Quote:
Originally Posted by lucid
That's good to know. I measured the tread depth on my PSCs a week after that event, and it turns out I had about 2/32"-3/32" left depending on where you measure. I thought I had at least 4/32". The tire comes with 6/32", and I didn't have it shaved. I can't imagine having used much tread during the event at all, so limited tread depth that might have been a factor. Is the tread patter for the R compound tires they are using in the rain different than than the pattern they are running in the dry? Also, I haven't raced, but I must assume one puts heat in the tires before the race and maintains the temp during the wet race. You can't do that in an HPDE where you only have 20 min per session, and the car is sitting and cooling down completely in the cold (3C like it was 2 weeks ago) in between sessions, and the track temps are cold as well, so I still do not think it is a good idea to go out on PSCs with 50% or less tread. I don't know how they would do under the same conditions if they had full tread. I spun the car once last year with the PSCs 4 laps into a dry session. The air temp was just above freezing, and I had thought I had put enough heat into the tire, but I was wrong (I was pushing it 7/10th, so that wasn't the problem and my instructor said it was the cold tires). It was snap oversteer and I couldn't counter steer into it although I tired...
Check out the description of the Hoosier wet radials. The compound is clearly different.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....e1=yes&place=3
I understand you are not saying that one would not benefit from specific wet condition compound. You are saying that an R compound tire would have as much or more "mechanical" grip than a street tire in the wet. If someone with racing experience or significant wet tracking experience would like to chime in, it would be great as I would like to learn more about this. |
Thoose Hoosiers are not a DOT legal tire,unlike the R compounds that we use for the most part.Those Hoosiers will also last about 2 laps in truly dry conditions.
OOPS correction!Those are different than the Hoosier rains that we used to run on
I have raced in the rain quite a bit and have used mostly street tires not dedicated wet tires.I have started on fresh shaved @3/32 s and that was disaster because of standing water.If there is no standing water I think the compound has more to do with grip than the tread pattern.But I have seen people on slicks go amazingly well in some pretty aweful conditions also.For myself I will just try to use newer street tires that do not have any track heat cycles on them and and leave my R's in the paddock if it is real wet.