wet track tyre

[sambb]

Has anyone got any feedback on how the new federal 595-RSRR fares as a wet track tyre or how it compares in general to the older 595-RSR. I've always stuck with my street tyres on a wet track and this has been RE003's lately, but I need something that will stretch the gap out until semi time on a drying track more so than what the bridgestones can manage.
I'd found the AD08R's to have a bit of a snap breakaway when it gets really wet and they are to $$$'y anyway which is why I'm interested in thoughts on the federals in the wet.

[louis19]

Depending on what tyre sizing your after, you might not be able to get the newer RS-RR. I know some of the sizings they made in the RS-R's were not continued to be made in the newer tyre.

I find the RSR's pretty awesome in the dry, but they certainly aren't anything special in the wet. Last weekend I was at QR and the track was quite damp for the first half of the 90 min session and my polo would wheel spin quite badly even at half throttle in 2nd and happily spin all the way through 3rd if you tried to punch the throttle to hard. To be fair, most tyres probably would've done the same thing in the conditions it was under.

Ive driven other cars with the RS-RR's, I'd say they are much the same in the dry, and maybe marginally better in the wet but not by much really.

[sambb]

hmm yeah your right. The RSRR isn't in a 16 only the RSR and they might be getting rare from now on. There's an Achilles 123S in 205/45/16. wonder how they'd go in the wet? The only other one is the toyo R1R but they are bloody pricey too.
Dunno maybe i'll just have to stick to RE003's as a wet tyre and just get braver and onto the R specs earlier. Last time out I was just outside the top 10 in the bucketing wet but it started to dry out on the last 2 runs and I got clobbered and finished mid pack. I was starting at the bottom of the running order and if I'd known there was going to be a dry line by the time I was up I would have gone to R specs. Kicking myself now - its for situations like that that I want a 'street semi' that's still ok in the wet.

[seangti]

Perhaps the snappy behavior could be overcome with some suspension/geometry changes. Soften the rear up to run in the wet, tyre pressures, etc. I'd have thought the RE003's would be a very good wet track tyre. For a street tyre, I think it was the Dunlop that won last months issue of Motor Magazine tyre test.

[louis19]

As Sean said, I've been told the Re003's are quite good in the wet. I'd put money down there are good chunk better then what my RSR's are.

[sambb]

yeah I have found them to be brilliant in the wet, its just that they fall away big time as things start to dry out. I totally agree with that test. The first set of street tyres I had on the car were Dunlop sport max R/T's and they were awesome. Trouble is they were gone in 15,000km, quicker than the yoko's. They would fit the bill perfectly - a better dry tyre than the RE003, but you can't get them in 205/45/16 anymore. I just wonder if the federals would hang in there in the wet with cold/hot pressures down around 30-32psi.
I've got the pressures sussed for the wet now. You can really feel the RE003's slide progressively at the limit which is really reassuring and gives you the confidence to push bit the AD08R's would hang in there, hang in there, and then you'd be having a big moment - not really reassuring in the wet, but weapons in the dry. I think it'll just be more RE003's.

[Notso Swift]

If you are not racing it doesn't really matter
If you are use A050. Softs if you can

[sambb]

No not door to door racing. I do hillclimbs. My A050's are medium compound - not ideal for hillclimbs I know but they have been pretty impressive (in the dry at least) and I couldn't go past the price I got on them. If I did have softs then yeah I'd be getting onto the semis sooner as it dries. As it is, I'm not too keen on finding out what stone cold mediums feel like when you get offline on a drying track with armco and trees all around. The guys that were using them in the wet had softs on, I would have been the only one on mediums so I was a bit shaky on swapping over.

[Notso Swift]

We run mediums, honestly they are such a good tye un less it is teaming down I think they would be better than most other options, they are a proper time attack tyre. If you are buying new ones get soft, but just use the mediums if you have them

I drove a friends CRX on AD08 last Thrusday at Winton, and there was a littte rain, but mainly patchy, I thought they felt a bit squishy as they over heated but they tread isn't as soft as the A050 in the first place

[kaanage]

I would use full semis as long as there isn't standing water on the track. It's when there's a film of water that semis will break away suddenly - suspension changes can't prevent it. Even if it's quite damp, semis and even slicks work very well

[sambb]

kaanage I remember a while back you were looking at running either street conti's or RE003's in the full wet. Did you give that a go? any comparison to your r spec hankooks?

[sambb]

Notso swift, you mentioned in a post on another forum that A050's are good at 30psi hot and over the top at 32psi. In the hillclimbs I do I'll start the fronts at 29psi and rears at 30psi and find that by the end of the run only the fronts have gone up 1psi. Is that the right kind of window to be in for immediate cold tyre grip or do you reckon dropping further would work? Tyre temps are too hard to decipher I find because some runs are as short as 31 seconds and 90 seconds at the most and its not enough to build a picture across the tread. So yeah do those recommendations you gave hold true for stone cold grip too - not sure if having the 'right' pressure but no temperature in the compound changes things?

sam

[Notso Swift]

Those pressures are for a hot tyre, as you will never really get it hot, I think it would be worth starting lower.
Maybe next time give 26 a go, then even try 23, reasonable steps like 3 psi make it pretty easy to feel. While I have tried starting my rears really low (under 20) I probably wouldn't recommend it,
You can always go back if you don't like it

[Martin]

Notso swift, you mentioned in a post on another forum that A050's are good at 30psi hot and over the top at 32psi. In the hillclimbs I do I'll start the fronts at 29psi and rears at 30psi and find that by the end of the run only the fronts have gone up 1psi. Is that the right kind of window to be in for immediate cold tyre grip or do you reckon dropping further would work? Tyre temps are too hard to decipher I find because some runs are as short as 31 seconds and 90 seconds at the most and its not enough to build a picture across the tread. So yeah do those recommendations you gave hold true for stone cold grip too - not sure if having the 'right' pressure but no temperature in the compound changes things?

Only getting a 1 PSI increase makes it a lot easier to select your tyre pressure, you know it's not going to vary a lot
So you need to focus on tyre wear rather than the tyre pressure
Get one of those white paint sidewall marker pens - run a line across the face of the tread, after the run see what's left
Then vary by 3 psi, check again and evaluate how it handled

[sambb]

yeah your right martin - I know pretty much bang on what my running pressures will be because they don't really deviate from starting pressures like on a circuit. Less guess work and hardly any corner to corner variation. Like notso swift alluded to though its finding what pressure works best with a cold compound which is also going to become more important going into winter. So as well as working out what to run in the rain, how soon to switch to r specs as it dries and what pressures to run the R specs on, I have a bit to do. Trouble with hillclimbs is that you get so little seat time for testing stuff.
As far as markers go, the kids chalk would do the trick wouldn't it?
Notso swift TBH I find that running the rears higher than the fronts helps the car rotate on one of the really tight circuits I do. The closer I bring rear pressures down towards what the fronts are increases rear grip. Do you run your rears much lower as a way to get them up to temperature on the circuit? For me because temp doesn't really factor I think it might be that pumping the rears up reduces their contact patch and that's why I get less grip in the rear when I do it. When the tyres are cold maybe the only factor is mechanical grip. For example at King Edward park I started with the rears quite high thinking it'd help me negotiate 'the pinch'. Turns out that that corner was so steep with the inside rear miles off the deck (its the adjacent pic) that it didn't matter anyway but in the corner leading into the top hairpin the car was seriously loose. Dropping the rear pressures to what the fronts were had it much more manageable again. Does that make sense?