Seems that the majority of the discussions here on the subject of tires trends towards more agressive performance tires. This is fine and well and if what I am inquiring about has been covered a reference to that discussion would be appreciated.
Has anyone replaced the OEM Yokohama AD07 225/45R17 tire with another brand of tire and gotten good results?
The original rear tires on the wife's car lasted 12K miles and our now totally done. I am looking to find replacements that will last a bit longer, do well in the wet, and still provide a comparable level of handling/performance as the AD07's.
I am NOT looking for track level performance tires, nor to replace the rims to accomodate something different. The Elise is equipped with the standard tour pack set up.
Let's hear what has ben experienced.

Thanks,
Al B. A tire that lasts significantly longer will give up a significant amount of grip. The Kumho 711 is very cheap and pretty good grip. I think they come in sizes that will work though. "last a bit longer, do well in the wet, and still provide a comparable level of handling/performance as the AD07's."

Bzzt. No such thing.

However, I think you're really asking to give up track performance in favor of cost.

There are lots of tires that are much cheaper and still "high performance."

Check www.caranddriver.com for a recent tire comparo. It includes the AD07, so you can't ask for a more direct comparison. My 2 cents.

12k miles is excellent for this type of car and already to me represent a good compromise. I would not recommend a less grippy tire to eek out a few more miles. Here's the link...

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....ticle_id=10252

Looks like the Goodyear F1 G3DS is the winner! For those with the wider LSS 195 fronts, Michelin has the f/r original size in the Pilot Exalto PE2. I was looking for tires to run on the street to let me save the ao48 yokos. Tire Rack has a test on these. Not saying the're for everyone, just an option. I ran the Pilots, testing them out as a street option for a while, courtesy of our friends at Sector111. My 2 cents is that it's basically what it's billed to be. It's a good street tire, with decent handling, but no comparison to the Yokos. It shed rain very well and went through three track sessions and about 5k miles on top of that, and came off the car with a little over half the tread depth still left to go. It is noisy at the limit, so if you like aggressive street drives, keep in mind that it's going to squeal louder than Andrew Fastow on the witness stand.

However... here's the compromise: You will be sacrificing grip, as well as having a slightly prolonged response from the tire... more need to make it take a set during the turn. It seemed to take a little bit more forethought before each turn to gauge when the tires were ready to be loaded up.
Keeping up with drivers on the A048s became a challenge, and could be done, but at the cost of going a lot closer to the limit.

If you plan to have a second set of wheels and tires... these are great for prolonging the street life, then switch to the good stuff for the track.

Cade http://www.caranddriver.com/article....ticle_id=10252

Looks like the Goodyear F1 G3DS is the winner!
the AD07 did quite well, especially if your driving environment is biased towards the dry.

i seem to recall the "LTS" version of the AD07 uses a lighter carcass, i wonder how much difference that would make on the Elise. I will probably stick with AD07s when the time comes.... i seem to recall the "LTS" version of the AD07 uses a lighter carcass, i wonder how much difference that would make on the Elise.
FWIW, LTS = Lotus. This variant was specifially made for the Elise. FWIW, LTS = Lotus. This variant was specifially made for the Elise.
I know. I've always suspected this special tire version thing was just the marketing dept's way to bump up the price (or maybe the legal dept's way to reduce liability) on cars like Porsche (e.g., the 'N' series of Bridgestone S-O2s).

But the Elise being such a light car, maybe the 'LTS' version really does make a difference?! I ran the Pilots, testing them out as a street option for a while, courtesy of our friends at Sector111. My 2 cents is that it's basically what it's billed to be. It's a good street tire, with decent handling, but no comparison to the Yokos. It shed rain very well and went through three track sessions and about 5k miles on top of that, and came off the car with a little over half the tread depth still left to go. It is noisy at the limit, so if you like aggressive street drives, keep in mind that it's going to squeal louder than Andrew Fastow on the witness stand.

However... here's the compromise: You will be sacrificing grip, as well as having a slightly prolonged response from the tire... more need to make it take a set during the turn. It seemed to take a little bit more forethought before each turn to gauge when the tires were ready to be loaded up.
Keeping up with drivers on the A048s became a challenge, and could be done, but at the cost of going a lot closer to the limit.


