I had to dig quite a bit to find this out, but the Neova AD07 (used very often in D1GP and one of the best street tires in existence) is coming to the US in April. I found this out by reading an article about the new Lotus Elise, and it said that the car would have Neovas as stock equipment when it was sold in the US. I figured this meant that they had been DOT approved but simply were not being sold by Yokohama in the US, which means that I could import a set and legally use them on my car here. I asked Yokohama about all this to confirm it and they basically said "don't bother importing, we'll be selling them here in April".

I consider this a big deal, others might not, just wanted to share as I don't think it's public information. Hopefully Yokohama doesn't send people to my house to kill me.

 

I can't imagine they'd go through all the crap of getting the things legalized just to sell them in one particular size, who does something like that? Regardless though, imported or not, they're legal, so even if Yok doesn't sell them officially here, you can still get someone to ship you some from Japan and legally have them on your car. I WILL have them on my car, I've wanted them for ages.

 

I suppose that could be the case. I would figure that the RE050 was probably approved in all sizes, but only sold in sizes for those cars. Just because a tire isn't sold here officially doesn't mean it isn't approved. I could be wrong though, so if you're inclinded to investigate further, lemme know what you find out.

 

Oh damn, you just made my day man, exactly the size I was going to get anyways....

If you'll excuse me: WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Thanks for doing the homework man, I never went any farther than a lousy email.

In other news, does anyone know what the actual name is of the Advan tire that comes stock on the Evo? I've also seen Advans on a civic before, and they were most certainly not an exotic R-compound variety like the A032R, but something that looked fairly stock (on stock wheels).