SkipSauls

I've searched the archives on these tires and the comments are all over the place, which is not surprising on an internet forum. Many seem to think that they are good tires for wet or dry, but a couple say that "they suck in the rain". One of the negative comments came from a poster who says that he works for Bridgestone, so presumably he knows a thing or two about tires.

I'm asking about these as I have a set that came with my car, and obvioulsy being able to use them would be nice. Some of the factors that are to be considered include:

- Must be DOT as I'm running in GT-2S. This rules out things like cut Hoosiers and most of the "true rain tires".

- Ultimate performance is not a factor as this is just Club Racing. I'm only concerned with being able to finish a race if it rains, not with being the fastest in the rain. Plus, I don't want to risk being kicked off the HWFM Racing Team!

- I don't expect to run in the rain often, as the Club Races I'm planning on this year are TWS, Pueblo, Hallett, and maybe Las Vegas. If it starts raining frequently on most of these tracks then I'll start worrying about some other tires (and Global Warming!)

- Mostly I want to know whether or not these tires would truly be "dangerous" in the rain, and whether or not they would "suck" less than the Hoosiers.

Thanks!

Adam Richman

The T1-S is a street tire no? I would not want to run a street tire for wet conditions. We run RA-1s (6/32nds) for intermediate rains and they work very well. They will not outperform a Hoosier DS in heavy rain but they have a lot more margin for drying conditions. Both the RA-1 and Hoosier Dirt Stocker are DOT tires.

Greg Fishman

Skip,
Wait for the new DOT Hoosier rain tire to come out. Or maybe look at the Toyo RA1 (full tread).

Also if you want to sell the T1-S's send me an email with the sizes, etc.
Thanks

DCLee

I agree with Greg-- the T1-S is far too hard to be much good as a rain tire. The best option would be to get the RA-1s, but there is currently a problem with sizes in the 18-in. range. There is a 225 and a 275, but we need 245-255 and 285-295. Since the RA-1 is going to be a pro spec tire this season, maybe more sizes will be available.

Lee in D.C.

M758

I used full tread RA-1's in rain. Worked nice on the one rain track day we had in Az.

In 3 sessions I experience all types of wet track.

Damp and drying, Dry going to wet. Light rain and downpour. The tires handled well and the car was stable on confident.

Only two really tricky times. Drying track since you had lots of grip on the dry sections, but a slight movement off line put you in the wet and at lot less grip. Not a tire problem really, just driver problem.

Second tricky time was during the heaviest downpour. With a light film of standing water (figure 1/2" deep) you were ok, but occasionally there would be deeper sections and things would get quite interesting especially if you did not hit them evenly. I had two dramatic offs (no contact resulted) from this sort of thing. Then again I don't thing I can fault any tire if you hit a puddle of 1" deep standing (or flowing) water. Not good with 95% of tires anyway. In fact they ended up stopping the event due to too much standing water.

I was quite happy with tire performance. It never felt scary (except for the really deep puddles)

Nice thing about them is that I think it is rare to have a completely wet session. I figure most wet sessions involve a transition from dry to wet or wet to dry. In those cases a RA-1 is nice since in full tread it can handle lots of water, but also survive a bone dry track and be reasonable.

Greg Fishman

Lee,
They will have a 245/18 and a 305/18 out this year. Should be soon as the Audi S6 has been approved to run the 305. No 285/295 yet.

For a rain tire a bit skinnier tire would be better, right?

M758

I'd figure that would be the case since a wider contact patch presents a wider path needed to evacuate water.

SkipSauls

All,

Thanks for the information. I was expecting that they might not be good rain tires, but wanted to be sure as I'd hate to buy a set and find that the ones in the garage were suitable.

It seems like I'm stuck at this point, with incorrect sizes in the RA-1s and nothing available yet from Hoosier. I've tried calling around, but information seems to be scarce.

Maybe running the 225 and 275 RA-1s would work? Or is that too skinny for this type of car?

Thanks again!

DCLee

The rears are fine, since it's a pretty wide 275, but the fronts would be too skinny for me. The 245s should be out by spring-- check with the Toyo Motorsports guy (he posts on the SCCA Pro Racing list).

Lee in D.C.

Greg Fishman

There actually are 245's out. It is what the BMW's and others ran last year in Speed World Challenge. They are a totally different tread pattern though and are not a US spec tire apparently. Do you remember the Limerock race. Bill Aueberlen and PTG made the decision to run the 245 on all four corners vs. 245/275 on his M3 and did well enough to outrun the Audi's and draw tons of protest for going with a "non-aproved" tire combo.
Notice the grooving on this tire.

joey bagadonuts

So THAT'S how he won that race! Man, it wasn't just sprinkling that weekend--it was pouring! I couldn't believe the AWD Audi's didn't lap the field a couple times. IIRC, both Pobst and Galati had off-track excursions but they should've been able to make it up without much effort ... or so I thought.

Yeah, ol' Bill's a fantastic driver but even that feat seemed hard to comprehend. Now, it's starting to make sense.

DJF1

What do you guys think of the Sunlop Super Sport Race R tire? It looks like its gonna be a good rain tire and most importantly it comes in Porsche sizes...

SkipSauls

Hi Danny,

Do you have any more information on these tires? I've tried searching the web, but there seems to be little if any information available. This is true for so many of the tire manufacturers when it comes to race tires, which is irritating. It's almost as if the internet/web boom passed them by!

Thanks.

Greg Fishman

Not sure when they made the change to the tires but it made a huge difference in his times. Also made for a huge stink as Champion protested the win (lost) but it did make for a clarification in the rules that you had to run the sizes you were approved for.

DJF1

I looked on the net and saw that this is the new R, DOT tire from Dunlop. On the German sites I read that it is great unshaved in the rain. It looks like it too...
The only US place that sells them is Sasco Sports:

http://www.sascosports.com/products/...sportrace.html

If you try them out please post your impressions. If my budget allows me and noone reports on these, I will give em a shot strictly as rain tires in March.