If you plan to have a second set of wheels and tires... these are great for prolonging the street life, then switch to the good stuff for the track.

Cade
How were these as far as noise? I wouldn't mind a road trip but would like to give my ears a break from the Yokos (as if the exhaust isn'y bad enough). A little quieter than the A048s, but probably similar to the AD07s. I know. I've always suspected this special tire version thing was just the marketing dept's way to bump up the price (or maybe the legal dept's way to reduce liability) on cars like Porsche (e.g., the 'N' series of Bridgestone S-O2s).

But the Elise being such a light car, maybe the 'LTS' version really does make a difference?!
Nick Adams explained at the South Bay dealer event. He said something to the effect that the tire construction is different in order to compensate for there being very little weight on the front end of the Elise, compared to a typical front engined sedan. I think the compound may even be different.

In the case of the AD07, I'm not even sure you can get a 175/16 otherwise.

- Justin Seems that the majority of the discussions here on the subject of tires trends towards more agressive performance tires. This is fine and well and if what I am inquiring about has been covered a reference to that discussion would be appreciated.
Has anyone replaced the OEM Yokohama AD07 225/45R17 tire with another brand of tire and gotten good results?
The original rear tires on the wife's car lasted 12K miles and our now totally done. I am looking to find replacements that will last a bit longer, do well in the wet, and still provide a comparable level of handling/performance as the AD07's.
I am NOT looking for track level performance tires, nor to replace the rims to accomodate something different. The Elise is equipped with the standard tour pack set up.
Let's hear what has ben experienced. Thanks,
Al B.
I'd stick with the original OE tires, they are excellent. None of the other max perf type tires are going to last drastically longer, and they are not tuned to our car. Some have gotten as high as 20,000 miles or more out of the base tires. So if you got 12,000 and they are down to the wear limits then you have been enjoying the car around turns and so forth. The base tires don't have the rapid heat cycling issue as the A048 sport pack tires. So you go by the tread life more or less. Whereas for the 48s you don't go by the tread depth per se as far as knowing when they are done. If you want to cut understeer a bit you can deshim the fronts. This will slightly increase the wear at the inner part of the tread in straightline driving, but they will still greatly outlast the rears. 9500 miles. I'm getting ready for a set of rears soon. Probably just stick with stock, originally I thought I'd change it up, but after hearing what Nick Adams had to say at the Lotus mountain run, I think I'm gonna stick with the LTS Advans, or possibly try the 48's on base wheels, if I think I'll have extra money to replace them at around 5K. The Elise is equipped with the standard tour pack set up.
Tim Mullen has an opinon on this. One thing about tread wear that many might not realize. It's not proportional to the tread depth. Tires wear the most at the higher tread depths mostly due to extra heat from tread squirm. Once a tire is at about 1/2 tread depth it is not at it's 1/2 life point. This is for normal nontrack tires. Many folks replace tires with plenty of tread depth for a variety of reasons - just check any tire stores tire heap out back.

One nice thing about the normal Elise tires is that the skinny fronts provide nice steering characteristics and the width leads to less dirt and gravel being kicked back to the rocker panels. A048 tires kick up lots of grit onto the side of the car, that is where the starshield really gets a workout. Another thing about the 48 is that they are loud tires. In a normal Elise you hear the wind and some engine at speed. Even with the top off you can hear 48s.

Another way to look at it is that the sport pack stuff is track/street oriented. And the base setup is street/track oriented.

To a degree other tire choices and sizes will present some of the same issues. The Elise is equipped with the standard tour pack set up.
The Touring package has absolutely nothing to do with the wheels or tires. You have the standard wheels and tires...

