I've run my autocross MR2s on Yokohamas, BFG R1s, BFG G-Forces, and Kumhos,
and I road race a 2nd gen. RX7 on Hoosiers. Here are my personal
observations/opinions.
The R1 is out of production in most sizes. I liked them. I trusted them on
the freeway to and from events, and they wore pretty well as long as got
them shaved first. Otherwise, I'd get the excessive groove wear (EGOD). I
still have a full-tread set of these mounted for rain use.
The g-Force has worked well on my car (AS '91 MR2T). It's what I'm running
this year. I'm using 225/50-14s front and rear. My main reason for using
these tires is that they make this size and it fits on my car (barely). The
Hoosier 225s are too wide to fit on the front, and Kumho doesn't make a
225-14". The g-Forces are definitely wearing faster than the R1s did and
are easier to flat spot, but mine are wearing evenly. I think I might be a
little more competitive than I was on the R1s. My biggest complaint is that
their construction is so stiff that they don't give much feel or feedback.
This makes them more difficult to drive at the limit and they break away
fairly suddenly. They come with essentially no tread, so they aren't good
for heavy rain, and I don't feel comfortable driving them on the freeway.
They don't seem very sensitive to pressures -- I've tried pressures from 33
psi to 43 psi, and it didn't seem to make that big a difference.
Kumhos would be my first choice if they made a 225-14. However, Priebe is
kicking butt on relatively skinny Kumhos (195 front, 205 rear). Kumhos seem
to be as fast as the BFGs, but they wear a lot better and cost less. With
full tread they are excellent in the rain, and I feel comfortable driving
them on the street. I think that on an MR2 Turbo I'd want 225s at the rear,
but on the NA the skinnier combo might be a great choice and the smaller
tire will give you better effective gearing. BTW, the 195 Kumho is about as
wide as the 225, but is shorter, so running the 195 on the rear as well as
the front might even be faster by providing better acceleration.
I think Hoosiers are the fastest, but they also flat spot the easiest and
wear out the quickest. I like their feel, and they are very lightweight
compared to the others. When I wear out the g-Forces I plan to try
Hoosiers, 205/55-14 front & 225/50-14 rear. I think this would be a great
combo on an MR2 once you got the swaybar and alignment and tire pressures
all sorted out to make them work right. The Hoosiers like a lot of camber,
but we can get quite a bit of camber on our MR2s so this isn't a problem.
For the '93+ MR2s, Hoosier makes a 225/45-15 which is about 1" shorter than
everyone else's 225/50-15, and I think the 205/50-15f & 225/45-15r would be
the killer combo on these cars.
The new Hoosier R3S03 is more durable than last year's R3S02. I haven't
flatspotted an S03 yet, but I went through a lot of S02s. I haven't run the
autocross compound Hoosier.
The Toyo is not a bad tire either. They don't seem to be quite as fast as
the others, but they wear very well and are probably the best of them all in
the rain.
Yokohama A032: They are really noisy on the street, and not that fast on
the track or autox course. They make an okay tire for drivers schools, and
the tread looks like it would work well in the rain, but for autox I
wouldn't bother with them.
Goodyears are super expensive and their sizes are very limited. I know a
few road racers using them, but I haven't seen any autocrossers using them.
Brad Burns
'91 MR2T hardtop, A-stock (for sale, see
http://mr2.fyi.net/forsale.html#1991)
'87 RX7, ITS (for sale, see
http://fly.hiwaay.net:8000/~wesnor/rcfs/makepage.cgi?it/its_0009.txt )
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