My car, a Spec E46 build without the tune, nor any immediate W2W aspirations (or skills), is nearly complete. Plan to run Toyo R's (not RR's, unless someone has a strong opinion on why that's a bad choice) in spec size, and want to have a rain tire with me since track time is hard to come by and most organizers are "rain or shine". I hope for dry conditions, so ideally I'm not putting much use on my "rain" tires. A tire that's 90% as good for 70% of the cost might be my answer.
Spec rain tire is Toyo RA1 in 235/40/17. I have a set of style 68 wheels I intend on mounting these rain tires to which are 8.5" wide. My questions: Stick with RA1 or is there a better rain only track tire when not bound by class rules? And why did they drop from the 255 section width slick to a 235mm rain tire? The factory rears on the 330 e46 with style 68's was a 245. Is there a benefit to narrower tire in the wet, or again, if not bound by rules, would it be prudent to size the tires at 245 section width?
Thanks for any thoughts/help.
You typically want narrower tires in the wet, yes. I believe this to change the shape of the contact patch to a longer, narrower one to better resist hydroplaning.
As far as R vs RR, the single Rs are pretty new and there doesn't seem to be a lot of community real-world experience with them yet. You'll have to navigate some mostly unexplored territory by yourself which may or may not be an issue.
As far as rain tires go, AFAIK there's really only one DOT-rated proper wet tire (the Hoosier wet), and driving on that tire when it's raining is so good it feels like cheating. Of course, you'll destroy it in a few minutes if you drive on it when it's NOT raining, so it's a very specialized tool that is not really appropriate for a basic track day car.
Disregarding the Hoosier then, there are a whole bunch of tires that are ~ 10 seconds a lap slower than it in the rain, and the RA1 is one of those. I think it will be fine.
Just dropping this in here because maybe it’ll help–and it also centers around your chassis: 9 setup changes to optimize when racing in the wet.
cyow5
Reader
9/18/24 3:29 p.m.
Conti ECS makes a pretty solid rain tire, and you don't run into issues like cooking it if the track is starting to dry out.
Thanks. Any others I should consider? Have a date with VIR in less than a month, so want to make sure I spend money on rain tires to make sure it's dry when I go.
Spearfishin said:
Thanks. Any others I should consider? Have a date with VIR in less than a month, so want to make sure I spend money on rain tires to make sure it's dry when I go.
Supposedly the Maxxis VR1 (I think there's a VR2 as well that's new) and the Bridgestone RE-71RS are all roughly in that same group.
Michelin PS4S is also excellent in the rain but chunks a bit when the track is dry. Plus they're super-expensive new.
My recs are Conti ECS02 for any amount of water up to a deluge, and Bridgestone RE71RS for damp to moderate wet.
We ran a single set of RE71RS in the Thunderhill 25H for 17 hours in the wet, and put the car in the overall podium. They are faster than RA1, which we have also run there in the past as rains.
Andy Hollis said:
My recs are Conti ECS02 for any amount of water up to a deluge, and Bridgestone RE71RS for damp to moderate wet.
We ran a single set of RE71RS in the Thunderhill 25H for 17 hours in the wet, and put the car in the overall podium. They are faster than RA1, which we have also run there in the past as rains.
Picking from those, at TireRack: $500 for 2021 date code RE71RS or $880 for [assumed] current ECS02?
Don't let the date code scare you. 2021 from TR is still fine
I hit some very heavy rain (in FL that means visibility of less than 75 yards) returning from my last autocross. My RE71rs tires are down about 40% from their original tread depth, and were amazingly good.
Pulled the trigger on the 2021 RE71RS's. Thanks all. Hopefully they don't come into play next month, but I'll report back if they do.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
And I hit the same rain while on the X Comp H/P tires from our recent test, and we had to get off I-4 because it felt like I was driving in snow.
