As soon as upon a time, we had race tires and we had road tires, and all appeared proper and simple with the world. At present, nicely, we’ve got various choices. So. Many. Choices.
Need a street-capable tire that persistently delivers plenty of fast laps over an extended interval? Select from the Endurance 200 class of tire. Need to win an autocross or time trial but nonetheless have the ability to drive safely to and from the occasion? A Tremendous 200 tire is your scorching ticket.
What in case your steed is trailered however guidelines require a DOT-approved tire? The market affords a spread of competition-ready R-comp tires. No guidelines restrictions and supreme tempo is your objective? Go together with a pure racing slick.
How do these completely different lessons truly evaluate, although? Is the progress via the steps linear or does one step characterize an even bigger soar? To attenuate variables, we carried out some intramural testing based mostly on one model’s choices.
Due to an extended and numerous historical past of motorsports involvement in any respect ranges, together with the steps frequent in our present scene, Yokohama was a pure selection. The corporate affords two completely different 200tw fashions plus an R-comp and a devoted slick.
For this comparability, our check mule would once more be our Triple Menace ND-chassis Miata, and we’d flip laps at Harris Hill Raceway. Tire sizing was our standard 245/40R17 mounted to 17×9-inch Kogeki wheels from Flyin’ Miata. The lone exception was the Advan A005 racing slick, because it makes use of dimensional sizing that doesn’t correlate precisely to straightforward road tire sizing–extra on this later.
For the reason that AD09 and A055 had been already six-lap veterans from earlier assessments, no extra prep was wanted. We gave the recent A052s the standard warmth cycle with a 45-minute drive to the observe and again, plus six laps of ever-increasing depth. For the slicks, we selected no prep since this sort of tire usually delivers its quickest laps as stickers.
Take a look at day dawned cool with an in a single day low within the 40s. All of our check tires had been saved cozy in our motor house at room temperature till known as into motion. We ran the AD09 first to scrub the observe of in a single day mud accumulation till lap occasions stabilized. A half-hour espresso break allowed these tires to chill once more earlier than we began the timer. Ambient temps had risen to the 50s and would attain as excessive as 68 by the top of the day’s work.
From left to proper: Yokohama Advan A005 (racing slick), Yokohama Advan A055 (R-comp), Yokohama Advan A052 (Tremendous 200), Yokohama Advan Neova AD09 (Endurance 200)
Endurance 200
Yokohama Advan Neova AD09
For dual-purpose automobiles with extra emphasis on road use.
quickest lap: 1:28.0
Our expertise with this mannequin’s lineage now goes again practically 20 years, with the introduction of the Advan Neova AD07 to the North American market in 2005. Due to a patented micro-silica compound, it delivered super dry grip and sturdiness for a road tire. It discovered a house in SCCA Road Touring autocross and have become the unique fitment for the Lotus Elise.
In 2009, the up to date AD08 noticed a efficiency enhance, adopted by a fair faster AD08R in 2013–the R indicating its “revolutionary” compound. That tire was so good that it remained in manufacturing till the arrival of the AD09 in 2022.
on the highway: Along with attaining cone-dodging success, these 200 treadwear tires have additionally discovered their method onto dual-purpose observe day automobiles, the place they ship a powerful mix of tempo, consistency and sturdiness in each moist and dry. Mixed with a responsive, athletic really feel on the highway, the Neova stays a real do-it-all tire.
on the observe: After taking a full lap to come back in, its final grip was not practically as excessive because the others, and the edginess made it onerous to hit all of our marks each lap. Nonetheless, the tire itself hung in there, dropping no efficiency over the total session. We’d name it persistently playful. Whereas the AD09 required quite a lot of steering enter and felt edgy on the restrict, restoration was all the time fast and intuitive.
Audible suggestions was ever-present as soon as the tire was as much as temp, clearly saying pushes to the restrict. Towards the top of the session, the depth of the suggestions elevated because the tire started to mildly warmth soak.
Tremendous 200
Yokohama Advan A052
A streetable motorsports tire for autocross and time trial use.
quickest lap: 1:26.0
Japan and Europe have extra stringent guidelines for street-legal observe tires. As an alternative of our practically slick R-comps, these abroad markets require extra of a tread.
Yokohama has an extended historical past on this space with fashions such because the A022 (1990), A032R (1994) and A048 (2000). American variations of those tires sported very conservative UTQG treadwear scores to market their dry grip focus.
2016 noticed the introduction of the newest on this line, the A052. It carried a 200 ranking, however due to its preliminary tread depth of 6/32 inch, it wasn’t authorized for a lot of the day’s American motorsports scene. That each one modified in 2019 as Yokohama deepened the tire’s grooves to satisfy the 7/32-inch minimal required for the SCCA and others. With this, Yokohama moved straight to the highest of the Super200 class within the U.S.
on the highway: The A052 affords a comfortable really feel and a considerably imprecise steering response. Not like most 200tw tires, nonetheless, the trip high quality is kind of good. At full tread depth, it’s additionally superb in moist situations offered no deep puddles are current.
on the observe: That is the place the A052 actually shines, with super grip being its sturdy go well with. Nook exit energy up is unmatched within the class, whereas lateral grip is among the many finest–that’s, till it warmth soaks. Sometimes, it’s a one-and-done tire in heat ambient situations, with falloff coming shortly after the primary full ship lap.
