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R888 full treads in the rain


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Posted

We ran full tread R888's in the rain for the NASA-SE enduro at Road Atlanta this past Friday. The review is not very good. The car was unstable in the wet. My driver said that "if there was a sheen or any standing water, there was no grip at all."

 

He said each corner was a "controlled crash". He is an experienced former World Challenge driver and was very unhappy with the tire in the rain.

 

This is just one opinion on one occasion, but he complained about it regular on the radio and we ended up crashing out in the end.

 

Food for thought.

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Posted

This is more a question for the directors but will we be able to use RA1's in rain next year??

 

My fear is a 6/32 tire in full rain will always be very challenging or perhaps unsafe to say the least.

Posted

RA1's will no longer be available. I can not imagine a situation where they allow a tire that may be superior to be used in races that is not available to all the cars. That means if left over and year old RA1 full treads are better than new R888's, it would not be fair to have a superior tire that the rest can not go out and buy.

 

I think there will be a rain tire issue though. It could be that the R888 is not sufficiant for rain nor safe. My bent car can be the first example of that, if you wish. Toyo may need to provide another rain capable tire.

Posted

did the car have a full rain setup or putting the full tread 888's on the car the only change you made?

Posted

We went to a soft set up for the rain.

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Posted

I ran the full depth R888's on a 94 E36 BMW in the rain and they seemed to be better than the RA-1's used to be in the rain. But I am comparing apples to oranges as I was only used to the RA-1's on a Fox Body Mustang and the BMW definitely handled differently (and had much less power!) I was impressed with the R888's in the rain on the BMW.

Posted

My only experience with the R888's in the rain was during testing at Laguna a few weeks ago and IMO they are a far better rain tire than the RA1. The longitudinal grip is far superior than the RA1 meaning you can drive the car deeper into the corner in the wet... the tread design is more condusive to pumping water towards the outer edge of the tire. It'd be nice if every other groove on the tire was extended to reach the sidewall, but that's a small complaint. This was on a Mazda touring car with no change to the chassis other than shock settings (Same swaybar settings).

 

What tire pressures were you running dry/wet?

 

The lack of camber on the rear can't help in the wet.

 

And there was definitely a "sheen" to the pavement when we were testing.

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