Tyres

General General Lotus Talk
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I guess the problem I have with “commuting” is that the office is at the other end of a particularly enjoyable B Road!I would only change the setup for the track, and I think I would change it back for the journey home, there is simply no need to make it more pointy on the road.On the tyres front, maybe I am completely insane but I figure that if I am perfectly aware of the fact that there is potentially different grip levels being delivered front to rear then I should be perfectly capable of dealing with any handling imbalance that may occur? I seriously doubt that this will make the car undrivable, maybe a bit skittish but provided I drive within the capabilities of the tyres then I am unlikely to find any major consequence.Of course, in the wet any difference will be accentuated but I doubt I will drive it hard in the wet and I don’t intend to run the 'Ring in the wet.Of course, you could say “But you might have an enormous accident”, which is true but if I have driven from Berkshire to Le Mans and then on to Nurgburgring then I figure I will have picked up on the general limits of tyre performance during those journeys and should be aware of how fast I can drive the car. Therefore if I am totally aware of it then an accident should only occur through driver error, which leaves me knowing full well who to blame. Maybe I am wrong, but I’ve run different front to rear tyres on cars with less well balanced chassis than an Exige before, and I managed not to crash! I think I’ll know pretty quickly whether it’s terrible or not and if it really does make the handling that unamanagable then I will swap them out for A039’s and never stray from them again.I’ll let you all now what happens!Jon.

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quote:Originally posted by Shrapnel01:I would only change the setup for the track, and I think I would change it back for the journey homeLOL! I’d like to see you change the front camber at a circuit! And I’m fascinated to know how you’re going to fit all that wheel alignment equipment in the boot! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image] >> provided I drive within the capabilities of the tyres>> then I am unlikely to find any major consequence.So thought others whose cars suffered as a result! If you really think that you�re going to get a good feel for the car�s on-limit handling on the public road then what can I say? I do understand where you�re coming from; I have different tyres on the front and back of my BMW at the moment (not my doing) and I drive it pretty quickly, but people tend to push quite hard in their Exiges because it�s so much fun, which can be a different matter. I�m not criticising it�s just that the longer standing member�s of this board have some bad memories of people mixing tyres. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image]

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quote:Originally posted by Tony Whitter:…my BMW…Did you swap Rocco for the BMer?!Ian [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]

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[image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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quote:Originally posted by IDG: Did you swap Rocco for the BMer?!Couldn’t have - Rocco was priceless. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]I for one will miss his friendly & expert attention to every little detail needed to keep my car in tip top nick.

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Just to fuel the tyre debate a little… http://www.toyo.co.uk/files/pressreleases.pdf …oh yes and here’s one I made earlier… http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/Forum1/HTML/000600.html A quick bit of maths pointed out to me that for what you’d save on three (or maybe four) sets of A039s, you could buy a set of mag wheels for the track and use TS-1s on the road - just a thought (or maybe I was just preparing to try and justify a set of mags to my wife!)[This message has been edited by IDG (edited 21 May 2002).]

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I have to admit… the fact that they have now produced the correct tyre size for the front… (I am running their previous smaller size). My next set will definately be TOYOS… very, very progressive… sticky enough, last well and great in standing water.(As a track tyre they are great… When the Yokos let go, they let go… with the Toyos you get a decent warning) I feel I owe it to my bodywork!

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Well, I have finally bitten the bullet and gone with the popular choice and fitted Toyo Proxes T1-S to the rear of my Exige. Initial impressions are good (In the wet) but only time will tell! I will keep you all posted.Jon.

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quote:When the Yokos let go, they let go… with the Toyos you get a decent warning) [/B]Tim,I seem to remember a previous post where you were unhappy with the Toyo’s. What made you change your mind? - was it the track day?I have found the Yoko’s very progressive, on track and the road but it took some miles before I really got there.After I had had my Exige to the track for the first time I had posted a comment on how the breakaway with Yoko’s was very quick. I now would say I was totaly wrong and its just a question of having the confidence to be a bit braver and drive through any overambitious corner speed/throtle stabing moments, I just wonder if you are seeing the same thing.Regards,Roy.

