My rears are shredded after airfield/roundabout abuse, fronts not far off.
MOT time very soon.
I have standard Bridgestone all round (very first set) but cant decide
between Yoko AO48 'semi slick' or the later Bridgestone 07's fitted to the
111R's.

Car never see's the wet but I do use it in winter when I can. An airfield day
or two may be planned this year we'll see.

This has been asked many times on Lotus forums. Anyone on here?


Russ.

 

Do you like the Bridgestones?

I find the A048 fine wet / dry / cold tbh

I wouldn't entertain much else on mine tbh.

 

Can't comment directly on Elise/Exige use but yes I have used A048's - I suspect you may know most of the following from other thread, anyway here is my 2p.

+ better wear than R888's, will stand a 20 min track session without going off
+ stiffer sidewall and better turn in than any 'road sport tyre' eg RE050/MPSII,
+ confidence inspiring grip once warm,
+ cool more quickly and not as pressure/heat sensitive as R888's.
+ the ultimate grip limit is higher than the road tyre

- Not as quick to warm up as R888's
- takes a while longer to get them up to full temp/grip.
- They still wear faster than any 'road sport tyre'
- Through standing water they are as scary as R888's (eg you are effectively as passenger), in damp road conditions they are still fine.
- when the grip runs out there tends to be less warning and a little more snappy behavior (just imo of course)

So if it is mainly road use stick to road tyres, more track use and A048's should do the job well.

 

I had them on my S and absolutely loved them.

However I think MarkB has put contis on his exige for the road as he decided that road grip levels were ultimately more "fun".

But the grip from A048's is absolutely immense. If they did them in M3 sizes I'd definitely have a set. But they don't.

 

Aren't the CSL jobs similar to an A048 type thing, Mark?

Exige isn't really a tailhappy car, it's not really it's thing, so i'm sticking with the grippy stuff. Mine doesn't get hardly any road use now, just to exercise it really so my priorities are a bit different.

 

Russ, have used both 48's & Conti Sport 2's on the Exige. Conti's are still on from December (48's in the cold we had here were a bit too much....they are worn).

I love the 48's. Bags of grip esp in the dry. Have to say though due to cost i'll be moving to Toyo's when i finally kill them.

The Conti's have been excellent & i left them on for my Euro Hoon & they performed brilliantly. A good all round tyre & excellent in the wet/cold. They were recommended by a few people on SELOC/NORLOG.

Ed

 

Yeah, you can get either Michelin Pilot Sport Cups (come with 4mm of tread), or R888's.

There's also a new tyre out, the Kumho V700 which is excellent.

The PSC's have more tread than the other tyres though. and are very asymmetric.

 

48R (M's) are our race tyre for the 7's, and the ARDS instructor I've just started using has them on his racing Elise (Honda engined). I like them although not great in the wet and I don't have much to compare them to. The Elise/Exige is a bit heavier than the 7 so don't know about their longevity if you're really thrashing them, but for racing we are allowed 3 sets per season for qualy + race - my first set are past their best after 7 dry sessions (+ a bit of wet testing) but are more than fine for track days (I'll downgrade them to test tyres after next weekend).

 

I put Contis the Exige on after driving home from Donington in December on AO48s and sliding all over the place.

I know they do different compounds, but below 3 degrees the Yokos were like stones, no give and no grip whatsoever.
Another problem I had was that the fronts went out of balance very easily, the wheel would vibrate like a sod, I'd take them to the tyre place and get them re-balanced, a month later the vibration came back again. I'm told this is more common than it ought to be with Yokos these days, which for the price you pay isn't great.

So far I've had the Contis on all winter (about 5000 miles) and done two trackdays on them - they're holding up well and I'd recommend them to anyone.

I still have the Yokos with a few miles on them if you want to make me an offer for them, they're good for a few thousand miles and they'd give you a chance to try them on the cheap......

 

May sound stupid but I just want to say based on my first hand experience of using A048 on my S2k for 4 month so far: A048 is the SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!