he car I had came fitted with a set of Yokohama A539 tyres. Designed for normal passenger car use they needed significantly more than 500kg on top of them and they were hopeless. Zero grip, got hot, became squirmy and unpredictable and were hopeless on track. Id driven on the ZZS quite a lot but wasn't sure if Avon merited the price premium, and the tyre size wasn't ideal for my model so I opted for the R888R in GG compound.
Shortly after I had a chance at Croft to compare three Caterham's with ZZR, ZZS and the R888R.
Initial impressions are that in the bone dry with all other considerations gone, the ZZR is king. Genuinely a superb stable high performance tyre that stays on the boil for a significant amount of time. I'd suggest a window of at least 10 laps where the tyre was on perfect form. Then a slow transition into being slightly more slippery and excess tyre wear as the temperature increases.
The ZZS is a superb road tyre for a Caterham. Remarkably useful in the wet and even down to quite low temperatures, and works very well on a track as long as you limit your sessions to say 6-8 laps. After this again the transition into slightly less predictable begins and the car just becomes very slidey!
The R888R was somewhere in between the two extremes. I felt that the Toyos offered ALMOST ZZR performance but at a fairly significant discount. They were definitely better from cold than the ZZS and lasted a little longer before going off. They also worked almost as well on the road as a ZZS, dealing with water pretty well. The R888R stayed on my car.
Downsides: the R888R is a heavier tyre with a stiffer sidewall, so this makes them a little less comfortable and adds a touch of unsprung weight to a light car, but their benefits generally outweighed these issues.
Ultimately I feel budget and requirement would dictate which you'd have. On a modern Caterham where ride height and sump layouts allow the smaller ratios, I'd suggest pick either a ZZR/S. But for older academy cars based on 175/70/13 tyres, going down to a 185/55/13 was just too much. The toyo in 185/60/13 was a better bet, with a small tweak to ride height.
Shortly after I had a chance at Croft to compare three Caterham's with ZZR, ZZS and the R888R.
Initial impressions are that in the bone dry with all other considerations gone, the ZZR is king. Genuinely a superb stable high performance tyre that stays on the boil for a significant amount of time. I'd suggest a window of at least 10 laps where the tyre was on perfect form. Then a slow transition into being slightly more slippery and excess tyre wear as the temperature increases.
The ZZS is a superb road tyre for a Caterham. Remarkably useful in the wet and even down to quite low temperatures, and works very well on a track as long as you limit your sessions to say 6-8 laps. After this again the transition into slightly less predictable begins and the car just becomes very slidey!
The R888R was somewhere in between the two extremes. I felt that the Toyos offered ALMOST ZZR performance but at a fairly significant discount. They were definitely better from cold than the ZZS and lasted a little longer before going off. They also worked almost as well on the road as a ZZS, dealing with water pretty well. The R888R stayed on my car.
Downsides: the R888R is a heavier tyre with a stiffer sidewall, so this makes them a little less comfortable and adds a touch of unsprung weight to a light car, but their benefits generally outweighed these issues.
Ultimately I feel budget and requirement would dictate which you'd have. On a modern Caterham where ride height and sump layouts allow the smaller ratios, I'd suggest pick either a ZZR/S. But for older academy cars based on 175/70/13 tyres, going down to a 185/55/13 was just too much. The toyo in 185/60/13 was a better bet, with a small tweak to ride height.