Yokohama ad08 tyres

[GIBBSIE]

Hello all,

I've been looking at reviews on the Yokohama ad08 tyres to be put on my pre facelift standard 15" rims.  The reviews look good for dry/wet and braking.

 Has anybody on here had any experience with these tyres on a mr2 roadster mk3?

[Chilli Girl]

I've always had Yokohama tyres. I know they aren't cheap but I shall continue to use them. I've not had any problems so far. Will need to get some rears soon.

[GIBBSIE]

Cool, thanks for the reply!

Are you using the ad08 model, or a different model for the road in all conditions?

[Chilli Girl]

A043's Yokohama Chilli has and they've behaved upto now EXCEPT you can forget driving in the snow as they are cr-p but of course, rear wheel drive doesn't help in those conditions OR perhaps it's the driver! lol   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[GIBBSIE]

Cheers for that!

[Chilli Girl]

I was referring to the driver as me not you, sorry lol   s:D s:D

[GIBBSIE]

lol.... no need to apologise and thanks for your help  :-) :-) :-)

[minimike]

+1 about the A043's.

[nathanMR2]

I've not long brought some AD08's after some careful consideration. I've not actually put the on the car yet as I'm waiting to see if the weather ever warms up above freezing   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  be happy to report back when I've scrubbed them in

[GIBBSIE]

Ideal thanks for your replies everyone, look forward to your report on them!  :-) :-) :-)

[pyrobri]

I fitted some AD08's back in November 2011, only now just needing to replace after around 20K miles.
They were excellent, was very snowy that Christmas and I had no problem getting around. Definitely recommend..

[Capvermell]

I fitted some AD08's back in November 2011, only now just needing to replace after around 20K miles.  They were excellent, was very snowy that Christmas and I had no problem getting around. Definitely recommend..

From what you are saying (about the only person I can find on the web to report on driving AD08s in the snow and by luck also in an MR2 Roadster) they really behaved quite ok in the snow as long as one is careful just like with the Toyo T1R.  No reason they shouldn't of course as they use a completely different rubber and a completely different tread pattern from the now very antiquated Yoko A043s.

In any event it now turns out the AD08 has just been replaced by the AD08R (only available since about August but the one now stocked by most dealers as the old AD08 has been phased out) with the same tread pattern but a newer more grippy compound.  Hopefully as the tread pattern has not changed but the compound is more sticky its handling in snow should not change and if anything can only be slightly better.

[nathanMR2]

I'm no tyre expert but given the nature of the tread pattern in the AD08's they do not look like they disburse water in the same way as a lot of other tyres. They are almost semi slicks. I have found them to be outstanding in the dry and far better than my toyos. However I'll be switching back to my old wheels with T1R's probably next weekend as I've heard the weather is going to be taking a turn for the worse. I have never driven these tyres in the snow but I can imagine the tread getting jammed up with snow pretty quickly. Personally I wouldn't run them in that kind of weather. Whilst I don't track my car they are known as a track/fast road tyre. They are not known as a winter tyre but then neither are the T1R's but I would expect the tread pattern to cope better.

If you are worried about the safety of tyres in adverse weather then get the tyres which are suited to the job. Thankfully I don't usually have to go far in my car during the bad weather so I don't mind running the T1R's but i know from other people's reports that winter tyres are far better suited for....well winter.

[Capvermell]

Personally I wouldn't run them in that kind of weather. Whilst I don't track my car they are known as a track/fast road tyre. They are not known as a winter tyre but then neither are the T1R's but I would expect the tread pattern to cope better.

I suppose that you are aware that in some sizes such as the rear Pre Facelift 205/50 r15 86v the Toyo T1-R has an EU wet weather rating of only E (even though it curiously has a C rating in the 185/55 r15 82v size probably due to recent re-certification as it used to have ratings of F for wet and H for fuel economy in the 205/50r15 86v size a year ago) whereas by contrast the Advan Neo AD08 has a wet weather rating of B in both front and rear pre facelift sizes and an E rather than F rating on fuel economy in both pre facelift sizes?  This says that independent testers rate the AD08 as a better tyre for wet weather than the T1-R. ]

In fact it now turns out that the AD08 had just been replaced by the AD08R (as of August 2013) with the same carcass and tread pattern but a new more grippy compound.  I would have thought that this, if anything, means that its rain performance will be slightly improved.  In fact the B rain rating is for the AD08R so I suppose its possible that the AD08 had a slightly worse C rating for instance?

