ozzy

Never been a fan of the Toyo's, but I got a bit of a shock on the drive home tonight.

I'm lucky enough to live around some fantastic (and very quiet) B-roads, so decided to do a bit more exploring on my 20-mile drive home tonight. I'm usually looking for some alternative routes for my running and since all the roads are a interlinked in some way there's loads more to find. I stumbled aross another small stretch of road with some good tarmac and thought I'd give it a blast.

It's been raining all day (nothing heavy, just some light drizzle), but the grip from the Toyo's was shocking. Usually the car is squirming around at even very low speeds, but absolutely nothing tonight. Obviously the roads are very greasy, but the Goodyears I had previously didn't bat an eyelid throughout the year.

There's obviously plenty of grip in the tyre, but it must be the way the Toyo's handle my local road surfaces that have given me so much grief. They also don't seem to handle direction changes as well as the Goodyears and it's a little too easy to get the car sliding off line going through some fast double-corners.

I still feel the Goodyears were a better all-round tyre and coped very well with my local roads. Perhaps I should be calling the roads **** rather than the tyre after tonights experience.

At least I know where to go now for some proper fun

Stefan

DocJock

Nope.

I think Toyos are crap as well....

ozzy

LOL; to the point

Got to admit they felt great on the grippy tarmac. But then again my running shoes feel just as grippy on those back roads

Stefan

zakesm

check out http://www.topcar.co.za/pages/Featur...?FeatureID=328 toyos average in the dry and crap in the wet... eagle f1s better any day imho

Micka

Toyos Cr@p?

I think you must be talking cr@p!

Never had a single problem with them in all conditions.

Must be the driver...

sti555

Toyos are ok...

not as £££ much as f1's what you expect, would'nt say they were 'crap' though, as above depends on the driver .. I would say they are fun

ozzy

Nice balanced viewpoint from you to Mika

I don't read too much into comparison tests to be honest. Performance is very subjective and varies on car setup and confidence of the driver. Just as my criticism of the Toyo's could be the fact that I've never felt confident with them - if I'm nervous, the car's vervous.

Yesterday was enough to make me "try a bit harder" with the Toyo's

Stefan

Dave uk blue mica

i've never found a fault with them and i've even done the odd road rally in my car with them on, must be the driver cos i rate them very highly.

DocJock

Toyos have lower limits than something like an F1 ...period.

This is even more noticeable in the wet where they let go and start to slide way too soon.
You just cannot lean on them in the same way as an F1 or SO2

When people talk about them being "progressive", they just mean they start sliding where better tyres are still gripping.

I tried a set after all the reviews on here and I stand by my original assessment. The brand new (ie not scrubbed in) F1s I swapped to on Saturday have more grip than the 1500 mile Toyos that were on before. When they are scrubbed in they will slaughter the Toyos, dry or wet.

Conclusion arrived at after use on road, track, Ring. Wet and dry.

DJ

ps for me, £8 a corner saving is a false economy if the car goes slower.

SuperFlyGuy

Bought my scooby 2 years ago, originally had Pirellies on it. Bought new wheels with new Toyos on 6 months ago and it definately looses grip more easily in wet and will wheelspin (never got wheelspin with Pirellies). Not saying they are crap, but not as grippy.

ZIPPY

Just say the word Toyo's are cr#p,in wet and damp conditions they should come with a warning.
All the people on here who rate them in the wet must drive like Miss Daisey as i've pushed 2 MY01 cars one on standard suspension and the other with Prodrive springs both fitted with Toyo's and they where both horrific in the wet.

I moved to Avon ZZ3 which where great and my mate went onto the New F1 and he loves them apart from the outer edges are wearing early.

Toyo's are pants for fast road/track in Damp/Wet conditions.

rooferman

iTrader: (6)

The Toyos i have on my my99 are not as good in the wet as my previous F1,s....but.... they are more fun..esp. playing on dual carriage way round abouts.

Faire D'Income

Phew. It's not just me then. I moved from the GSD3s to the Toyos and have been disappointed mainly in the grip department - and not just in the wet.

They don't inspire the same confidence in my car, a MY02 Wagon with Eibachs/Geometry setup and the car understeers more as a result, so much so that I'm having TSL sort out the drop links and redoing the geometry next week. The only time I've had a sideways moment in the Scoob was last week with these tyres and it's knocked my confidence a bit but then I'm not a driving God and my car is probably crap.

The only criticism I have of the Goodyears is that the sidewalls wore down pretty quickly, other than that they were great and lasted 19k.

Tim66 STi8

Bu99er now you tell me just paid £400 on a new set of proxes

wrxtankie

me too but i had yokos b4 and they were even worse so ive improved this time, Dont forget the set up of suspension differs on a lot of peeps cars.

Bob Rawle

Afraid I wouldn't use them if they were given to me, talking of which I have a set of four 16inch wheels here shod with Toyos, appox 6-7mm tread left, open to offers.

bob

Faire D'Income

Another slide on a roundabout this morning has left less than convinced, so as I'm doing one of Don Palmer's courses next week at Bruntingthorpe they're going to get shredded and it's back on with another set of GSD3s.

