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Road legal track tyres becoming illegal
Davegtst - 20/5/10 at 07:35 AM

Anyone seen this. Any truth to it?

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/236977/trackday_tyres_to_be_outlawed.html

iank - 20/5/10 at 07:44 AM

Yes and yes.
It's my understanding that it's the cause of Toyo R888's now being hard to find and expensive.

Note any tyres you have remain legal to use, its just the manufacturers won't be able to sell them as road legal any more.

It's been reported that all the trackday tyre manufacturers are busy working on tyres that will pass the new requirements with minimal impact on performance - which if they manage it will be a good thing IMO.

[Edited on 20/5/10 by iank]

coozer - 20/5/10 at 07:54 AM

From my understanding its a EU directive, not sure of the content but just recently a lot of 4x4 mud tyres have become illegal, not to use but to sell!

Hugh_ - 20/5/10 at 07:56 AM

My understanding is that the R1-R is Toyo's first attempt at something between the R888 and its road going tyres, but which should meet all of these parameters. They are very dear at the moment, but they seem an ideal compromise for those of us who predominantly use the cars on the road, but want a softer compound that standard tyres.

imp paul - 20/5/10 at 09:23 AM

it does not look so good im just about to get 4 Dunlop cr111 tarmac rally tyres with e mark so hope it will be OK god knows always some 1 wanting to kill the fun see how it turns out and hope for the best i see toyo r1 r starts at 15 up to 18 and no 13 thats pants

[Edited on 20/5/10 by imp paul]

rf900rush - 20/5/10 at 10:03 AM

Looks like the eurotwats what use to use tyres with less friction.

I thought the idea of tyres was to have more friction (grip).

smart51 - 20/5/10 at 10:07 AM

quote:
Originally posted by rf900rush
Looks like the eurotwats what use to use tyres with less friction.

I thought the idea of tyres was to have more friction (grip).


There's a difference between rolling resistance and grip. In an ideal world, you could have both.

The good side of the legislation is that really bad tyres will be removed from sale too.

fha772 - 20/5/10 at 10:09 AM

Yes, but less friction makes them enviroMENTALLY friendly, doesn't matter that less grip means more chance of losing control and killing yourself!!

The most eco logical tyre would be a 25mm wide solid slick, as on tarmac this would have virtually zero friction, the fact it would make a car leathal at any speed over 5mph is irrelivant!!

It doesn't matter about killing people, just don't kill the trees...

norfolkluego - 20/5/10 at 11:20 AM

Of course the powers that be can now concentrate of nicking the scumbags who don't change tyres at all, drive on canvas in deathtrap cars. NAh, course not, they penalise the rest of us who maintain our cars and change tyres regularly. Bl**dy typical.

I'm voting UKIP next time

hobbsy - 20/5/10 at 05:21 PM

I think think there issue is minimum standards of performance in all conditions including wet surfaces. So while the R888's are very good in the dry they may fail the new minimum standards in the wet / standing water tests etc?

I am interested to know how they will deal with the cut off? I.e. can you still use the ones you have? If so we can expect the prices to go nuts towards the cut off.

Is this definitely going to happen anyway? As when I first read the story it was only a possibility?

prawnabie - 20/5/10 at 05:29 PM

This was last years news, im sure we would of heard more about it if it was going to affect us in the near future.

iank - 20/5/10 at 06:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by prawnabie
This was last years news, im sure we would of heard more about it if it was going to affect us in the near future.


Like most legislation that requires a whole industry to re-tool it was announced with a long lead time. The regs don't come into force until November 2012. Tyres don't become illegal but it becomes impossible to sell them if they don't have the correct marks.

http://www.etrma.org/public/activitiestyreg.asp

Tyres will come with labels showing their relative performance (looks remarkably like the ones on white goods.



I think the wet weather performance is the killer for trackday tyres. What's the shelf life of trackday tyre is as that will become the limiting factor for holdouts.

Nick DV - 24/5/10 at 07:16 PM

More of this Euro bollox, just as with the IVA are the exact reasons why I can't be arsed with putting my car on the road! The only good thing for me is that I may be able to pick up some cheap tyres

Cheers, Nick

dhutch - 25/5/10 at 05:47 PM

quote:
Tyres will come with labels showing their relative performance (looks remarkably like the ones on white goods.



I think the wet weather performance is the killer for trackday tyres.
The thing is, i dont have a issue with tyres shipping with the above label, currently its a mind field, and joe blogs canr really make a decision on anything other than price. However, i dont think it should force people to have all round tyres. Not all cars are all round cars!

Also, fuel eco, wet grip, nothing about dry grip?

Daniel

[Edited on 25/5/2010 by dhutch]

hobbsy - 25/5/10 at 10:24 PM

Guess the average guy would also want to know how long they last?

Maybe they don't put the dry grip on as that could be inversely proportional to their eco rating!

I know they've come on a lot recently but low rolling resistance eco tyres are not always known for their grip. Silica content, wah wah wah - I'm not a tyre expert so I'll shut up.

All I want is decent road legal track day rubber at a reasonable price.

Has anyone tried the R1R's yet? How do they compare to R888's? Aren't they only available in limited sizes?

Does Yokohama have an close alternative to the A048 that will meet these new regs waiting in the wings or already available?

[Edited on 25/5/10 by hobbsy]