Rubbers to Choose

Hello carmrades!

Apparently, this reply was too long this post as a comment (I was constantly getting an error.), so I’m posting a separate article.

Nürburgring resident here (for those who don’t know) who runs a (race) car rental compnies with hotel and people coming over from all around the world sharing their tyre experiences.

I am going to keep my experience description as pretty basic. If you are looking for marketing talk about the OUTTA SPACE chemical formula of the tyre compound and tyre pattern drawn by Da Vinci, then use the names I am giving here for further research on the interwebs. Let’s go.

Federal RS-R 595

As a starter, I’d recommend Federal RS-R 595, we run those semi slicks on all of our rental cars (except for race cars and more expensive ones) and the performance for that price is unmatched. When customers hear that we run them, they often reply with “wow, nice, I also have those on my own car back at home!”. They are “driveable” in the wet, but no competition use!

TOYO R888R

Moving on, there is TOYO R888R semi slick which according to most performs a lot better, but also costs a lot more. I did whole season of Dutch Time Attack on those (4 races+trackdays+some street use) (on previous gen R888, not new R888R’s as these are very new and even unavailable to some). Here is a video in dry conditions of my 700hp Impreza:

The R888’s are also ok in wet, here is the Juke R I used to manage in the wet on the Nürburgring.

Also, lots of my friends use R888(R)’s as a drag racing or even gymkhana tyre, but usually on a sponsorship basis as a latter obviously. Also, the new R888R has a new pattern for being more silent and performing better in the wet.

TOYO R1R

Further there are also the R1R’s and T1R’s by Toyo that ar not really semi-slicks, but have a GREAT overall performance, especially in the wet compared to semis. You can find a lot of R1R’s fitted to street/track/performance cars that come to the Nürburgring on their own, but also on lots of stanced cars that are about the looks, because the tyres have a nice looking pattern.

Falken FK452

A cheaper Falken FK452 may be an alternative. I did a race car driver licence course with those on my 300 hp Impreza back in 2011 and abused them for 2000 track kilometres (1200 miles). FK453 is released since then and I don’t have any experience with those, but independant people who have and speak to are very satisfied.

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2

Moving on, there is Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, considered as the best overall premium tyre. Many high performance cars come standard with those, from hot hatches, to Porsches (GT3RS) and even Koenigsegg One:1 runs a modified version of those. We run those on our premium rental Porschess and the GT3. The tyre performs great in the wet too. But with great things comes a great price.

Pirelli Trofeo R

Finally, there is Pirelli Trofeo R, which is similar to the Michelin Cup tyre. I have tested it once with our friend and was satisfied with its performance. A person who was VERY SATISFIED with it is probably Chris Harris, when he tested those on holy trinity.

I think that should be it. You asked for a performance tyre, therefore I mainly used those in my comment/review. Like I stated in the intro, you can use those names for further review research on the internet, but you can’t go wrong with those, depending on your exact description of the use.

P.S. Stay away from Pirelli P Zero Nero.