Hey all, I have a question about breaking in new tires. I just picked up a set of new Toyo R888's for track usage. 235/40-18 front and 315/30-18 rear. How should I break them in? Put some road miles on first? Take them straight to the track?

Appreciate input from you experienced drivers out there.

Tim

 

Take em to the track and beat the hell out of em to get some heat in them, it'll proabbly take a heat cycle or two to get rid of the bonding agents then you should be good.

 

Agree, the break in is the first couple of sessions when you are trying to get the release mold off of the tires. Just don't overheat them by trying to drive too hard for the first 2 sessions or so. Then you're good.

 

A few warm up laps get rid of any or all surface contaminants on a tire, mold release or anythiing else. The rest of the first session is when such a tire comes into its own, due to its design it will take multiple heat cycles but after about a 1/2 dozen sessions it is middle aged.

Run them like you stole them after the first 1/2 dozen laps.

 

Thanks guys. Really looking fwd to getting these on the track. Sears Point next weekend!

 

How did the R888s work at the track? What other tires have you tracked? I had a not-so-great experience with R6s and will likely return to another brand.
thanks

 

Ran 888's all last season and they worked pretty well for me. Just keep track of the heat cycles. I found that at about 22-25 they started to go away on me. Still plenty of tread left, they just started losing grip and I had to back off.

 

Usually, you should lift the car off the ground to let the tires cool evenly. Ideally for a full day. Or you can buy from tirerack and ask them to be heat cycled.

You can check Hoosier's web site for a nice procedure on how to break tires in.

 

R888s are working well for me. Have about 6 track days on them so far this season: Infineon and Thunderhill. Just got back from three a day weekend at TH with PCA GGR and the tires worked very well, in the sun and rain. We had sun on Friday and the tires were great, torrential rain Saturday and the tires did ok, wet/dry on Sunday. I drove to the track on the R888s so didn't have the option of putting my street tires back on (PS2s) but the R888s did OK. And when the track dried up Sunday they were really nice. I've experimented with pressures and like to run them in the 40's hot: 42 front and 46 rear seem to work best for my car with stock suspension setup.

Tim