Gridlock Mikey

How the worm turns LOL
I can remember last year when unless you had Toyo's on you were an irresponisble penny pinching oik who didn't deserve a performance car. Now folk are realising the facts. Tyres affect cars, but lets be right about it, unless you are Schumacher or a track day fanatic, the difference between SO3's Toyo's etc is hardly noticeable.
If I change from say an "non designer" brand to Toyo's then the handling characteristics change slightly, so i then change my driving style. Easy and fun. I don't lay into the tyres
The biggest difference I have noticed through all of the tyres i've ever done is Wear rate. Generally, the more they cost, the quicker they wear out! I also noticed that there IS such a thing as a Budget tyre out there for performance cars, 225/40/17 Z rated. Directional tread for those of you that need that look £60 to your door! Go get 'em and try 'em. £240 instead of £400 just to keep up with the Joneses. If you don't go on track, you don't need designer tyres FACT!

drb5

iTrader: (4)

i'd have been interested to see how the p-zero nero's done in the same test.

ozzy

Sitting on the fence as usual Mikey

I'm no Schumacher either (well maybe Ralf ), but I did notice the differences between Pirelli P-Zero Asymetrics, Goodyear Eagle GS02's and Toyo Proxes T1's simply because those are the tyres I've had on my Scooby.

Can I say I was 0.002 secs faster through that bend than before - no, but I can say that there is a noticeable difference in performance (especially noticable in the wet) between all 3 tyres.

The Toyo's did surprise me, but only on that particular road as you have to use a specific driving style i.e. smooth, given you have about 2 foot either side of the car to play with or you'll end up in a ditch or in a field

Yesterday, I had a play with one of the lads from work. It was fun, but going through a big roundabout, the car was sliding all over the place. I was being aggressive but the Goodyears would certainly have coped better than the Toyo's and simply gave more grip.

I certainly don't follow the crowd blindly, but I do listen to others impressions. I hated the Pirelli's, although they lasted forever. People recommended the Goodyears and I was very impressed (this was over 2 years ago). Last year my m8 from work recommened the Toyo's and so did others on SN. They were cheaper than the Goodyears, so I thought I'd give them a try. 1 year on and unless someone convinces me there is a better "all-round" tyre than the Goodyears out there, I'll have some more of those.

You can find the limits to your car AND tyre on public roads, but that's dangerous and not recommended. Just because you don't go near a track doesn't necessarily mean you don't need a high-performance tyre IMHO.

If I want to race around a track and get the best performance, I certainly wouldn't pick a road tyre.

I can't afford to try every single tyre on the market and compare back-to-back, so you have to base your decision on cost or others recommendations. The later comes down to a bit of faith and trust that they can give a balanced opinion.

You can usually spot the trend followers coz their cars have all the wel--known labels splattered all over them

Stefan

ozzy

You being sarcie Dave

Give me your 18"'s and I'll try them out for you. I promise to give a fair and balanced review

Stefan

drb5

iTrader: (4)

HOW DARE YOU, STEF!!!!!!


they are 19's

ozzy

Sorry m8, I should have realised you're more "bling" than most

I should also have realised that you know Scoty and Dougster, some of the biggest t@rts in Scotland and some of that's bound to have rubbed off on you

Stefan

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Perspective chaps, it depends how hard you push your cars, road conditions, driver confidence, etc, etc.

I've tried a few tyres on my old Subarus and if I had to list out my tyre choices (IMHO):

Bridgestone SO-2 - Fantastic in the wet and dry. They were better than the SP9000's before I even scrubbed them in!
Goodyear Eagle F1's - GD3 compound was an improvement over the GD2, but both were still brilliant. Not quite as much grip as the Bridgestones, but for the money and excellent choice.

Then there is a big gap before:

Pirelli PZero's - Good in the dry, crap in the wet, IMHO.
Toyo Proxie TS-1's - I didn't like the lack of grip especially in the wet! And not as good as the other tyres in the dry!
Dunlop SP9000 - The compound is too hard, so they last forever, but gave poor grip in the wet and dry. Where the Bridgestone gripped, the Dunlop let go!

These tyres were either 205/45R17 or 215/40R17.

Bear in mind I do not consider myself a good driver and don't have the bottle do some of the manouvers or speeds that some of you guys will, so I would say these are comments from an average driver!!

Faire D'Income

I'm totally confused by your terminology. What is a designer brand when related to tyres - we're not talking about a pair of jeans here.

If you drive on normal, greasy British roads then you buy the best tyres that you can afford that are appropriate to your vehicle and you expect (particularly in the case of the Toyos) to have adequate grip in all conditions, especially in the wet. You don't need to be a track specialist or Michael Schumacher to be able to differentiate between different levels of grip from different tyres and to suggest that this is the case is either a poor attempt at patronising others or a failure to understand the issues.

As I don't know what you mean by designer tyres I can't comment on your observation about needing them only for the track but what I can comment on is your assertion that the more you pay, the higher the wear rate. The SO3s that were orignially fitted to my car lasted 13k miles and were more expensive than the the GSD3s and yet the Goodyears lasted longer - this contradicts your experience.

As others have pointed out, different circumstances and different cars result in different results so to make sweeping statements such as yours and then pass them off as *FACT* is ludicrous.

trout2

A well worn set of T1S tyres with the right pressure are as good as any other performance road tyre.

drb5

iTrader: (4)

pmsl at ozzy. too true bud, too true

ZIPPY

Trout2 stop talking out of your rear,Toyo T1'S tyres are sh#te on any car with any pressure they are the worst road holding tyre i have used and yes i followed the TREND and tried them but thank god the wore out quickly and as BR has already said i wouldnt have them if they where FREE.

Cigarettes come with a health warning and so should Toyo tyres.

trout2

I would get someone to have a look at your car or take some driving lessons?

Tim66 STi8

Sorry don't agree with you! Tested my Toyos today over some good twisty roads & they were sh!tot. No stepping out no sliding just pure grip,ok the roads were only slightly damp,they still have my vote