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Today I got my four new Toyo proxes ts-1 (with 50 profile in front), and these are my impressions so far.Immediately when I drove off I felt that the steering was so much lighter at slow speed. I suppose that means lower friction. The Toyos seem to be much quieter than the Yoko�s, for what that�s worth in a car like this.I have always thought the car felt a bit light in the front from around 90-100 mph. This got worse with the Toyos. The steering has got less feel in the middle driving straight forward, and if you turn quickly in high speed it�s seems less responsive. The diameter of these tyres must be larger, because they seem to touch the wheelarches more, or at least it sounds like they do.The grip in ordinary driving on dry roads is definetly not as good as the Yoko�s. Maybe it�s a question of getting used to them, but after driving about 100 miles with them today, I can�t say the car feels as reassuring as it did before. They are not totally bad, not at all, but i reckon the 039:ers go better with the car.To give you the hole picture, the sun was shining, temp. about 15� celsius and tyrepressure was front: 2 kg, rear 2,3 kg.That�s an other question to you others who have Proxes by the way: What tyre-pressure do you have? I tried with 1,5 kg at front as it should be, but when I pressed the tyrewall close to the wheel, I could hear a slight sound of air coming out!?! It seems that these tyres doesn�t work with such low pressure. I will experiment a bit with the pressure further on to see how low you can go. It is nice to hear though that Ex111ged had good experience from them on the track. Can�t wait to try them out hot myself.

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Very interested to hear what they’re like in the wet.

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I have used the Toyo’s on several cars, although not yet on my Elise.They are usually good, but they do have some things which you need to get used to or be aware of.Turn-in can feel quite odd with these tyres. They tend to give the feel that at initial turn-in (which is indeed quite light) nothing much happens and that they will start to slide, but then you’ll feel them start to grip more and they are OK.After that you can push 'em harder and when they slide it’s usually very progressive (great tyre to be a bit of a hooligan [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image] )Also keep in mind that they do tend to go rock-hard (compound-wise) below about 7 Degrees C. They will slide all over the place in that case, even with heavy ‘regular’ cars! Definitely a summer-only tyre.Also they do seem to take quite a while to break-in properly and get all the release-agent off the tyre surface. Until then will grip levels be reduced dramatically and wet weather can be tricky…Again… Haven’t used them on my Elise yet, so this is just my experience on ‘regular’ cars. Will probably fit them on my S2 after the Bridgestones are worn. (185/50R16 is close enough to the standard 175/55R16 not to cause problems)Bye, Arno.

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JohnO, RussT & myself spoke with Gavan Kershaw (Lotus) at Oulton last Saturday, about tyres. He was adamant that the 039s & 048s (with LTS mark) have been specifically constructed for Exige/Elise 190 usage. He personally had tested (for Lotus & Yokahama)dozens of differently constructed tyres with varying compounds, at Hethel. As far as I am concerned - enough said [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image][This message has been edited by Pesky (edited 29 May 2002).]

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quote:Originally posted by Pesky:As far as I am concerned - enough saidI know but they’re SOOOO expensive. How many trackdays do you get out of a set? I reckon about 3, so that’s in the order of a �200 addition to each day. Ouch!

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IanIn the last 12 months, I’ve done 14 trackdays (including 4 or 5 in the wet!) & my car has covered 17500 miles. I’ve recently put on my 4th set of rears (i.e I’ve bought 3 sets after wearing out the originals) & they have about 4.5mm tread left on them. I’m now on my 2nd set of fronts - I only seem to wear out the outside shoulders!!I do, however, appreciate that I am not as hard on tyres/quick on track as some members [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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FWIWMy car was with Brooke Kensington today for its MOT (it passed [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image] )Amongst other chit chat, Simon showed me a set of Advan Nuevos and what I’m pretty sure were 039s.He says he can get these at ‘good’ prices. Being an Elise owner and happy with my A539s I didn’t ask what those prices were, but if you’re near Bicester, it might be worth giving him a call. http://www.brooke-kensington.co.uk Niall.Ruby 111s - T16GUR

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On the Toyo issue…I am running the smaller front tyre with an extra 3 psi in it.The track day really did change my mind about them… they were great and I seemed to have so much controllable grip.However, I remember when I first got them (after the Yokos) I thought they were crap as the front end seemed to squirm a lot (as if the side walls were flexing a lot more than the yokos). Since putting an extra 3 psi in them they seemed a lot better. (For the money they are good.I think a great definative test would be to get a couple of Exiges on a test track all fitted with different tyres, then each of us taking them out for a spin to really see what the differences are.My Toyos are up for replacement and I’m not quite sure what to go for!!!Tim