The Toyo R888 earns its clearest owner praise for dry grip, mentioned positively by 22 of 32 reviewers, with handling also favored. Wet grip is praised more often than criticised, but several owners distinguish useful grip on damp roads from poor resistance to standing water. Noise is criticised by roughly a third of reviewers and aquaplaning by about a fifth, while four describe limited comfort. Tread-life opinions are divided, and 25 reviews lack a stage of use, so neither a typical lifespan nor consistent grip retention is established. Overall feedback favors its road-and-track grip more clearly than its suitability for quiet, comfortable daily driving.
What owners mention most counted across 30 reviews
Car - Renault Clio RS 197
Tire - Toyo Proxes R888 GG
Size - 215/45 17
Wet traction is OK, just like on some regular tires, but BEWARE of standing water! Dry traction, cornering stability and steering responsiveness are superb. Also these tires at some speed produce sound like you need new wheel bearings... I wouldn't recommend this tire for a daily drive car...
Just had these installed on my Group N Rally car in order to set it up for hill climb events. We fitted these on 17 inch wheels and drove the car with a Quantum Tarmac suspension. In the beginning I felt such a tremendous difference that reminded me of my earlier days in Formula Palmer Audi. Huge amounts of grip however maybe the wider size 255/40/17 may have slaughtered a bit the progressiveness of a narrower rally tarmac specced tire. Overall my expectations in the dry grip department were not only met but exceeded. :))
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
On a nicely set up RX7 500+ wbhp - any good ...YES. Unsure of any spec. details as required good price sticky tires & bought un-reviewed (bar use on standard RX7 for a few days). So, what I know:
1. No matter what I throw at them - supreme confidence .. even in wet- unreal in dry. Skips for a split of a second in wet/icy conditions but totally controllable. Enough to scare any all wheel drive WRX STI in same conditions lesser footed.
2. Warm up, not an issue I have found. Aqua planing not an issue either.
3. Noise, hard with my car (even with two boxes) but on the glide I know no quieter road tire (less tread less noise).
4. Feedback excellent, like a Metzler race tire on a race bike.
5. Limit? Well hard corners & actual 180-190mph not reached limit (235/265) - even over road like surfaces (rough).
6. Lasted - well have to say as fair if not better than any so far (quite a few, lol). i.e. well. Obviously check camber for inner wear.
7. Any caution? well (again) I had other Toyo's on other cars & the side wall typically stiff. Great for handling But if you have any dinks/wheel balance issues the stiffness of these side walls I think likely to create aggro. Wheel rims in good norm condition are no problem. But then you probably wouldn't be looking at these tires anyway.
8. Finally :) - Recomend - if you wish a track, road legal tire I really would not bother looking elsewhere, they are just the job these R888.
~If you just want excellent grip and wet safe driving on a road car (comparitive to the old Goodyear Eagle F1, Avon rainsport without the half wear aquaplaning, worse with falken & like) : then I suggest the excellent Marangoni Zeta Linea If you can get in your size, even gone hard they afford amazing grip.~
Price is worth the safety & performance (as needed) of these excellent R888's & better than many comparitives. Not sure if the benefit would be particular to a typical road car/use though.
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Researching the Toyo R888? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
These tires are a hidden gem. I have had yoko and michelins but these take the cake. I think they have actually taken a second off the 0-100km/h sprint. I travel the M1 to Brisbane each day and can you believe I've already got 15,000km out of them. I didn't bank on that nor the fact I got them cheap initially but if I have to buy them again I see the price isn't on the low end. Highly recommended. The yokohamas can't compete with these. They do get better when warmed but that is ovestated as it takes 5 minutes only. Noisy but who cares. My suspension wanes before the tires.
I've used these for the last 5 months with a mixture of road and track driving, with a combination of 2 medium compound R888's and 2 soft compound R888's.
