supers2k

Off to Bruntingsthorpe next week on the Don Palmer creative control course so will definately need some new tyres.

What are peoples opinions experience of the following tyres bearing in mind winter is a coming so I would ideally like the best of both worlds in terms of dry and wet handling:

Bridgestone Potenza S02's
Eagle F1's
Toyo Proxes

Anyone tried any others like Yokohamas or Michelin Pilot Sports ?

Lurking Lawyer

At the risk of sounding dismissive, there are a substantial number of threads out there dealing with this. I know wrestling with the crap search engine is a bind, but give it a go and see what comes up

My own experience is similar to that of a number of other people here - I found S02s to be great in the dry but less confidence-inspiring in the wet. I don't know whether the contributed to the prang which I had in the wet last autumn (back end stepped out as I turned onto a motorway slip road, leading to be sliding backwards into the armco) but it inspired me to put F1s on and, 16,000 miles later, I'm not particularly inclined to change back. The F1 doesn't have the same level of dry grip, but it doesn't lose much compared to the S02 and I prefer having better wet-handling.

No personal experience of Toyo Proxies but they come recommended by Brian Marshall That's a good an endorsement as I would need to seriously consider them.

Turtle

A word of warning - don't fit Toyo Proxies for the day with Don. Bruntingthorpe + Don will overheat heavily wear most tyres, but the Toyos are mroe prone to this on airfield surfaces. They're supposed to be fine for normal tracks though.

Yokohama's don't come in the right sizes for their road tyres (R-Compound is a different matter.).

S02JZ vrs Eagle F1 / Toyo Proxes is a tradeoff. S02's better in the dry/warm, the others better all round, but lack the all-out dry performance and handling of S02JZ's.

Spend some time sifting through search results (I'd recommend using the advanced search, and limiting it to the UK forum), will give you a lot of thoughts on the different options.

-Brian.

Turtle

I did have one caveat - I still run S02JZ's during the summer. In the next month or so it'll be time to change tyres for the winter. However, I've changed suspension since I ran the Toyo's so I'm getting much better wet weather grip out of the S02's. I've not decided what I'm doing yet (it's looking like the S is going to be off the road for a while anyway.). I'm really interested how well the Toyo's would work with the new suspension.

Anyway, back on track. I'd recommend the Toyo's as a very good all round tyre to run for the winter. But given the original question was best-all round tyre... I don't any such tyre exists. It's all a compromise. The Toyo's are more biased towards wet weather than the S02's so they don't have the outright grip during the summer. Then again the S02 doesn't have the grip of an A032R during the summer either. Just a case of picking the compromise that suits how you drive, and use the car.

-Brian.

supers2k

Thanks guys for all your help.

I will be fitting these tyres after the Don Palmer course as I have quite a lot of thread left on my current S02's but think that they will be burned out by the end of the day. Will probably go for the Toyos as the thought of winter driving and this car really scares me

Chris Type R

Having used F1s and S02s, I would go for F1s going into winter. I recently put S02s on, and am considering getting an extra set of rims for some winter F1s, which will probably go back on end of November through to May/June.

JONeM

I'll be getting another Winter crap car from November, so the S will only be coming out on those nice bright clear winter days - that's always the other option to changing from S02s!

The F1s will be better in the cold and wet, but they're still not going to help you if it's icy or snowy........

zero_to60

Glad I'm not the only one that is 'mad enough' to keep the S in the garage during the winter months

baptistsan

Me too. Still looking for a decent cheapy, think that they exclude each other to be honest.

Prestonian

Brian

Does that mean I need new wheels to fit Yoki's for road use? I'm a big fan of them, and was looking to get the SO2s replaced with them.