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
Excellent value for money. In that sense maybe the best TD tire around.
A bit sensitive to pressure per external temperature; one must be very careful on adjusting the pressure in order for them to work properly, but if done correctly they stick like gum and wear not that easy. Still, tire wear is more than other semis, but this is due to the soft compound (all the compounds of 888 are softer than stated) and this makes it easier to heat and also drive daily on normal road.
Definitely my one and only choice on Track Day rubber.
Used for 6 months as daily driver on a turbocharged Mk3 MR2 Roadster. Used on all types of roads, in weather ranging from hot summer to cold winter & everything in between.
Dry grip levels are truly incredible. The R888 is an R compound tire and dry grip far exceeds any conventional 'high performance' street tire. Performance is far higher than any other tire I've used.
Wet grip is surprisingly good. Internet horror stories regarding using the R888 in the rain (usually by people who haven't actually run them) are overrated. In my experience as long as the user understands the relationship between rain & grip levels for ANY tire, wet grip is actually very reasonable. Similarly, as with any tire, if you are reasonably cautious with standing water, drivability is perfectly adequate especially for a such a highly specialized, high performance piece of equipment.
Some road noise, but perfectly acceptable for an enthusiast driver.
Wear rate is very reasonable for a track tire, similar in duration to the Toyo T1-R.
Overall, an excellent tire, with many strengths & very reasonable weaknesses. Understand it's nature & related characteristics, & the R888 is thoroughly recommended.
Which tires do you drive?
Researching the Toyo R888? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
I bought these after meeting the european CEO for TOYO and not believing what he told me about the tire. I swapped the racing michelin n22?s from the rally nova and fitted these on the car.
Instant grip is available but not as power sapping as the michelin n22?s( the nova does not have a lot of torque to overcome the michelin n22?s friction) they will not let you down as long as the car is not very heavy and last for ages.
I have since then installed them in the road car, octavia vrs, and in the recce nova so the police dont fine me for doing rally recon with slicks. I feel its a revolutionary tire.
These tires have more grip than I ever thought possible. Made a huge difference to the handling of my MR2, which went from kicking it's back out rather unexpectedly on tight roundabouts to being absolutely glued to the road in anything above first gear.
In the 12000 miles I've used these tires the only times I've felt them slip are when I floor it in first gear on a corner and a little understeer through puddles, and even then the tires are so progressive that I hardly need to do anything to control the slide.
The rear-right is worn out now, due to driving with a busted wheel bearing, plus Toyo warn against using the tires in sub-zero temperatures, so I'm replacing them with some tires better suited to winter. Though I doubt, even in wet & greasy conditions, that anything else could be better.
I will buy these again next summer, and take them to a track!
We are racing on these in the MR2 Championship. Some of the heavier MK2s have found the wear rate quite challenging, but the lighter MK1s are wearing well. We've raced in the dry at Mallory (excellent grip, tend to throw lumps off when hot!) and at Brands Hatch in the wet (very very surprised at how grippy and progressive they were in damp and greasy conditions, have not yet experienced large amounts of standing water). All in all have found it to be a good tire.
I thought they were very good straight out the box. They weren't slding all over the place as some new tires do with the releasing agents when first run.
They get up to temp pretty quickly and cool down quite quick too. My only gripe with them is less than a day rounds Brands Hatch Indy circuit and I'm just off the wear bars on the fronts being run on 15" rims on a 2001 Mini Cooper Challenge car.
Once bedded in these tires really come alive. Very sticky (you can hear all the stones being picked up off road and flung against the underside of your car) especially when they get warm.
Cornering is good, the tire walls are hard but you do get a slight wobble when you don't drive smooth round corners. Traction off the line is superb also.
In the wet they are ok as long as you drive like ms daisy. Do not push your car in the wet with these on and ESPECIALLY do not drive if it has been raining for hours and there is standing water.
