WinFreak

Trackdays on shitty tyres are fun, yes you might not be as quick as on decent tyres but you'll learn the balance of the car pretty quickly if it want's to slide all over the place all the time, and at safer speeds.

I'm on the verge of getting some ad08s but not until my current tyres are worn and they've taught me a lot about the car on the 2 trackdays I've done.

Saint Matt

To be honest I'd get another set of cheap 16s, I've always had partworns for track and just picked up 6 A048s for £180, stuck them on the road wheels that came on the car. I might be being unfair on budgets on track then it seems, I've only had experience of a 328 with budgets on and it was just dire trying to do anything fast.

ripley5000

I'm sitting on the fence a little on this one - I can see the logic of getting the use from a nearly new set of budget tyres and then replacing them for something better. The current track days I have planned are in June at Spa so hopefully the weather will be dry - but I do have to drive there as well.

For me, track days are not about getting the fastest lap time but rather having fun and having a sense of confidence in the car that it can be pushed without being unpredictable. I'm coming from an Elise where I swapped standard Bridgestones to R888's (albeit with Nitron suspension also added) and the increase in grip/confidence with this set up was quite remarkable - also the car could do a few more laps as once the Bridgestones got too hot they really began to lose grip (I'm expecting the same of these budget tyres - so maybe get three hard laps around Spa and then need to slow down or come in for a break).

As I'm new to S2000 I think I'll see how I get on with some road driving to start with and then decide if to change them ahead of track days.

adz9

Pick up a cheap set of OEM 16s with some really sticky rubber on them for track, use the budget stuff for the road driving until they wear out and you can get something a little better

ripley5000

As mine is an 04 model with 17s then I assume I should look for 17s spare wheels and not 16s or is there a reason why people are recommending 16s?

lovegroova

16 wheels are a lot cheaper to get hold of, and the tyres are cheaper too

ripley5000

16 wheels are a lot cheaper to get hold of, and the tyres are cheaper too
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Sounds like a good idea but in reality I had a spare set of wheels for my last car with this idea - one set for track and the other for road. It's only then you realise it's a bit of a pain to keep swapping so ended up with track tyres on both sets and hence never really swapped them. I've still got a spare set of Elise alloys with 888s on them - I should really get around to putting them on ebay.

lovegroova

Having driven at Spa, I really wouldn't want to be on some cheapo tyres there.

I could do 5-6 laps of spa on the Bridgestones, so they hold up very well. R888s are a different proposition of course.

Alternatively, go for something like the Yokohama AD08s which are apparently pretty good for road and track.

simonix

Shame they don't fit on the S !

ripley5000

I did actually check - quite a surprising difference actually - Elise fronts were 16's and rears 17's and of course widths different too - got a few weeks before I go so I'm going to see how I find them on the road then decide if I should change before I go and If I sell the old wheels in time then this will pay for a new set of tyres (almost)