I just got some Toyo R888 tires for our Cooper to use on the track and for autocross. The first time I put them on and went out for a test, I thought something was wrong with the car, its making a horrible noise.

I've since taken the R888s off and the noise has gone away, so I'm assuming its the tires. The noise is probably best describe as "howling like a banshee". The noise does seem to be pitched about what you'd expect from the tread pattern hitting the pavement.

I wasn't expecting them to be quiet, but this took me by surprise. I thought I was used to the noise performance tires can make, we've had BFG Rivals, Dunlop ZII and Bridgestone RE-11 to compare them to. is this normal?

 

R888's are loud. Screaming wheel bearing failure on all 4 corners at the same time loud.
And they are slippery until properly warmed up.
And they are LOUD. And the noise gets worse the faster you go.

Other than that, they are decent track tires.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...-rated-feature

I had them on a set of wheels I bought, then switched to RA1's as quickly as I could as half-used R888's were unbearably loud, and unusable in the wet.
In comparison, RA1's were significantly quieter and great in the rain, even in standing water (for first 50% ot tread).
R888's were marginally grippier, but I drove on RA1's for a full 2 seasons of autoX, DEs, and summer tire duty ;-)

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Yes they are loud. I have them on my car right now breaking them in and it sounds like my mini is an airplane shutting its engines off when im slowing down. They are very grippy though

 

We like that description, just about what I thought.

One of my first thoughts was it was like being overtaken by a Spitfire. (Last time I saw a Spit flying, there were 16 of them: http://btwyx.com/16Spitfires/ )

I was expecting the tires to be loud, but this is much much more than I was expecting. Just a note, if anyone's thinking of R888's, they're loud.

 

The only cars I've ever driven that were running R888s were FFR Cobras. You couldn't hear the tires

Agree that the RA1s are a great tire though. Decent on the street but still really sticky.