This month is going to give you a pretty distorted view of what we do. If you've read the Blizzak winter tire report (p38) and now this one, you're going to think it's all fancy hotels and exotic locations. Of course, that's a very small part of what we do to bring you this fine publication, but occasionally we get treated like kings and I'm not about to complain.
In truth, I've been making everybody jealous about the Yokohama Advan tire launch because it was one of those "once in a lifetime" deals. Getting to drive some of the world's greatest cars on one of America's best race circuits, while enjoying fine hospitality doesn't happen everyday - despite what you might think.
The event was organized to celebrate the launch of the Advan brand in the USA. The name has been used in the domestic Japanese market for some time now and has arrived here with five new tires: the Advan Neova, ST, Sport, A048 and S4. This is good news for Yoko fans who may remember the heyday of the A008 or the AVS Sport and were sad to see it struggle in our 2004 tire test. However, the Yoko crew assured us a new tire was on the way and it would kick ass. And they weren't wrong. If you saw last month's issue and read the '05 tire test, you'll know the Neova was the best dry weather tire out of the 14 competitors, and narrowly missed winning the entire event in wet and dry by 0.1%. Not a bad comeback.
Without wishing to make you jealous, we were invited to lap the Sears Point/Infineon Raceway in an X5 and Porsche Cayenne equipped with the new Advan ST tire for SUVs. These are performance tires with W and Y speed ratings. They have a newly developed silica compound, a solid center rib and W-shaped grooves in the tread to provide good grip and response. To be honest, I was surprised how well these tires held on. Initially I had some trepidation about throwing these heavy SUVs around the circuit but my confidence quickly grew. The ST really does well and didn't so much as squeal under the effort of holding up all that weight under such stress.
Next up was a pair of M3s and the new Porsche 997 to demonstrate the Advan Neova and Sport. The Neova-equipped M3s were a delight, remaining fluid and predictable. You could allow them to slide through the faster sections, confident in their grip and predictability. I had real fun in the M3s and while the 911s were better in every aspect, I didn't want to be "that guy" who spun the Porsche into the wall. Therefore, I was more studied in my approach and took fewer liberties with the car but I wish now I'd been braver. The Advan Sport tires held on magnificently and never gave a hint of letting go, even under high loads in the hairpins. What's funny is hours misspent on the PS2 with GT4 actually proved useful when it came to familiarization with the track and its demanding corners. I immediately knew where the track went and that certainly helped me get grip with these excellent tires.
Before heading off to the next discipline we were invited to discover how the track should be driven. Yokohama had lined up a number of pros in dream cars. I wanted to ride with multiple Le Mans winner Derek Bell in the Bentley GT but a transmission problem curtailed the fun. However, I was thrown around Infineon by rising Formula Atlantic star, Katherine Legge. As well as being a fellow Brit, she was fresh from a recent race win and made the Lotus Elise seem like a toy. It went wherever she pointed it. Eventually. We were sideways more often than the wheels were straight. It was an incredible experience but didn't prepare me for a few fast laps with Scotsman Ryan Dalziel from the American Le Mans Series in an Aston Martin Vanquish. The car felt heavy but powerful compared to the tiny Lotus and even after countless laps, Ryan still enjoyed the sound of the V12 as the auto gearbox blipped the throttle whenever he downchanged on the F1 paddles. Tires? Dunno. We were sliding so much I couldn't concentrate on what they were doing but they took the abuse and gripped when required, so that's a good thing.