Tim Mullen has an opinion on this. Whoo... I missed that one. Thanks, one almost got by... I'd stick with the original OE tires, they are excellent. None of the other max perf type tires are going to last drastically longer, and they are not tuned to our car. Some have gotten as high as 20,000 miles or more out of the base tires. So if you got 12,000 and they are down to the wear limits then you have been enjoying the car around turns and so forth. The base tires don't have the rapid heat cycling issue as the A048 sport pack tires. So you go by the tread life more or less. Whereas for the 48s you don't go by the tread depth per se as far as knowing when they are done. If you want to cut understeer a bit you can deshim the fronts. This will slightly increase the wear at the inner part of the tread in straightline driving, but they will still greatly outlast the rears.
I have to disagree slightly. I did get almost 20K out of the fronts, and although I haven't had a set of the 48's the 07's definatly lost grip before the tires were at the wear limits. I would say that they needed to be replaced at 15 maybe even 13 K. Same thing for the rears. They just get slippery. No matter what amount of pressure I tried, nothing made any difference. The tires are great-when they are new. If you don't mind keeping them in their pristine condition. However, I really don't feel like dropping 1400 dollars every few thousand dollars in tires. I know some may disagree, but it just isn't for me.

I recently replaced my fronts with 195 x 45 x 16 goodyears that everyone is taking about. Here are my impressions.

1. Steering feel is slightly reduced. They are not as communicative as the 07's.

2. Turning performance is MUCH better then the worn out 07s. About the same as stock I would say, but it is hard to tell since that was a long time ago.

3. Braking performance is not quite as good, BUT wet weather performance is much better.

4. These tires do squeel at the limit, something that the 07's never did.

All in all the measure of a tire is its performance throughout its useful life. I would say that some people define this life as a shorter period of time than me, either rightly or wrongly. However the true test will be in another 8k when the original tires started to lose grip. If these stay consistant the entire time, then I would consider them a little better.

FWIW I kept up with everyone this weekend with this set up and a passenger against ALAN'S and FRANKS cars. Yes they have super suspensions and aero and stickier tires, but I still had room to push harder. I woud say that there is no perceptive performance difference between the a07s and the Goodyears. Perhaps different styles of performance, but the numbers have to be very very close. I have to disagree slightly. I did get almost 20K out of the fronts, and although I haven't had a set of the 48's the 07's definatly lost grip before the tires were at the wear limits. I would say that they needed to be replaced at 15 maybe even 13 K. Same thing for the rears. They just get slippery. No matter what amount of pressure I tried, nothing made any difference. The tires are great-when they are new. If you don't mind keeping them in their pristine condition. However, I really don't feel like dropping 1400 dollars every few thousand dollars in tires. I know some may disagree, but it just isn't for me.

I recently replaced my fronts with 195 x 45 x 16 goodyears that everyone is taking about. Here are my impressions.

1. Steering feel is slightly reduced. They are not as communicative as the 07's.

2. Turning performance is MUCH better then the worn out 07s. About the same as stock I would say, but it is hard to tell since that was a long time ago.

3. Braking performance is not quite as good, BUT wet weather performance is much better.

4. These tires do squeel at the limit, something that the 07's never did.

All in all the measure of a tire is its performance throughout its useful life. I would say that some people define this life as a shorter period of time than me, either rightly or wrongly. However the true test will be in another 8k when the original tires started to lose grip. If these stay consistant the entire time, then I would consider them a little better.

FWIW I kept up with everyone this weekend with this set up and a passenger against ALAN'S and FRANKS cars. Yes they have super suspensions and aero and stickier tires, but I still had room to push harder. I woud say that there is no perceptive performance difference between the a07s and the Goodyears. Perhaps different styles of performance, but the numbers have to be very very close.

You mean to say that your tires lasted *that long* without getting struck by lightning and/or a meteor? And no thugs slashed the sidewalls with a knife?

You're right the tires do lose grip over time, like any tire. They do this just like normal tires. A048s tend to fall off pretty steeply past 4000-5000 mixed use miles. The compound gets heat cycled and the front tires are about the same as ever - so the car shift more toward oversteer. My 48s lasted to about 8000 something miles treadlife wise. The AD07s lasted fine by comparison. I have a new set of AD07s mounted on LSS size wheels. This increases grip a touch and helps turn in slightly. For local autocross they grip well enough to win some events or at least do respectably if your opponents are on heat cycled Kumhos or Hoosiers.