I ordered a set of RE71R on Black Friday and went for the popular size 255/40-17. Discount Tire who I use regularly placed the order on Nov 22nd 2016 and they haven't come in yet. I was told by the shop manager they would be in by Wed the week after the order was placed. I've been doing follow up but keep getting a run around. The last response was 2 days ago the rep said the tires were shipped but "got lost". Earlier this year I tried to order this same tire and size and had no luck as they were sold out and no delivery date was set in April when I ended up with the smaller size RE71R. At this point I'm tempted to switch to the Toyo R888R and since it's new here for the US market it lacks feedback. I did see a video and read some limited reviews. My primary intended use is for Autocross and these are in stock for a 255/40-17 at a good price. Any input would be great.

 

i was going to get a set, same size 255/40r17, had a hookup that i could get em for 175 a pop, but i didnt, why? I only drive my car on the streets and from what i heard R compound tires are WAY to overkill for my setup, so i ended up with federal rs-rr same size, LOVE THEM. Their pretty loud during decel, great grip. $400 for the set, cant best it for a street car

 

I've had 2 friends that had them on a Evo VIII & IX. They said they gripped like crazy! GREAT for the 'track, but on the street, not so good. Reason is, that they are so sticky, that they pick up any debris on the ground and shoot it behind the wheel well, and onto the body of the car. When we would cruise, no one wanted to get behind them because they didn't want the frontends of their cars to look like they were 'sandblasted'! Lol.

 

Sticky street tires do that as well. For the street, the question is if they will cycle/wear out or not. As in, will these make a good "drive to the track and do a track day and drive home" tire.

 

Driving a tire to/from the track doesn't put any heat cycles in them.

 

I asked the Toyo guy at SEMA if they did any work on how the r888 would heat cycle out before wearing out. He gave me a puzzled look.... I'll stick with NT01's.

 

R888 sucks for heat cycling. Would not drive them on a street car if you plan to track them also. I don't know if that was fixed in the new version but you'd be hard pressed to beat the RE71r anyways.

 

yea no reason to try R888 with NT01's that are so proven and the RE71Rs.

I'm still wishing NT01 had more sizes.

 

Samesies. A 275/35r17 or 285/30r18 would be awesome.

 

the 275/35/18 that i use is basically a 280 already but yea, would love a 295/30/18

It goes from 275/35/18 to 305/35/18 :-/

 

And I'm not trying to fit a 275/35r18 on my CT9a. Seems like it'll be a chore. Where as 285/30's are fairly easy thanks to the smaller diameter.

 

Considering Toyo owns Nitto, I wonder why Nitto NT01s have such a good reputation while the R888s don't. If they are targetting different objectives with the tire compounds (endurance vs sprint) then why don't they just state it?

 

Not being facetious... but looking at the first few posts in this thread: why in hell would anyone run a tire like an r888, NT01, or RE71r as a daily street tire???

It seems anyone that could afford to take the car to the track could probably afford separate street/track wheels?

If i could only do one set of wheels and tires, I don't think I'd choose any of those tires.

 

Toyo may own Nitto, but they are two separate companies with their own operations. They don't share tech.



Re71 would be fine for a daily tire. Would prob last 10k miles and some track days and autocrosses as long as one's alignment wasn't -4.5* of camber on one of the fronts....

 

My favorite tire out there!