Quoth TeamZ3@aol.com :
> Speaking of unconvential ideas, was curious as to what anyone knowledgable
> would think of using the latest and greatest porous, low temp compound snow
> tires as autox rain tires, provided they were the same aspect ratio/width as
> dry race tires. I could see them not working well in drying conditions, but
> it seems like they'd almost be the same as Hoosier Dirt Stockers in a way.
You're not the only one Mark; I too have wondered what a set of Blizzaks,
(perhaps soaked in Rocky Juice) would do as rains.
But then 2 things happened this year that make me think it's perhaps not worth
it:
When I was running the 275-17 g-forces, I had a set of 235-17 old R1s as rain
tires. These tires started off life unshaved, and they had a great big Groove of
Doom on them - not exactly Dirt Stockers, but they had some place for water to
go, and they were way narrower than my dry tires.
Had a chance to use them at a CENDIV in Peru. I gambled, and put on my rains
when everybody else was on dries, and sure 'nuff, it deluged right before we ran
- and then stopped. I ran an ultra-conservative first run, and was like a second
and a half faster than the pack. On my second run, I looped it in a deep puddle
- but I noticed that in places, I was up against the (lower than normal) limits
of the car; in other words, there was enough grip that I could have used more
tire. The third run, I was up on the limits the whole run, and got caught by the
pack - I wound up 6th or so. Despite the concrete being wet the whole time, the
rain tires were only an advantage in standing water, and that was mostly gone by
run 3. I would have been better off on the dries.
The second event, I was on brand-new full-tread 255-17 Kumhos. It deluged after
the first two cars got runs in, and then rained steadily until the end of the
second run. The tires were awesome. In the really deep, throw-a-3m-wave puddles,
the car would hop around, but then it would grab right away. On wet or slight
standing water, I was fine. Ignoring the lucky weasels that got dry runs, I was
2cd - 2 tenths-ish off John Tak (also on full-tread Kumhos) and 3.5 seconds
ahead of the next car. The class spread was on the order of 13 seconds.
Based on these experiences, I have drawn the following conclusions:
1) A rain tire must be able to perform nearly as good as a dry tire, in case of
drying conditions - which can happen very suddenly, suddenly enough to preclude
a tire swap (unless you have air jacks on the car) I don't think a Blizzak can
do this.
2) An R tire's soft compound makes up for the lack of sipes (heh, see what I did
there?) on all but deep standing water.
3) A full-tread Kumho has plenty of siping, certainly enough to do well in
standing water - and if it dries out, still makes a pretty good dry tire.
4) AWD rocks :)
Based on this, I'm planning on using a set of scrubbed-and-cycled full tread
Kumhos as my rains for next year.
DG
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