Road - With differing gradient I found the R888's to be of great grip and always had confidence in them not to give way, but over smooth tarmac there was simply nothing more annoying than the WHOOOOOO they make, seriously had a feeling that a wheel bearing was gone in the car! They're not the comfiest tire to use on street applications as they're stiff, harsh and extremely noisy! It was nice having the confidence there if needed. Thread wear wasn't extraordinarily bad considering the type of tire they are, but every single mile they were used was simply worth it. With spirited driving in the dry you had no worries, but once it got wet out you have to slow down and think about it, standing water is the absolute devil with these but otherwise they're fine, once you can keep them in check! I'd rather stick with T1-R's for the street though.
Track - Along with the street use, these got me through 2 trackdays, a drag racing day and general usage. There's simply nothing better for the price to gain confidence, grip and a quick time on track! The amount of grip they give, even from cold is simply astonishing, you're always wondering whether they're going to slip out but they just keep on pulling and sticking to the ground. I've had the front step out only once and that was mostly due to driver error, while the backs were constantly providing me with sufficient grip to control the back kicking out under hard turning. In slight damp the soft compounds were a little bit harder to keep in check, but the mediums were simply a delight. Could not honestly believe how well these performed in the wet, I'd go as far as to say they're almost as good as they are in the dry! Thread wear throughout a trackday is immense, you just do NOT notice the tire wearing down, they literally grip until they're slick all over! During the drag day, I had that much confidence in them that I could launch at 6000rpm without a single bit of wheelspin, just straight grip throughout every gear under very harsh circumstances!
I'll definitely be buying another set very, very soon! I absolutely can not, and will not go for anything else!
88%
Member
Nissan
225/45 R17
200 miles
Track
Spirited
Took these to the track. and tracked it during a 90 degree day. These grip so much that at some point i was questioning how i was still planted on the ground. very grippy tires for any dry day. no experience in wet conditions though.
Bonkers amount of grip in the dry, gets better as you get them hotter. Care needed to not overinflate them, for me, they work well with a hot pressure the same as the manufacturers recommended cold pressure. They are also serviceable in wet conditions, you can make serious progress, but do be careful in standing water. They seem to work well in the cold and wet too. Certainly no problems in melt water on mountain roads unless it is deep.
Feedback is OK, they do give some information about the state of play, but once they let go you need to be quick and accurate to recover them.
Downsides are noise and wear. Stiff side wall and big tread blocks, combined with my cars solid pillowball struts, means really bad amounts of tire noise in the car. Wear is much higher than the average road tire. I think my rears seem to last about 5000 miles. Running 20 minutes of total toe in keeps them nice and warm, but probably does not help wear.
The increased grip has knock on effects for the braking system if you make full use of it too.
They are about the only road tire I can think of that will soak up full throttle in 1st without spinning up in the dry.
Great tire for road and track - have been suprised by their wear and have kept their grip through a number of track days and road driving.
Dry grip is outstanding and as long as you can get some heat in the tires in the wet they are great - but don't like standing water due to the tread pattern.
For what they are designed for Toyo has nailed it - great tires and would buy again.
Bought the car with these fitted already and was very pleased with the dry road grip, rear end has never even twitched under heavy acceleration. I was slightly concerned about how they would be in the rain but i found them to be good under normal driving conditions, as long as you stick to driving sensibly you shouldnt have any problems, had them now for 5k over 14 months and would buy again if the price wasn't a concern.
Couldn't use the car in the few days of snow we had in england as they had no grip at all, but i was fully expecting that with them on a 280bhp rwd car.
Well what can I say these tires are truly astonishing! Bought two for the rear used off of eBay and loved them, so when the time came I got them all round. (did cost over ?1k, but hey!) They're fantastic on the road, heat up pretty quick and they have transformed the car into a cross between a big cruiser and a hot hatch! It really is unbelievable what these tires can and will do.
You must warm them progressively to get the best life span out of them, skidding or spinning the wheels when they're cold really takes a lot of tread off! I have done 5,000 hard miles on these beauties including a Cadwell park track day and I still have about 3mm of tread left.
As others have said in the rain these are still very usable even on a big car like the M5. Very progressive and controllable if you know what you're doing.
I will definitely buy these again, no question.
