Lotus Elise Tires

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Tire Reviewed Dry Grip Wet Grip Feedback Handling Wear Comfort
Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08R (42) 97% 75% 91% 93% 73% 71%
Yokohama Advan A052 (8) 99% 76% 91% 99% 59% 73%
Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 (30) 94% 72% 90% 90% 70% 74%
Toyo R1R (29) 95% 81% 92% 90% 60% 71%
Toyo R888 R (23) 96% 69% 89% 93% 66% 67%
Nankang AR 1 (31) 91% 48% 86% 89% 73% 67%
Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 (9) 87% 76% 82% 82% 65% 63%
Yokohama Advan A032R (2) 100% 70% 85% 85% 40% 50%
Federal 595RSR (50) 87% 67% 77% 80% 73% 58%
Yokohama Advan A048 (9) 96% 53% 96% 81% 51% 56%
Yokohama Advan A050 (4) 98% 45% 93% 90% 33% 70%
Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08RS (27) 72% 66% 72% 70% 78% 70%
Bridgestone Potenza RE040 (47) 79% 58% 74% 70% 65% 57%
Wanli S1088 (85) 57% 35% 41% 39% 59% 38%

Lotus Elise Tire Review Highlights

Writing about the Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 given 73% (225-45-17-)
Driving on mostly town for 10000 spirited miles
No comments left
tire reviewed on 2022-08-06 23:56:07
Writing about the Toyo R888 R given 87% (225-45-17-)
Driving on track for 10000 spirited miles
I use this tire for mostly track. Great tire for running hard, it likes a little heat. Very predictable! Good wear for a track use tire. Not really made for the wet. Limited channels to run off water but for dry, great tire.
tire reviewed on 2022-02-25 20:03:31
Writing about the Toyo R1R given 90% (225-45-17-)
Driving on a combination of roads for 12000 spirited miles
I use the R1R's for summer street tire and occasional track sessions. Great summer tire, works in wet and dry on the streets. Very balanced feel. On track this tire performs very well. Prefers a little heat which is easily attained. Very predictable!
tire reviewed on 2022-02-25 19:59:26
Writing about the Nankang AR 1 given 76% (225-45-17-)
Driving on mostly country roads for 1500 spirited miles
prefer them to the Toyo R888R's I had before. Less tramlining and similar to more grip and more confidence in it's abilities.
tire reviewed on 2021-10-18 01:30:42
Writing about the Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08RS given 51% (195-50-15-W)
Driving on a combination of roads for 2000 spirited miles
These are a replacement for my AD08R on a Lotus Elise. New compound to meet EU regs. They are terrible in comparison. Squeely when pushed and lack grip consistancy. They are clearly a retrograde step and Yokohama are being misleading in marketing them under the "AD0" nomenclature. Such as a shame as the A08R('s) were the go to standard for Lotus enthusiasts. These are getting a bad reputation from many car forums. I will not be buying these again and neither will many others. Pull your socks up Yokohama....
tire reviewed on 2020-08-24 12:11:39
Writing about the Nankang AR 1 given 61% (235-40-17-)
Driving on track for 1000 spirited miles
I drove the tire in 205/45/16 front and 235/40/17 rear on a Lotus Elise with around 250 hp.
The tire was bought purely for track use, I can not comment on street behaviour.
I drive sessioned events with session between 30 and 45 min driving, 45 min break, session, break etc. In my experience this can be quite demanding for a tire as they can not fully cool down in between and some tires tend to overheat at the end of the day.
On a roadcourse I found this tire to have a relatively short warm up time, even though some people commented otherwise. Normally the tire reached operating temperatures within a few laps and cold grip is as bad as one would expect, which means limited. However, this tire is really good in taking the punishment for the whole day without any overheating issues. It is the first tire that I have in this price range, that last a whole day.

I found the tire to be quite sensitive to pressure changes. The behaviour of the tire can completely change within 0.1 bar pressure. When underinflated the grip is not so much the problem as is very numb feedback about grip levels and heavily decreased steering information. I settled at 1.8 bar front and 2.0 bar rear when hot but I feel this might not be the last conclusion.
When the tire is warm, on right pressure and the road is dry the tire becomes more communicative and provides the high level of grip that one expects from a semi slick. However, this grip in my hands is not so easy to fully exploit, as the communication is so much lower than on a good road tire. For example, the tire was only 2 sec faster than a Yokohama AD 08R on Bilster Berg in my hands. I assume that there is more to have but again, it is not so easy to find the limits in a save way for a hobby driver like me.
When humid the tire is surprisingly good for a semi slick but once it is wet the tire is surpassed by a sporty road tire due to the lack of negative profile. Also, I had a few nasty surprises with the rear coming out quite spontaneous in the wet but at the end of the day this is clearly not a street tire.