[nathanMR2]

Interesting to know. I'm pretty sure Yokohama's website lists them as a summer tyre so I surprises me they are suggested to be better in the wet than T1R's

I have no doubt winter tyres are better suited to cold weather and the AD08's can be interesting in the wet until you have a little bit of warmth in them. But I believe a lot depends on driving style. You can have the worst types in the world but if you drive everywhere at 2mph then it's likely you are ever going to become unstuck.

[Capvermell]

Interesting to know. I'm pretty sure Yokohama's website lists them as a summer tyre so I surprises me they are suggested to be better in the wet than T1R's

But Toyo T1Rs are also very clearly summer (or at least not winter) tyres.  They are just less oriented towards top end performance cars than the Yoko AD08R (the R1R fills this niche for Toyo but has less tread while the Toyo R888 can probably be seen as only track oriented due to its faster treadwear rate and much lower initial tread depth than a normal road tyre unlike the AD08R) and also have a considerably worse EU rating in the wet than Yoko Advan Neo AD08Rs (in any case neither of these two Toyo tyres is available in the sizes required for the original wheels on a Pre Facelift MR2 Roadster).  If you live in say Scotland or indeed probably much north of Birmingham or Leicester you would clearly be quite well advised to consider changing either a Toyo T1 or a Yoko AD08R to a winter tyre between mid November and mid March if you drive a lot during the winter or need to go out in all weather conditions as they both suffer from the same inability to deal with very serious accumulations of compacted snow and ice of any summer performance tyre.

However the south east of England is a marginal case as there are surprisingly few winter nights where temperatures are far below 0C and usually none where temperatures fall as low as -10C (the minimum recommended operating temperature for the AD08R).  As a more extreme case If you live in most of the Mediterranean sea board area whilst there clearly still is a winter season (one during which there are no beach tourists for six months and most tourist shops close down) there is clearly no case at all for the fitment or use of winter tyres.  If you live in the Scottish highlands you would be positively certifiable not to fit them during the winter.

I have no doubt at all that in the great scheme of things winter tyres are better suited to cold weather and the AD08's can be interesting in the wet until you have a little bit of warmth in them. But I believe a lot depends on driving style. You can have the worst types in the world but if you drive everywhere at 2mph then it's likely you are ever going to become unstuck.

I don't recall ever mentioning driving around everywhere at 2mph.  s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  

I merely had an interest in what levels of fuel economy can be achieved at different levels of constant speed in top gear in the motorway on pre and post facelift models.

So in summary the AD08R is a better summer tyre in the wet than the Toyo T1R and also provides much better handling and road holding.  However it may be noisier in general and in particular not as comfortable over road humps or manhole covers etc as the T1R (but if that was your concern you would probably be better off with the Falken ZE914) However the AD08R does have a stiff side wall, something which the Toyo T1R most notoriously lacks (along with the Hankook V12 Evo) and which forum members seem to try to compensate for with increased tyre pressures from those recommended by Toyota for the OEM supplied tyres.

[nathanMR2]

Oh no I agree the toyos are by far a winter tyre. They just look, to me, like they would disburse water better and would be less prone to aquaplaning. I do not hold any evidence to support this it's just my opinion

My comment about driving at 2mph was by in no means directed at you. It was just an exaggerated suggestion that people are often far more to blame than the tyre. It's very easy to get over confident in wet weather and push the car a little more. I know I've done it. And whilst this is not always a bad thing as it's good to learn what the car/tyres are capable of, it can become pretty messy should you go that little too far.  

As you said its hard to find reports of people running ad08's in snow/winter and I'm guessing the reason being that people don't generally do it. Ad08's to me and I think many others are the road legal side of semi slicks so they wouldn't usually be supportive of a lot of water and/or snow.

[Capvermell]

Oh no I agree the toyos are by far a winter tyre. They just look, to me, like they would disburse water better and would be less prone to aquaplaning. I do not hold any evidence to support this it's just my opinion

I think you are really being almost entirely subjective and basing your opinion on an aggressive looking tread pattern probably largely created at the behest of Toyo marketing people because they thought it was what drivers of a sports tyre wanted to see as a tread pattern.  The Hankook V12 Evo tread pattern looks considerably less exciting but it is definitely a better tyre in a significant number of respects than the T1R (but costs almost exactly the same amount of money).  Then comes the Yoko AD08 and now the ADO8R which both have identical tread patterns that look really unexciting and unaggressive and were clearly not designed at all to try and sell the tyre as this was instead left to its specification and objective testing.