Warmth soak may be mitigated via decrease tread depths both from put on, shaving or, within the case of this check, a chilly observe. So whereas we did expertise some falloff, it wasn’t practically as extreme as we’ve seen on hotter days.
R-comp
Yokohama Advan A055
Regardless of the DOT ranking, these are billed as for motorsports solely.
quickest lap: 1:24.4
The DOT-compliant R-comp tire class is exclusive to the U.S. market and is the results of a long time of producer competitors. Restricted solely by the minimal U.S. authorities regs for road use, R-comps are shut cousins to full racing slicks. In truth, regardless of that DOT ranking, all are clearly marked as “Not for Freeway Use.”
Hoosier has lengthy dominated this section with its A7 and R7 tires–one for autocross, one for highway racing. Yokohama not too long ago joined the fray with its A055, a tire that matches the R7 in tempo however affords extra exact dealing with traits.
on the observe: The A055 got here as much as temp quite rapidly, and full grip was out there after a couple of lap and a half. Steering response felt extraordinarily progressive, with small inputs making more and more bigger turning moments as cornering hundreds elevated.
Breakaway was a little bit edgy, particularly on the rear of the automobile. This required fixed consideration to drive on the restrict persistently, however the tire’s tempo by no means slowed. Knowledge confirmed that we actually linked all of the dots on that remaining flyer.
Racing Slick
Yokohama Advan A005
Extremely optimized for competitors use solely.
quickest lap: 1:25.4
How a couple of tire with zero concessions for road manners? Enter the world of racing slicks.
Road tires are molded with patterned void areas to assist resist hydroplaning in moist situations. However these tread blocks cut back dry efficiency via squirm.
Within the early days of motorsports, groups shaved off most of that tread to provide a quicker tire. Ultimately, racing tires got here molded with solely a clean tread floor. These tires are generally known as slicks.
That clean tread cap has additionally been diminished in thickness–usually solely 4/32 inch–which additional mitigates warmth buildup underneath load. This in flip permits for a lot softer, stickier compounds for use with out graining.
At present’s racing slicks are extremely optimized for particular purposes and out there in quite a lot of compounds to go well with the necessities of tempo and sturdiness. The place road tires, even R-comp fashions, are sometimes billed as a one-fits-all answer, slicks may be tailor-made to a particular software. It’s principally the final word expression of optimization for objective–however on the expense of wider vary of use.
Not each compound is accessible in each dimension–once more, again to that specialised mission assertion–however for max impact, we wished to attempt the softest compound out there, figuring it will supply the quickest occasions.
Racing slicks usually use dimensional sizing quite than the side ratio system discovered on road tires. Throughout the A005 dimension lineup, the closest match in width to our 245/40R17 road tires is a 240/640R17, however the outdoors diameter is a bit too tall. Plus, this feature solely exists in a medium compound.
The following dimension down–210/610R17–is each shorter and narrower however comes within the comfortable compound. Our expertise has all the time been that compound beats dimension–besides in excessive instances–so we ordered up the smaller, stickier tires.
Our pleasure diminished a bit once we had been knowledgeable that no recent stock existed–the A005 is far more prevalent in bigger sizes–however Yokohama did have a set that was just a few years outdated. On condition that our A055 tires carried out nicely regardless of a 2-year-old construct date, we gave the go-ahead. Upon their arrival, our anticipation took one other hit: These tires appeared even older. In truth, the stickers had yellowed.
on observe: Our suspicions had been confirmed, as these tires had been now not of their prime. They required quite a lot of warmup to ship any grip in any respect, although they had been pretty constant afterward. The driving dynamics had been fairly good, with much more responsiveness than the vigorous A055. However the grip simply was not there to ship the products.
Whereas not all slicks carry a DOT-style date code–producers can lookup batch codes to confirm builds–our A005s did certainly carry one. And that date code was filled with unhealthy information: Our tires had been greater than 5 years outdated.
Even when warehoused correctly, the compounds used to make racing slicks normally don’t age nicely. These tires had been the equal of a skunked bottle of wine, compromising a part of our vertical tasting. We’ll must revisit this one as, based mostly on our expertise, the racing slicks ought to have outpaced the R-comps by upwards of a second.
Yokohama Advan AD09 (retest)
quickest lap: 1:28.1
On the finish of the day, we re-ran the AD09 to correctly bracket for each driver and observe stability. Even with the hotter situations, the lap occasions had been very related. The one variation was fairly a bit extra audible suggestions, bordering on a screechfest. Proud of our knowledge, we packed up.
What Did We Study?
Reviewing our back-to-back occasions with this slate of tires, we discovered this expertise very enlightening. The AD09 is now one in every of our favourite track-capable highway tire suggestions, whereas the A052 continues to discover a place on our automobiles for competitions with 200tw restrictions. We’ve additionally discovered podium success working the A055 in NASA TT, the place the principles favor DOT R-comps.
The A005? Effectively, the jury’s nonetheless out on that one, however we’ve got excessive hopes based mostly on the standard of the remainder of Yokohama’s choices–subsequent time, we simply want to check a present dimension.
The massive lesson right here: This check confirmed how every class of tire delivers particular traits. Questioning how a lot time you’re giving up by not working the quickest tires allowed by your guidelines? This little train would possibly shed some mild.
Observe Outcomes
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