Toyo Tyres Launch a new R888R tyre for street legal and raceday cars

toyo tyres
Toyo directional tyre

Toyo Tyres Launch a new R888R tyre

For those who have been following my blogs and articles over the years. Then they will know that I have always been a keen follower of the Toyo tyres products. Over the years I have sold thousands of Toyo tyres . Indeed we used to buy the tyres in containers, direct from Japan.


I have always tried to maintain a good relationship with a mid-range tyre company . Of course, that will give us some promotional backing as well as having a good quality product to sell us. At the moment and for the foreseeable future, Yokohama tyres are fitting the criteria that I am always looking for.
Brand consistency has always been my goal, as it is important to sell a good tyre product that the customers can rely on both in quality and supply. It is no good, if your customer has to buy a different brand of tyre every time he or she needs a replacement tyre.

Toyo tyres filled this requirement

toyo tyres

At different times in my long career in tyres, Toyo tyres have filled this spot. Part of the mix of a good supplier is the price of the products and also the stability of the price. It is no good if the price fluctuates every time you need new stock and also the popular sizes should have special offers attached on a permanent basis.

This factor also gives you customer loyalty, because they know that when they come back to you then the price will be the same or very close to their last purchase.
If I did have any criticism about certain tyre suppliers it would be that they change tyre designs too much, with claims that their new tyre will give them “X” better miles, or they will be able to corner faster. Michelin and Continental tyres are the worse culprits of this, in my opinion, but as a mid-range tyre manufacturer.

I would say that Toyo tyres have also been guilty of this.

As a tyre retailer we try to offer our customers continuity and value, but this becomes difficult when they are always changing tread designs claims that this new tyre is better than their old tyre.

toyoy tyres
Toyo Proxes

It can make you feel daft when every time a guy buys a new tyre, you have to sell him the latest tyre that superseded the last one he bought. One of my main grumbles was when Toyo tyres introduce a directional tyre and ran besides a normal tread pattern.

This was also done by other tyre companies along with the introduction of the asymmetric tread design, which meant that the tyre could only be fitted to one corner with the tread facing a certain way, which were marked “inside” and “outside”.
This mixture of tread designs and specific tyres for specific cars started to put me off a little, because I did not think that it was what my customers here in Halifax UK, wanted.

Like many of the mid-range tyre companies, Toyo tyres had ambitions to join the top elite tyre companies, by way of supplying the car manufacturers with the Toyo tyres product.
One of the car makers that they were successful with was Audi. Some of the Audi models were coming out on Toyo tyres as original equipment. This also meant that when the tyre needed replacing, then there would be a chance that the driver would replace the tyres with Toyo again and would give them a better market share.

This new drive lead Toyo tyres, to develop a tyre for Audi.

The new 255/35 R 19 96Y Proxes T1 Sport is the ideal tyre for the most powerful Audi TT RS model. With outstanding handling and aerodynamics, coupled to a 340ps engine, the Audi TT RS requires an exceptional tyre and Toyo fitted the bill…http://www.toyo.co.uk/news/item/id/6568
Toyo tyres then developed a tyre that would also become a street legal track racing tyre, the Proxes R8888. This was replaced by a new tyre, now called the Proxes R888R.

These tyres although legal to drive on the normal roads, were used in many club championships by would be car racing stars. This new tyre has also been recognised by the French car maker Renault, when Renault Sport fitted the tyre as original equipment on the new Megane R26R model.
The new tyre will be produced in 32 different sizes in the beginning. The new Proxes R888R will give the driver a fast warm up time, with increased dry grip and a sustained performance over multiple laps and heat cycles.

A rayon “super-high” turn up ply on some sizes, together with steel side plies, give the new Proxes R888R a more accurate steering response and driver feedback, increasing the drivers control and therefore optimising lap times.

Eric