[scatty]

I haven't found the ad08's to wear particularly quickly. Mine have been on nearly a year, and a few trackdays as well. Maybe I'm not trying...lol...

 

And I don't find them poor in wet weather, I've driven with them all through this winter and they have been fine. Might be different if you hoon it and not respect the conditions I'd imagine, but I wouldn't say they are poor. I think the problem occurs when the temps are in single figures or below...that said mines still been out and about...

 

I think I paid £540 for a full set from Adams and page, and that's on 225 rears and 205 fronts, so I'm guessing they would be cheaper for a smaller front size from somewhere like camskills...I think if you only intend to just drive it on the road then get an everyday tyre. Oh and the tread pattern looks kinda funky on the ad08's, another reason to get a set.....:-)

[M@r]{]

Here are some wear ratings, just to give you some comparisons:

 

AD08 - 180

T1r - 280

A048 - 60

R888 - 100

Michelin PS3 - 320

Continental CSC3 - 280

 

 

Here is a brief description to help you understand them:

 

Treadwear grades are an indication of a tyre's relative wear rate. The higher the treadwear number is, the longer it should take for the tread to wear down.

 

A control tyre is assigned a grade of 100. Other tyres are compared to the control tyre. For example, a tyre grade of 200 should wear twice as long as the control tyre.

 

Of current tyres:

 

15% are rated below 200

 

25% are rated 201 - 300

 

32% are rated 301 - 400

 

20% are rated 401 - 500

 

6% are rated 501 - 600

 

2% are rated above 600

 

So according to the above a T1R would last over 50% longer than the AD08!! Pleased to see my PS3s last nearly twice as long

[Acehole]

Wow!

Only wanted to know where I could get some AD07s from.

But thank you for the in depth response, we will more than likely just use the car for daily driving.

Only slightly spirited until been on a car limits day.

Will the AD07s be appropriate

Acehole

Geo being done Thursday