Pro:
No overheating even after long sessions of aggressive driving style
High grip for the price
Quick warmup

Con:
Not the most communicative
Sensitive to tire pressure changes
tire reviewed on 2018-12-10 14:25:52
Writing about the Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08R given 77% (205-45-16-)
Driving on track for 1000 spirited miles
I run these tires on an Elise S in 205/45/16 front and 235/40/17 rear. I replaced the original AD07LTS with them for track use as I found the original tire to underperform in corner entry. I bought the AD08R as they are priced and positioned as a street tire and at that time I was not so sure about how much track work they will get. I ended up using them as my track day tire.
The tire is run on whole day events with 30 to 45 min sprints, 30 to 45 min pause, then sprint then pause etc.
When cold the tire slides along quite heavily and it takes longer than others to warm up on my light car. This can be totally different on heavier cars. Normally I need 20 min to leave the track first time for pressure adjustments. I run 1.9 bar front and 2.1 rear hot, also used 1.8 front and 2.0 rear lately which seems to work a little better.
Once hot, the tire performs really well for a street tire. Biggest point on my car is that I can brake much later than friends on Federal 595 rs-r or Toyo r1r or other sport street tires. When reaching the limit the car is very communicative and slides progressively. I never had any nasty surprises.
In the wet for the race track the tire is really bad in my impression as a driver, even though others were surprised how fast the car still goes given the little negative profile of the tire. But the car was definitely no fun anymore in the wet, constantly managing understeer and oversteer it was quite hectic.

My biggest concern over the tire is that they eventually start overheating in the afternoon sessions if a high pace is keeped up for the day. This leaves the car sliding around, however this is still progressive and very manageable but leaves the impression that best laptimes are lost because the peak performance of the tire already left when the peak performance of the driver arrives. For that reason I will switch to a semi slick for pure trackwork.

On the Elise the tire lasts quite long, a front tire lasting twice as long as a rear.

Pro:
Communicative
Progressive
Great dry grip
Performs better than your average sporty street tire, but of course it can not reach a semi slick
Lasts surprisingly long

Contra:
Sketchy when cold
Sketchy when hot
Bad on track when wet (acceptable for the street though as you one does not drive nearly as aggressive on the street)

Buy when:
You need a sporty street tire that can keep up on the occasional track day
Do not buy when:
You need a tire purely for track work
tire reviewed on 2018-03-15 15:20:00
Writing about the Federal 595RSR given NAN% (225-45-17-)
Driving on a combination of roads for 10000 average miles
These tires are dangerous. They crached on the seam and delaminated. They caused serious damages and could have killed me.
This happened after less than 10000miles and 4mm of tread was left.

Never had such issue with better tire such as yokohama, toyo and avon
tire reviewed on 2017-12-27 18:55:25
Writing about the Yokohama Advan A050 given 75% (245-40-17-)
Driving on track for 0 spirited miles
These tires come in different compounds. If you get Medium compound "M", the wear is better, but wet grip suffers (forget it if it is wet and cold!!!). "G/2S" compound works better in wet, wear is the trade off, BIG time. Probably because I would push harder in these tires.
There is also a G/S compound which is somewhere between the two, but I have not tried it.
If you are looking for good wear and only use them in dry (warm/hot) weather, there is a MH compound (which stands for medium-hard, i think) similar to the "LTS" compound made for Lotus, this would be the one to think about.
I would still prefer Bridgestone RE-11S (WS2 compound) which has grip from cold and holds MUCH better than Yokohama A050. You have to like the feel of a harder sidewall though. Wear is of course proportionately worse....
Happy motoring!
tire reviewed on 2014-12-31 13:38:47
Writing about the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 given 87% (225-40-17-)
Driving on a combination of roads for 10000 spirited miles
I used to have RE040 on my first Elise but their grip was only average in the dry and merely acceptable in the wet. My second Elise had AD07's as standard and again they were OK but nothing special so I tried some AD08 on the rear and the transformation was not quite what I was expecting. Once the tires were warmed up the dry grip is very good but the important thing was how much more progressive they are. Driving right up to and over the limit is not much more confidence-inspiring. Their wet grip is also better than my old ADO7 and miles better than RE040's. Deep water can be a problem but that would be the same for most high performance tires. The other thing is that they were quieter than my AD07's. It's just a pity I can't get them in 175/55 16's for the front.

I would never buy anything else.
tire reviewed on 2014-06-26 08:53:08
Writing about the Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 given 77% (225-45-17-)
Driving on mostly country roads for 40000 average miles
I had an Elise for over 10 years running RE 040 LTS and then RE 040's (The LTS versions were much better) and then replaced my 2001 Elise with a 59 Elise on AD07's. Dry grip is pretty amazing and when it does eventually let go it doesn't bite like the RE040's used to.
So far wet grip has not caused me any concerns yet so fingers crossed.
tire reviewed on 2012-04-16 11:21:58
Writing about the Yokohama Advan A048 given 71% (225-45-17-)
Driving on mostly country roads for 10 spirited miles
No comments left
tire reviewed on 2011-11-01 22:22:55
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