What are the disadvantages to this? Even if I don't run them in the wet ever.. but still on cold dry days.. will they heat up enough? How long will they last?

 

They get hard quick and end up being more dangerous than street tires, they tend to grab road imperfections, they (esp Hoosiers) pick up nails, screws, etc. They throw rocks like crazy.

I have to drive to events on my Kumhos, sometimes as far as 5hrs. My tires usually last a season with the first couple events of the next year, approximately 2-3K miles. When they get old the tires just don't work as well as they did when new, even though there is some rubber left.

Your in Canada, you've got to get caught out in the rain occasionally.

 

Disadvantages of R compound on the street:

Tire life shortened due to heat cycles.

If you get caught in the rain you're screwed.

If you get a puncture on the way to an event you're screwed.

In the cold they will not be good unless you're actually driving them hard on a track. On the street they would be stones.

 

In my opinion it depends on the tire you get.
I ran the Yokohama A032R's for a while on a daily driven car and they were great. New, they grip the road like crazy, and in the rain you don't really know it is wet outside. After a few thousand miles though, the wet traction goes downhill quickly but I found the dry traction was still decent. They do have a habbit of following the road defects a lot more than street tires, but they are a little safer in my opinion. Unfortunately after two sets I decided I could not afford to continue daily driving R compound tires, so I went back to street tires. If I didn't drive my car most of the time, I would switch back in a heartbeat.

 

Ya, I'll second you on being screwed on "R's" if its raining... I had V-700's one season and decided that I could "beat the rain" and drove home, well I tried.... I ended up sitting in a Target Parking lot for 3 hours

The Hoosiers do pickup everything....I think when I pulled off my last set I had 17 1/2 nails in them



My advise! don't drive them on the street

 

CJ,

The Yokos and Toyos R's will be doable for daily. *except perhaps during our recent deluge* The Kumhos will go to slick too fast for anything but dry weather. Hoosiers are worse plus they are nylon cords so they do not take road abuse (potholes, tracks, etc) well.


Still driving the bimmer? if so, i've joined your fraternity.

 

if you are driving R compounds on the street you are wasting them. You might as well take your wallet out and light it on fire.

 

Are the Toyo's worthwhile if I only drive 3-4k mi/yr on the street? Been debating this vs. getting a set of SO3's. Like to drive the FD on a road track and would rather not but 2 sets of tires. With as little as I drive it, even street tires get old and hard after a few years

 

I was in the same boat as you. Look here:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hreadid=208892

 

IF YOUR GOING TO SPEND THE MONEY FOR R TIRES. YOU SHOULD JUST GO WITH BFG G FORCE KD. ITS NOT R TIRES BUT YOU WILL HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLD.
TRACK/STREET TIRES.

ANDREW

 

TA KDs are your ticket, I have run several r compounds on the street, They go from fun to dangerously hard in a month or so. Carl Byck

 

I miss the BFG R1's...The real R1's they use to have...

 

I got half a dozen brand new, stickered R1's a couple months ago from a friend. They had been in storage where it was dark and (somewhat) cool. I was shocked; really like them. On concrete they were nearly untouchable, but they do seem to "go off" sooner in life than Kumhos. I have road raced them once and they seem to have slightly more slip than I like (or at least am used to). Even then they are still very drivable. I like 'em.