wiztecy
Active Member
I know people running the Lotus Elise and Exige (from the Lotus forums) would also be interested in the same AD08 R fronts as these, they love the rears but can't get the fronts.
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Agreed; I know a couple of Elise owners who run AD07 front, AD08 rear. They're in the same boat.
Yokohama told us they have no plans for distributing this tire (in the requested size) in North America (at least for this year). Sorry !
If you promised to buy a certain bulk amount would they next year? Let them know there is strong demand among Lotus and Tesla Roadster owners for this. They've have to do it anyway if they ever discontinue the AD07. Thanks.
wiztecy
Active Member
True! The issue is the revolutions per minute (RPM). I just got off the phone from the TireRack and inquired about the tire-size and revolutions per minute for the AD08r in the following sizes:
205/45 - 16 == 899 RPM
205/50 - 16 == 835 RPM
205/55 - 16 == 859 RPM
The Roadsters came stock with the following size:
175/55 - 16 == 882 RPM with the AD07
Unfortunately we have to hit this target RPM above for the 2008 since there's no tire learning and if the magic relation with RPM between the front/back tires don't occur we run into a traction control issue where traction control in the worse case gets shut off completely which then risks danger to the Roadster driver and passenger, especially if the road conditions are not optimum.
If the TireRack can come through (now that I have the exact RPM for the sizes) the best size would be to get the AD08r in the stock size that the Roadster came in, the (175/55 - 16), and then the next one up from there if the latter wasn't available such as 185, then 195, and the upper ceiling on width would be 205. But Doc and the TireRack are the specialists with tires. So the stock size is our goal, then from there we want to match as close as possible the 882 RPM if that's not available. We can go lower in profile and wider, stay the same profile and wider, but again our goal is to achieve 882 RPMs for the front so we work well with the AD08r tires in the rear.
All the Roadsters can use the same size that works on the '08 Roadster I mentioned above and these sizes should also work with the Elise since they came with the same stock front tire size as the Roadster.
Thank you.
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wiztecy
Active Member
I called Yokohama today inquiring about a 185 AD08 in the 16" size. They said that they've successfully had authorized Yokohama resellers in the US to bring over a tire size / model a customer had requested from the European / Japan markets. Yokohama commented saying these were resellers who went above and beyond who supported customer loyalty and had an ultimate goal of customer satisfaction which is key these days.
I'm asking Doc and those at the Tire Rack to take this challenge as other companies have done in the past for their loyal customers. I left a message with Yokohama's marketing department to get the ball rolling on this process.
I hope the Tire Rack will come through on this one, I have been a loyal customer of the Tire Rack and have been expressing my positive experience with friends who also after that gave the Tire Rack business.
So what do you say Doc, are you up for this challenge? Feel free to PM me. I'll also try to call you personally as well. Thank you.
I'm asking Doc and those at the Tire Rack to take this challenge as other companies have done in the past for their loyal customers. I left a message with Yokohama's marketing department to get the ball rolling on this process.
I hope the Tire Rack will come through on this one, I have been a loyal customer of the Tire Rack and have been expressing my positive experience with friends who also after that gave the Tire Rack business.
So what do you say Doc, are you up for this challenge? Feel free to PM me. I'll also try to call you personally as well. Thank you.
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wiztecy
Active Member
FYI guys, looks like Big-O tire lists the AD08 in a 205/50 - 16 as an available tire on their US website, but this has an 835 RPM. So this may cause some issues with our Traction Control (TC) in the 1.5 Roadsters. Looking to get as close as possible to the 882 RPM that the stock AD07s had to ensure that TC does not cause any issues.
Big O Tires - Results By Size
Big O Tires - Results By Size
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wiztecy
Active Member
I agree with dsm, always want to support the Tire Rack since they've been great with customer service and offering good prices on tires. I got off the phone earlier with Big-O of Santa Cruz and they said that the 205 listing for the AD08 might be an error since he didn't have it listed in his database or sold out. He actually said that if Big O can't get it, they order it from the Tire Rack!
Also got off the phone with Doc who spent a good amount of time discussing tires for the Roadster, in particular the AD08 fronts. It appears that when tires are brought in from other markets they have to get DOT certified which costs some money by the manufacturer and that's a reason why Yokohama doesn't offer them... Its such a small market so they figure its not a good investment.
What Doc came up with is that I could run the AD048 up front, move to the 195/50-16 which has an RPM of 879. This should work out with the AD08 rears and be a little stickier than the AD08s. Only issue would be that these tires don't have a groove down the middle for the water / rain to flush through so like the Dunlop R888s one has to be cautious when substantial amount of water is on the road. We also looked at moving up to a 235/45-17 in the rear to help address some of the understeer up front which also would match the fatter/wider look of the fronts since they'll want to bulge over the rim a bit. The RPM of the 235 will come out to 824 RPM. I don't know if a rear RPM of 824 with a front RPM of 879 will cause issues of the 1.5 TC. That's a net RPM of 12 RPM for the rears (from the 225 AD08) and 3 RPM for the front (the 175 AD07 to the 195 AD048).
Lastly if anyone who has a Roadster is able to drive to the Tire Rack located in South Bend, Indiana, Doc would love to see you. He's eager to find other wheels, tires, and accessories that will work for the Roadsters.
Thanks again Doc for all your help!
smorgasbord
Active Member
While it's great to be pursuing solutions for v1.5s, there are probably 4 times the number of cars that are v2.0 or v2.5s that do have tire learning. Are there better front tire choices to pair with the AD08r's for Roadsters with tire learning?
wiztecy
Active Member
They do use the same rim sizes but the 1.5's have to conform very close to the Rotations Per Mile (RPM) of the stock Yoko tires or else Regen / TC has an issue. So on the 2.x's the RPM can be off some and the computer will learn and recalibrate so TC errors are moot.
I've asked our Yokohama representative to make inquiries within the company to see if there is any more that can be done. As you all can imagine, this may take some time to "work the process" if we are asking for a new size to be imported into the USA or something equally as complicated. When I know something concrete, I'll pass it along !
wiztecy
Active Member
smorgasbord
Active Member
Here's a summary:
| Size | RPM | Diff |
| 175/55 - 16 | 882 | 0 (Stock) |
| 205/45 - 16 | 899 | 17 |
| 205/50 - 16 | 835 | 47 |
| 205/55 - 16 | 859 | 23 |
For those of us with V2 and V2.5 Roadsters that have Tire Learning, can we use the 205/45 size (only 17 off)? Would there be any issues with clearance or minimum rim width?
And, if this is a good choice, then Doc, can TireRack start stocking this size? Right now the only places that have the AD08R in the 205/45-16 size are in England.
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