Its not like I'm anti Toyo in a big way as I started running the T1S back in 1998 on an MGF and then moved on to the T1R when it replaced it (or as I now discover the T1S was replaced with the T1 Sport and for some reason not made available in the United Kingdom so the T1R was actually a retrograde step so far as I can see).  And its not like I'm a Yokohama lover as I think the A043 that all Pre Facelift cars were equipped with was a very inferior tyre (especially in winter conditions) to the Toyo T1R.  Its just that I think the T1R has now had its day but unfortunately Toyo seem to be very slow in coming up with a modern up to date replacement, especially in Pre Facelift model sizes.

I am actually basing my opinions of the Yoko ADO8 in wet conditions on reading of a lot of reviews and all of these reviews consistently say how impressed the tyres users are with the wet performance even though does it not reach quite the same totally unsurpassed standards as in the dry.  I am also basing it on the objective B level EU wet weather rating that puts it behind only the new Uniroyal Rainsport 3 tyre.

Because the Toyo's only cost 68% or so of the price of really top end tyres like the Yoko AD08 or the Michelin Pilot Exalto something of a myth has grown up about them amongst MR2 Roadster owners and I strongly suspect that your own opinion may be somewhat informed by the fact that you run them on your own MR2s and so do not want to see a tyre you have on your vehicle knocked?  I note that all the MR2 Roadster owners in the forum who have splashed out another £130 or so on a set compared to the T1R and actually tried the AD08 seem to have almost nothing but unremitting praise for it.  By contrast opinions on the T1R are far more mixed, especially regarding its soft sidewalls, but so many MR2 Roadster owners use them (partly because of budget and partly due to restricted tyre choice in the sizes concerned) that few of them seem want to admit that there could be better options out there.  In short something of a cult and a myth about the use of the T1R seems to have grown up in relation to our favourite vehicle.

[Two's Company]

Oh no I agree the toyos are by far a winter tyre. They just look, to me, like they would disburse water better and would be less prone to aquaplaning. I do not hold any evidence to support this it's just my opinion

I think you are really being almost entirely subjective and basing your opinion on an aggressive looking tread pattern...

...I am actually basing my opinions of the Yoko ADO8 in wet conditions on reading of a lot of reviews

You are championing the AD08 strongly considering you haven't tried it yourself.

I would rather hear a subjective opinion from someone who has actually tried the tyre rather than an analysis of the EU ratings.

Just saying...

[Capvermell]

I would rather hear a subjective opinion from someone who has actually tried the tyre rather than an analysis of the EU ratings.

Just saying...

I have read almost every possible review on the internet of people who have used the Yoko AD08, including a large number of two seat sports cars (obviously most of are the AD08 and not the very recently launched ADO8R with a new grippier still compound but same tyre pattern but there is now one for that tyre on tyreview.co.uk too) as well as the reviews of the main forum member on this forum who has used it a lot.  They are all overwhelmingly favourable.

Given the very good deal available at blackcircules.com (2.62% cashback through  m http://www.topcashback.co.uk m  and Triple Tesco Clubcard points that can then be tripled again in value to an effective 9% rate if redeemed as Clubcard Deals) I now intend to fit them to my car, although given the small number of miles I will be completing in the winter months and their likely somewhat more modest performance in these months it may be a little while before I come back to the forum with a full blown review on them.

I have been driving Toyo's with soft sidewalls for far too long and I think it is time to see how the car handles with a proper performance tyre with a hard side wall.

Note that this is not the forum Tyre Review thread but a thread about possible use of the Yoko AD08 on MR2 Roadsters so I do not feel that any of my posts here have been Off Topic.

I don't really understand why Nathan is switching to T1Rs for the winter unless he lives in a part of the UK where winter temperatures of -10C or lower are a regular and normal occurrence (the T1Rs clearly do not have a minimum quoted operating temperature but will simply not perform that well in snow, ice or the cold).  Even if that is the case he surely ought to be switching to a proper winter tyre and not to T1Rs (which are just another less sophisticated summer tyre).

[Two's Company]

I look forward to YOUR review of the AD08. I have considered them myself. They are a more performance orientated road tyre to the T1R which is why I'm considering either T1R for winter or Mitchelin Alpin.

[Capvermell]

I look forward to YOUR review of the AD08. I have considered them myself. They are a more performance orientated road tyre to the T1R which is why I'm considering either T1R for winter or Mitchelin Alpin.

