P

Having run my MY00 on SO-2's for a year I have just changed for Toyo's to see what they were like. Initial feel was that the car moved about a bit more but not hugely noticable at the kind speeds reached on the road.

I also compete in sprint's & hillclimbs and had an event yesterday that I did earlier in the year on the SO-2's, so a chance for direct and objective comparison against the clock as there have been no other changes to the car in this time.

Initial feel on my first run was that there was much less grip and the car was understeering much more than on the previous tyres, leading to some rather untidy cornering!

Ended up that after 5 runs my best time was 57.61 secs, 4/100ths behind a '96 WRX (on SO-2's incidentaly!) compared to my previous best of 56.98 earlier in the year.

The way I coaxed the best time out of the car in the end was to adopt a less aggressive style than was achievable on the SO-2's, although still some way off the previous time.

Needless to say I am another person on the list regretting the demise of the S)-2 tyre. Incidentily it would seem the negative feedback on the SO-3 compared to the SO-2 is unfounded, one of the guys made this swap on his TVR Chimeara and whilst he thought the car felt less grippy, he's set a couple of quicker times on the newer tyres!!

Lastly if anyone has an old set of 205x50x16 SO-2's that are worn but road legal I will gladly take them of your hands as I have a second set of wheels waiting for them!

Mail me at matthewj.preston@hp.com if you have...

Cheers
Matt

Pavlo

more grip might have made it harder to drive = slower time

Pete Croney

I agree.

I quite like Toyo's but am now using SO3s and they are so much more direct, with higher levels of grip.

In the wet I used to play with the Toyos, setting up the drift and powering through it. The SO3s just grip. If you do break traction, they want to regrip.

They aren't as much fun, but I sure they are quite a bit quicker. Your figures would bear this out.

Toyos are harder wearing though and still represent excellent value for money.

P

I haven't tried them in the wet yet but have heard that as well.

Hence my desire to get hold of an old set of SO-2's (or SO-3's if anyone's got through a set yet?)...come on some one must have some, any tyre dealers out there....??

Pete - you haven't got any kicking around in a corner of the workshop have you??

Matt

Jerry B

In case you're interested I went from S02's on 16"s to F1 GSD3s on 17"s. Direct comparison is not entirely possible as I dropped from 205/50s to 215/40s but I am very very impressed with the F1's. They felt very grippy in the wet immediately but took at least 1000 miles to feel really good in dry conditions, as much my driving adjustment I guess - after 4000 they now feel as good as the S02's did, with a little sharper response due to the profile as much as anything I assume. You might want to try those sometime...they're quieter than the Bridgestones and possibly less harsh too, which is good, but in most other ways I think they are a match at least.
I've still got the s02's with about 5mm left on 5-spokes in the garage (I had to upsize for brake clearance) but I'm keeping them in case I change cars later this year and need to standardise it, but if I change my mind I'll let you know.