R-compound tires are a uniquely American thing. Born out of amateur motorsports rules restrictions, they have evolved into close cousins of purebred racing slicks–but with just enough puncture and heat resistance to meet U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regs for street legality.
Not that they’re actually suitable for that purpose. As it says right on the label, “Not For Highway Use.” …
Hoosier TrackAttack Race R8
- Best lap: 1:24.04
- Average of best 3 laps: 1:24.09
The consistency of the R8 is remarkable. Once it comes in, it delivers the same grip and feel lap after lap. This makes it easy to dial in your braking and turn-in points. It’s not the most responsive of the bunch, relying instead on grip to execute quick laps. It’s also easy to drive at the limit, though on this tire our Miata was showing a touch of understeer.
Yokohama Advan A055
- Best lap: 1:23.39
- Average of best 3 laps: 1:23.55
We love this tire. It’s similar in grip to the Hoosier but a much more responsive dance partner. It combats localized per-corner heat soak with crisp turn-in characteristics. This allows for better combined loading asks on corner entry after heavy trail braking–carving instead of tossing. Best of all, it needed only a hard out lap to come up to temp.
Yokohama Advan A055 vs. Hoosier TrackAttack Race R8
While the Yokohama Advan A055 picks up time under trail braking, the Hoosier TrackAttack Race R8’s shorter gearing claws some back under acceleration.
Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Track
- Best lap: 1:24.85
- Average of best 3 laps: 1:25.00
The Pirelli was similar to the Yokohama in responsiveness, albeit with less mid-corner lateral grip. It took a few laps to reset our expectations and dial in entry speeds to match, as the breakaway characteristic was an atypical high-frequency chatter.
Longitudinal grip, on the other hand, matched the A055. Once familiar with its traits, the Trofeo was fun to drive and consistent across a session–perfect for turning laps at your favorite track even in the hottest conditions.
Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Track vs. Yokohama Advan A055
All of the time difference between the Yokohama Advan A055 (blue trace) and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Track (black trace) was mid-corner.
Hoosier TrackAttack Race R8 (retest)
- Best lap: 1:23.85
- Avg of best 3: 1:23.97
Bolting the R8s back on to check for any track evolution or driver inconsistency, we again strung together a series of similar lap times–other than the first. Given the residual core temp, the tire required no warmup laps to get up to speed this time–or so we thought. Data showed it was still not quite 100% for the first half of timed Lap 1.
With a lap time delta of only a tenth of a second on the first session, we were satisfied with our data.
When we last compared the Yokohama Advan A055 to Hoosier’s R7, there was a four-tenths gap favoring the Yokohama. With the R8, the pace gap hasn’t changed much, although the new tire is decidedly more consistent and easy to drive.
We were a little concerned that the Hoosier was at a disadvantage this time due to being on its second heat cycle, but a look back at the first test heat cycle during the all-Hoosier test shows the same pace gap to the TrackAttack Pro.
As for the Pirelli, it just wasn’t on the same level as the other two. It’s a fun tire, but the lateral grip just wasn’t there to match its competitors. The smaller physical sizing was likely a factor, but the pace gap was too large for that to be the sole reason.