Personally I feel that the Toyo T1R was good when it was launched but has long since been overtaken. However it has acquired an odd kind of mythical status here because its birth was at around the same time as the MR2 Roadster.  People choose it simply because lots of people have already used it and nothing really bad happened even though nothing really good generally did either.  Also its one of the cheaper performance tyres from a known brand.

The Hankook V12 Evo is around the same price as the T1R but a considerably more modern tyre with better grip and water clearance whilst if avoiding a really hard tyre but still having good roadholding is a priority then the Falken ZE914 seems to also be a much more recent tyre available in pre facelift sizes that has received very favourable reviews.

[nathanMR2]

I have to disagree with a lot you have just said. Firstly your statements almost contradict them selves and seem to suggest in one breath that I have never used ad08's but then you go on to say that you don't know why I'm going back to my toyos  s:? :? s:?

Secondly, your suggestion of the ad08's tread pattern is certainly subjective as I and I think many others feel the tyre has a far better stance/aggressive look. I much prefer them to pretty much all road legal tyres.

Thirdly, I have used t1r's for some time and whilst they are not the best tyre they are relatively cheap and seem to do a good job in most conditions. I have used t1r's through the winter/snow and have got on with them well. Quite rightly I haven't run ad08's in particularly bad weather however given I have experience of toyos in these kind of conditions and I have another set of different size wheels (to what my ad08's are on) then should I come unstuck the damage is likely to be a lot cheaper should I clip a kerb or the likes. My set of ad08's were over £450 so with the wheels they a big chunk of money.

Fourthly, as i understand how tread pattern works is that the grooves within the tyres are there to help get the water out and to help reduce aquaplaning. As I mentioned before the ad08's are closer to semi slicks which are not well known for disbursing water on road tyres.

Finally I have driven ad08's in the wet and have been able to spin the back wheels fairly easy and I think easier than the t1r's. Now whilst this probably down to be being turbo'd, having a bit of a heavy foot at times and not having enough warmth in them, I feel the toyos are a better option in the winter weather.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for ad08's. They are one of the best tyres I've used in the dry and I haven't got them to let go yet despite some spirited driving. I'd be interested to see how you get on with them in the winter, especially the snow.

[Capvermell]

Don't get me wrong I'm all for ad08's. They are one of the best tyres I've used in the dry and I haven't got them to let go yet despite some spirited driving. I'd be interested to see how you get on with them in the winter, especially the snow.

Well its a difficult decision really.  Clearly it would be better to run true winter tyres in the winter in an ideal world but I note that you aren't doing that and nor do most people in the South East of England.  You are just running another set of summer tyres that you will be less upset about damaging (the AD08Rs are now a lot cheaper than the AD08s once were so they only cost 40% more than a T1R does in the same size, although I accept you already have them with tread left on them so in a way might as well wear them out).  Regarding water clearance I find it hard to believe the AD08R would get a B rating if it didn't do a good job here.  Also Yokohama's blurb quotes a several % increase in water clearance performance for the AD08R over the AD08.

I am still considering all the options.  The other option is the Uniroyal Rainsport 3, which seems to be a huge jump forward in the wet but its still a summer tyre and its non wet performance will be vastly inferior to the AD08R.   If anyone has a spare set of wheels with winter tyres on for the pre facelift car with some tread depth left and wants to sell them then let me know as I might buy those for now and buy the AD08Rs in the spring.

Regarding driving in the snow I have done it but I have to say its honestly not worth it and basically a total crap shoot on summer tyres and I would go out of my way to avoid it in the future.  I live in the countryside just outside a village but I'm only 0.75 of a mile from a railway station and if the service to that also gives up in the snow then nobody is going to expect me to be driving instead.  Yokohama seemed to be saying don't expose the tyre to -10C or lower for the old AD08 but I can't seem to find that quoted for the AD08R anywhere so perhaps they have also managed to deal with that issue?

[nathanMR2]

Im lucky as i dont have far to get to a main road. If you live rural it would seem even more sensible to get winter tyres now and swap to summer tyres for the spring. Having said this if you are not going to be using the car in particularly bad weather or you dont see a lot of ice/snow then you could get away with summer tyre all year round and save yourself some money.

Another thing to consider would be Goodyear F1's. They seem to get very good reviews in most conditions. However im not sure you'll get the sizes you want.

Ive said this before but I believe that tyres are probably one of the most important things on the car. Its the key thing that keeps the car and the road in contact with each other. I dont feel the need for winter tyres personally a. because i dont have far to drive to get to work/train station so ive been know to walk if the snow is very bad b. when i have used the toyos in the snow they have acted alright for me