Planning to try a set of Yoko A052 for autocross and lapping in place of my existing RE71Rs. Two questions: for those who have run both, what pressures did the Yokos like compared to the REs? Roughly the same, or do they tend to prefer higher (or lower, but the bridgestones run pretty low already!)

Second question is regarding their temperature range. RE71R are best around 120-130F, and just about as fast from around 90-160, but they wear faster as you get up to the higher end of that range. I understand that A052 can handle higher temperatures, but I haven't seen any numbers around that. Does anyone know their ideal and/or max temperature ranges? Thanks!

 

Ha, just searched for this and found only my own old, forgotten thread. So I guess it's time for a bump!

 

For me they liked similar pressure to RE71s. Don’t have numbers in temp but they HATE heat with a passion. For lapping the hot lap must be in the first 2/3 laps then they start to fall off. When they fall off they get a bit greasy but remain predictable. They do not last long at all, practically melting away on track. Also my fast lap was in a morning session. By mid day they were a full second or more off pace just from ambient being hot. They also will get greasy fast if you over drive at all. They were great for autox though.

 

New RE-71RS is claimed to have less heat generation. "Optimization allows the tire to exploit every bit of surface contact available while helping prevent areas of acute heat generation, encouraging even wear in competition environments." (from Tire Rack)

-- Chuck

 

I ran 32-34 PSI when hot (PSI coming off of track after an end of session cool down lap running at 4/10ths or so).

The feedback from bronxbomber mirrors my own.

All my fastest laps were on my 2nd or 3rd hot lap. Even with cool down laps in between laps, I couldn't get the tires to recover. They felt good and were very predictable, but weren't as fast as at the beginning of the session. Tire life was absolutely horrible - I only got 9 sessions out of them at 25 minutes each. It's an auto-x/time-attack designed tire. It's not a lapping/racing tire. I far prefer the Kuhmo V730 to the A052 - consistent for a whole 25-30 minute session for the whole day. Even managed to set my fastest lap on hotlap#11 while driving 9 to 10/10ths for the whole session. It's slower than a fresh A052 and has peaky break-away, but i far prefer its consistency and ability to handle heat.

 

I've found the same. Just set a PB with the A052 - it's definitely faster than the AR-1s I was running before, and felt comparable to the Maxxis RC-1 gen 2, both in terms of raw single lap pace and wear rate. I got 3 track days (about 15 20-minute sessions) total out of those, and the Yokos look like they'll be about the same. Likewise I was fastest for the first 2-3 laps. I did find they stayed predictable and controllable after that, but the grip did fall off.

Is it too much to ask for a tire that's blindingly fast and doesn't wear?!

 

I ran 27 lbs on the A052s and did the same for the RE71r. I did play around with adding a pound to the fronts (28) but typically ended up on 27 all around. I did hear that some had good luck running them a bit higher but I did not confirm that myself.

A052s also seemed to be fastest on the first run of the day. I missed nats last year but a friend said he saw people with two sets, swapping them between runs lol. So they only fall off in grip as they heat up. We were spraying them just about every run on the ND1 I codrove.

Interestingly on the ND1 we ended up running 27 lbs. So that may indicate I should have tried higher on my S2k given the nearly 500 lb weight difference in the two

 

I found the v730 to be that tire for me. Faster than an NT-01, same consistency on track as an NT-01, and what is looking to be better wear rate than the NT-01. Also starts with 8.3/32th inches worth of tread.
The report is that this tire is like the love child of a Falken RT660 + Hankook RS4.

grassroots did a comparison.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...hang-yokohama/

my own review here at s2ki.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/wheels-t...-v730-1205904/

 

Have you run the AR-1? It's the closest thing I've found; curious how it compares to the v730.

Oh, and forgot to mention re the A052, per the point of this thread: based on the cross-section temps I measured, best I could tell from a single day, it does like slightly higher pressure than the RE71R or AR-1 did. Both of those I ran at about 30F28R; these seemed happiest at about 32-33F and 30R. I guess with the sidewalls being softer it makes sense that they might need higher pressure.

I also found the outside front is rolling over more than the Nankangs did with the same camber, regardless of pressure. Outside edge was considerably hotter than inside and middle, whereas on the Nankang (and other tires I've driven) it's been much closer. Some of that likely the softer sidewalls, and some just that these pull more Gs. Probably just have to live with that though, given I'm already at 4° in the front.

 

Haven't run the AR-1. Heard that they wear pretty fast compared to an NT-01 (although they're quite a bit faster).

My NT-01 experience after having run them about 5-6 years:

• very consistent lap after lap
• Handles heat really well
• Likes slightly sloppy driving and tends to reward driving with some slip angle
• Life - 20-24 sessions (at 20-25min per session). Includes about 1500 miles of street driving to and from events

I ran the v730 and it's my new go to tire and going forward will replace the NT-01 for me. Unfortunately, I won't really get to evaluate long term wear on a fair basis. I got two track days in and just had my second kid. My s2000 hasn't moved since mid-Dec (my last track day) and is just sitting on a trickle charger. Keyboard warrioring it is about as close as I get to the track these days.