Accelera 651 Sport XTRA

I’ve been using this for this year’s track season on my GR Yaris after having previously used them on drift cars. Decided to be a bit more budget friendly after using A052’s last year, I knew there would be a trade off in lap time but at the same time a set of four 651 Xtras with one of the regular discounts they offer is the same price as one A052 which is a considerable saving.

The elephant in the room that everyone wants to know is the lap times. I have no doubt that a dedicated semi slick would be quicker than these, that’s not even up for debate. But they’re not marketed as being the fastest tyre, fundamentally they’re aimed at drifters and you can tell with how controllable they are past the limit. That limit is lower than the expensive tyres when it comes to lateral G’s but they’re also less prone to snapping on you too, choosing to slide progressively instead. For comparison’s sake when cornering I could manage 1.25G on an A052 but the 651 Xtra can only do 1.1G and I think that’s where the time is lost on a track.

My experiments with them on my GR Yaris however have yielded a new PB so far this year at Knockhill so they’re not exactly a slow tyre. They switch on quickly and with the occasional cool down lap I was doing 20 lap sessions on them, peak grip comes early but you know when it’s gone because I found myself starting to miss apexes. Cool them down and they come back to you.

I’ve taken them to Crail raceway and managed a 1.7s 60ft time on the concrete 1/4 mile track with 400hp and launch control which shows they have plenty of straight line traction, the road surface there is awful and dusty.

I’ve also been using them on the road daily since the weather has got a bit warmer. Stay away from them when it’s freezing out but when milder - say 8+C - they’re nice to drive on. Steering feels pointy and they’re progressive when you want to accidentally slide on “oil” on roundabouts.

In terms of wear I’ve done 3 trackdays and a couple thousand miles on the road and despite the 100TW fears they’re holding up well. All four tyres still have 3-4mm left, wear is pretty even except for the front left which has been the one to go first around Knockhill with the heavy right handers, the surface looks a bit melty. But still life in them.

If you just want to go to the track, drive around enjoying yourself all day and get home afterwards I can’t think of a better proposition for the money. Of course a tyre 3-4x the price will be quicker, these aren’t breaking the laws of physics. For under £100 a tyre with regular discounts they’re great for getting cheap seat time and having fun.

Would definitely buy these again.

Update to my review above after having owned these tyres for over a year. First off, I'm still impressed by the grip that these achieve for the price. Just a little bit of warmth in them and they are extremely sticky. With that in mind, after participating in an autosolo and putting a moderate heat cycle through them they are ever so slightly less grippy than when new. This is mainly noticeable on the rear wheels which seems just a little bit more willing to lose traction but nothing major. This is to be expected of any tyre really, as they will harden and lose grip as they age.

Also, after a year of use, the front tyres are cracking slightly within the tread which did show up on my MOT. This isn't necessarily the end of the tyre as they still function perfectly, but it may cause future MOT fails is the perishing worsens. That's not exceptional lifetime for a tyre but then these are budget semi-slicks so you shouldn't expect long lifetimes from them - especially if you're using them as intended.

Overall, grip is still what these tyres were always about and they still have plenty of it.

As a side note, if you're interested in amateur motorsport such as autosolos please be aware most clubs don't permit the use of semi-slick tyres. This unfortunately includes the accelera 651s along with yoko ado8, nankang ns2r/ar1 etc. It's a very annoying rule as it means that the only real way to enjoy the grip these tyres provide is to spend hundreds on a track day.

These tyres are still very new but I'm impressed enough that I have to review them already. When I first had the tyres installed and drove home I was very aware that I was still in the breaking-in phase and yet I was immediately impressed. It happened to be pouring down with rain, and despite this the car was extremely confidence inspiring and much more able to hook up and deal with the wet road than before. I had previously had a set of budget tyres (comforser) for a short period while I sourced some decent track tyres and the difference is night and day. Mind you, the bar was set pretty low with the budget tyres but before this I had a set of Westlake RS semi-slicks which were decent in the dry but terrible in the wet. Now on to dry performance, these are possibly the grippiest tyres I've driven. That includes yokohama AD08R and AD08RS which they are at least on-par with at about half the price. Give them 10 minutes to get some heat in them and they stick like glue. Now it's hard to say how progressive the handling is, since on the street I've really struggled to reach the limit of grip but the one time I got close the car was perfectly controllable and slid what felt like only a few inches before hooking up again. No scary moments so far. Overall I'd say these tyres surprised me in both dry and wet grip. To be honest the wet grip is pretty insane for a semi-slick. And for the price, the dry grip may well be best in class. Definitely gonna be getting these for my MR2 when the AD08RS's need replacing. Comfort is fine - they're a hard track tyre so don't expect too much.