Across reviews, the Toyo R888 R is most often praised as a high-grip semi-slick that delivers very strong dry traction, sharp response, and confident cornering/braking once it's up to temperature, making it popular for track days and aggressive street use. Experiences in the wet are mixed: many drivers report acceptable wet grip for a semi-slick, but a sizeable group warn it can be poor in rain-especially with standing water/aquaplaning risk. Noise and fast wear/short lifespan are recurring drawbacks, particularly when used on the road or in demanding track conditions.
What owners mention most counted across 25 reviews
Fantastic Tire in Dry - there Even good in the Wet (On an Evo) no tire squeal, lasted 9 Month approx. 8000miles
Only downside, there noisy on motorway drives, a slight drowning sound
Good for high horsepower applications they definitely have their limits around 700whp and wore quite fast mast 4000 miles but oh were they nice while they lasted
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
A very good track tire for a reasonable budget. I replaced it as a cheaper variant of the Yokohama AD048 (LTS- medium compound and special stiff sidewall), which is no longer produced. It simply has all the pros and cons of the semislick tires- it must warm up for a good function, it's noisy, limited function on water and in the cold. In the dry they are (for 1 tone car) excelent. Very stiff sidewall. When balancing, it was necessary to use often over 100 g weights for almost all pieces, in all dimensions. On my car and with this dimension (Lotus Exige S240, rear axle 225/235x45 R17) a very bad longevity. Around 2000 miles and they were pretty over the limit. I'm not drifting at all. This has never happened to me before or after with other tires. On the front axle (195x50 R16) over 10 000 miles.
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Researching the Toyo R888 R? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
After trying some cheap chinese trackay tires (goodride sport rs), I decided to step up the size and the quality of the tires. Searched the same size as skoda says form factory, and then went for the r888r. Same course, same car, instantly more feedback, more sharp response, grip levels that made a compact car briskier than ever. Managed to shave 2 seconds of the previous time, less flex on the sidewall, more speed on the curves. Be carefull, first few laps in a underpowered car, can be tricky by the lack of temp of the tires. 2 warming laps, problem solved.
Decided only rotating from side, not from axle to see the wear on them, and lets say grip demands wear for sure. 5 trackdays and a 800 km trip back from a course and the fronts are now in the wear marks. The rears, only 2mm wear. Please consider that the average weather here is 30 celsius avg in summer. Those in the uk or europe can see less wear difinitely because of the colder climate conditions.
Now hoping that covid eases the life to get back on the track, still got some decent grip in the fronts so lets push it to the limits.
30 psi cold
38 psi hot
rear
30 psi cold in
35 psi hot
If you like to send more tail happiness, 34 cold , so you can reach 38 psi. Toyo says 32 38 is the optimal psi.
Definitely gonna purchase some more...
he car I had came fitted with a set of Yokohama A539 tires. Designed for normal passenger car use they needed significantly more than 500kg on top of them and they were hopeless. Zero grip, got hot, became squirmy and unpredictable and were hopeless on track. Id driven on the ZZS quite a lot but wasn't sure if Avon merited the price premium, and the tire size wasn't ideal for my model so I opted for the R888R in GG compound.
Shortly after I had a chance at Croft to compare three Caterham's with ZZR, ZZS and the R888R.
Initial impressions are that in the bone dry with all other considerations gone, the ZZR is king. Genuinely a superb stable high performance tire that stays on the boil for a significant amount of time. I'd suggest a window of at least 10 laps where the tire was on perfect form. Then a slow transition into being slightly more slippery and excess tire wear as the temperature increases.
The ZZS is a superb road tire for a Caterham. Remarkably useful in the wet and even down to quite low temperatures, and works very well on a track as long as you limit your sessions to say 6-8 laps. After this again the transition into slightly less predictable begins and the car just becomes very slidey!
The R888R was somewhere in between the two extremes. I felt that the Toyos offered ALMOST ZZR performance but at a fairly significant discount. They were definitely better from cold than the ZZS and lasted a little longer before going off. They also worked almost as well on the road as a ZZS, dealing with water pretty well. The R888R stayed on my car.
Downsides: the R888R is a heavier tire with a stiffer sidewall, so this makes them a little less comfortable and adds a touch of unsprung weight to a light car, but their benefits generally outweighed these issues.
Ultimately I feel budget and requirement would dictate which you'd have. On a modern Caterham where ride height and sump layouts allow the smaller ratios, I'd suggest pick either a ZZR/S. But for older academy cars based on 175/70/13 tires, going down to a 185/55/13 was just too much. The toyo in 185/60/13 was a better bet, with a small tweak to ride height.
This is a slow tire. I'm not sure how this tire is getting so many positive reviews. Maybe it's good for a lightweight vehicle or in smaller sizes. But I think it's no good for modern heavy cars which typically weighs more than 1400kg, or in bigger sizes. Grip is low and your laptime will suffer. This stand no chance against the track-focused tires, such as A050 GS, 03G, because it's quite a bit slower than some road tires, like RE-71R. Also, this tire is pretty heavier than other tires in same size which may contributes its slowness.
track use only, impressive dry grip, short braking distance, maybe the best of all-considering Michelin ps4s and other top tires , on wet it is terrible, great cornering but a little hard to handle, very short life, a heavy tire, for track days i will buy again and again.
Got them fitted on a Clio 197 and was a bit nervous at the beginning in the wet but they out handled my road tires and I was very surprised how much grip it had on wet roads, but amazing in the dry and I haven't had the chance to warm them up properly. Bit noisy and can feel the road a lot more but would honestly buy another set after these!
Extremely noisy, very soft tire. Good for track days. Great on smooth dry tarmac. Not as bad as you would think in the wet but dangerous in standing water/aquaplaning conditions. Forget them if you have powerful road car. I got about 1000 miles out of fronts and a bit more from backs. Track days only. Look great but unless you want to go around a race track 2 seconds quicker per lap don't bother.
96%
Member
225/45 R17
7,000 miles
Mostly Country Roads
Average
I write this review for anyone who has wheelspin problems but also wants to feel confortable in car without noises.
You can buy these tires blindfolded. Absolute grip minimal to none noise! Perfect road feel and steering feedback.
I went from a lot of semi-slicks and finally I found the mother load
Hi folks, writing especially for those who search reviews about R888R. Tested those at Leon 1M Cupra R 1M BAM @ K04-064 hybrid - 370hp / 465 Nm FWD. Dry grip best ever, full traction on every gear and excellent conditions during fast tight turns. Like glued to the ground. The tire edges are very strong, so the car dosen't sway on corners. On wet - no traction during acceleration, but still very good driving capabilities, cornering excellent. Dry braking - 10/10. Wet braking 9/10 (cmon it's wet). Tires are noisy a bit. On wet even more, but something for something. My opinion overall - dry 10/10. Wet. 9/10. Wear is ok. Buy again? Surely.
