Thanks, again Doug!

 

I worked for toyo, and I guess i'm one of those who had something wrong in his head.

If it was on a daily driven car I would pick the RA1, simply because I find it much quieter then the R888. Both are AWESOME tires, with great grip and will last longer then "most" R-compounds. I loved the R888 and I will be ordering a set for mainly track only wheels. But I personally think the RA1 is a better everyday tire. It's a little better in wet in my experience, and it's not as loud.

Keep in mind, my experience are with NON-SHAVED tires.

I drove the R888's on a STi and they sounded like swamper tires........just my experience. I did track testing on both and did find the R888 to be slightly better on the track.

 

hot rod, hey, can i get toyo from you?

just kidding. but you are right. i was thinking straight for track car only. if you are doing more street than track, RA1 is much much quieter. R888 is incredibly noise, full tread or worn tread, they are LOUD, very LOUD.

but that didn't bother me b/c i only use the car on track.

sorry i forgot to clarify that.

but the toyo's are one hell of a tire. last to the cord and much more predictable than the cups.

 

NOTHING. it's stock except
harness, roll bar, gt3 seats, ap brake fluid, R888 and pagid RS29's.
NOTHING else had been changed from stock.

 

Bigger ***** in the 996

 

Agreed, you hit the nail on the head. I really like the RA-1's for a tire that you can drive on every day and enjoy at the track and still be competitive.

 

Just got off the phone with John at CCW. I ordered 18" C10s with the RA1s for the track. He was great to work with.

 

Good choice Andrew!

 

FYI, while at Toyo the initial plan was to scrap the RA1 when the R888 hit. I tried my best to push the fact that they had room for both tires in their lineup. The techs and execs were CLUELESS that people used the RA1 as an everyday tire. The first time I road on the R888 I was very complimentary but said there was no way they could get rid of the RA1 and they were astonished by my reasoning (loud, would suck as an everyday tire, etc).


I left before I found out the final outcome, but I know when I left I had a couple of other guys in my corner (esp. the High Performance Specialist team). So we'll see how much longer the RA1 is around.



Reality is, it was a year or two away from even possibly being phased out because of the huge lack of R888 fitments. The great thing the R888 did bring were 19" sizes!

 

It blew my mind how stingy they were with tires to employees. My company car didn't even have Toyo's on it!!!!! Imagine going to a dealer trying to get them to sell your product whne you aren't even using it!

I was allowed 2 sets of tires at a decent discount...after that the discount you got wasn't even close to what you could actually go and buy the tire yourself for.

 

Garrett,
Thanks again for your great advice!
Andrew

 

RA1's are too soft for street IMO The R888's are a perfect in between. Just got a set myself and once they warm up is when they are supposed to shine on the track. Dont forget they are a much newer design too.

 

The R888 is better between the two, we have sold some to regular track guys. The heat cycle claim is true from their feedback

 

Wow! That's pretty interesting. Are you just able to push harder in the 996 because it'd be a less expensive wreck?

 

Ordered RA1's for next weekend at VIR, to my surprise the supplier recommended trying R888's, because RA1's are being phased out TOTALLY due to the great response with the R 888's and them being far superior. Needless to say, I loved RA1's, and I heard these are MUCHHHHHH better.

Have them coming in Monday, will report back after next weekend!