Vitour Sonic | Mega chase lap with Cayman GT4RS | E92 M3 | BMW F82 M4 | Destination Nurburgring

Nurburgring Sonic, P1 and A052 test. I’ve just completed a 2 day trackday at the Nurburgring. I have a Gen1 Audi R8 V10 Manual, with GT3 rear wing, GT3 splitter, Ohlins TTX and AP brakes amongst other things. I’ve driven around 3,500 laps there and did a 6:58 BTG lap in July on some old Pirelli slicks. A large part of the trip was to test the Vitour Sonic. I heat cycled the Sonic on lap 1 then took them off until Friday. I ran Yokohama A052 on Thursday morning, Vitour P1 on Thursday afternoon then the Sonic on Friday. Extremely annoyingly, the GPS decided not to record anything properly on Thursday. I have never had it do this before. Until I can get the in-car side-by-side, I’ll have to go on what I felt rather than pure data, which is irritating, but it is what it is. Wheels and tyres: front wheels are 9.5J, rear 11J. Front: 265/35R18 Rear: A052 / P1 305/30R19 (665mm diameter) Sonic 305/35R18 as there’s no 19” available yet (671mm diameter) A052s. I’ve run these for several years and they are a great all-round track tyre. I find they switch on very quickly and by T13 gave good confidence. The sidewalls are soft and this shows negatively in initial corner entry, the tyre needs a moment to settle as the sidewall moves, then the grip is excellent. Braking is superb, great stability and confidence with almost no ABS intervention in bumpy braking areas. P1. I have been running these for the last 12 months and I like them. Last longer than the A052, stiffer sidewall which gives a noticeable improvement in initial corner entry feedback and high speed confidence. The fast left going up Kesselchen is 145MPH GPS and with the A052 I feathered the throttle every lap to get some weight onto the nose and then back on the accelerator through the corner. With the P1, on lap 1 I didn’t lift, that front end response with the stiffer sidewall gave me much more confidence in high speed corner entry. They do take longer to warm up. Braking into Hatzenbach or Bergwerk highlights the downside of a stiffer sidewall, the car feels much more nervous and unstable, with the ABS triggering more frequently than with the A052. Lap times are comparable to the A052. The P1s squeal a lot, way more than the A052 and it makes you sound like a novice who is just piling on the lock, but they do it repeatedly on many corners. 1 click off compression damping on the rear helped stabilise braking a little. Sonic. Lap 1 and they felt very good straight away, you could tell they were still cold, but by Hatzenbach the temp was there. The squeal from the P1 is gone, there is a little bit of noise but way less than P1’s. Huge confidence on corner entry and mid corner adjustability. I was flat through the left kink up Kesselchen on Lap 1. Lap times are quicker than the P1 and A052, Optimum was 7:09, best 7:17 but I never had a fully clear lap. They needed 2 clicks off the compression on the front and another 1 compared to the P1 on the rear, otherwise the ABS was triggering regularly on any bumpy braking zone. They are fine when it’s smooth, but add bumps and that extremely stiff sidewall works against you. I spoke to 2 others driving on the day who were also running the Sonics and they had almost exactly the same feedback on the braking instability due to the sidewall stiffness Vitour are aware of some of the tyre failures other brands have had this year at the Ring and requested a minimum tyre pressure of 2 bar (30.5psi), with a little bit more if possible. I stuck to that but I’d really like to try them with 28 or 29psi to see how they perform, I suspect they’ll still have great feel but more compliance as well. Wear is extremely low. After 16 laps on the Sonics, they appear to be hardly worn and the triangle on the ‘slick’ part still hasn’t worn away. The tread is wearing very evenly without the tapering you get on the second band on the P1 and the shoulder is still square with the imprinted text still readable. The A052s roll over on the outer corner much more than these. Oh yeah, and they are E-marked and road legal. How I don’t know, but they are !🤣 Here's a fast lap chasing a modified E92 M3 on Sonics, GT4RS on old Cup2 andchased by a G82 M4 on Trofeo RS @AlistairClark in the Red GT4RS (Original Cup2 !) Will in the Black M4 (Trofeo RS) Steve in the White/Blue E92 M3 (Vitour Sonic) Nige (me) in the R8 (Vitour Sonic) Audi R8 V10 Coupe Manual 6-speed gearbox Stock Engine RWD Ohlins TTX custom dampers AP Pro 5000 brake calipers 368mm x 36mm and 356mm x 36mm floating discs Lamborghini Balboni front ARB Stock REAR anti roll bar Audi GT3 Rear wing Audi GT3 Front splitter 2Forged ZF8 Alloys wheels Vitour Sonic Tyres. 265/35R18 Front, 305/35R18 Rear