It's been raining a lot down here in Texas -- and y’all know my car is my daily. Well, I've been noticing something driving around lately. My wet traction is sh*t! The main thing I'd be comparing this to is what the car was before, which would be a stock '11 V6 on 255/45 R18's. Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus’s. I remember back then, I felt like the car drove so well in the wet that I'd end up driving too fast, go through a puddle I didn't see and then hydroplane.
Course now I'm in a '12 Boss with 2 degrees camber and 275/40 R18 Goodyear Exhilarate’s (gonna get rid of these soon, so -- I'm tire shoppin). I gotta tell ya this thing is ass in the rain. I gotta slow down to 55mph to avoid hydroplaning [standing water on the road is the main issue] on the highway. I'm the slowest car on the road. Semi trucks pass me by.
Now I know -- with big tire comes big responsibility, but, this is pretty bad. So, I've been trying to figure out what the crux of the problem is and I learned something... apparently lots of negative camber can increase the risk of hydroplaning in the wet? This seems like the most likely culprit. I only have an extra 20mm of tire than I had before and they're in decent shape. When I got the tires (from the donor car) they were almost new and I was having this issue then too. Now, clearly this tire isn't the best tire ever, but it can't be that bad. So, I don’t think a new set of Continentals will solve the problem. Dry traction is great btw.
So with this in mind, I thought, LeMans cars drive full throttle through pouring rain on fat tires. How do they do this? Downforce, apparently. So something I won’t be able to duplicate (unless I want to daily drive a time attack car!). Although I was thinking I could add a bit more rake to the car…
So, what do ya’ll think? Does anyone race on wet tracks? I’m thinking probably not… But if you do, what do you do to your car if you’re gonna race in pouring rain? I think this is likely going to be a situation where I have make a decision on whether or not to compromise dry traction in order to gain wet traction… I hate the idea of going smaller with the tires but that is on the table too.
So options:
What do you guys think? It’s gotta be the camber, right? #2 I’m guessing is tire width?
Course now I'm in a '12 Boss with 2 degrees camber and 275/40 R18 Goodyear Exhilarate’s (gonna get rid of these soon, so -- I'm tire shoppin). I gotta tell ya this thing is ass in the rain. I gotta slow down to 55mph to avoid hydroplaning [standing water on the road is the main issue] on the highway. I'm the slowest car on the road. Semi trucks pass me by.
Now I know -- with big tire comes big responsibility, but, this is pretty bad. So, I've been trying to figure out what the crux of the problem is and I learned something... apparently lots of negative camber can increase the risk of hydroplaning in the wet? This seems like the most likely culprit. I only have an extra 20mm of tire than I had before and they're in decent shape. When I got the tires (from the donor car) they were almost new and I was having this issue then too. Now, clearly this tire isn't the best tire ever, but it can't be that bad. So, I don’t think a new set of Continentals will solve the problem. Dry traction is great btw.
So with this in mind, I thought, LeMans cars drive full throttle through pouring rain on fat tires. How do they do this? Downforce, apparently. So something I won’t be able to duplicate (unless I want to daily drive a time attack car!). Although I was thinking I could add a bit more rake to the car…
So, what do ya’ll think? Does anyone race on wet tracks? I’m thinking probably not… But if you do, what do you do to your car if you’re gonna race in pouring rain? I think this is likely going to be a situation where I have make a decision on whether or not to compromise dry traction in order to gain wet traction… I hate the idea of going smaller with the tires but that is on the table too.
So options:
- Dial back the negative camber.
- 265/40 R19 tires (facepalm)
- More rake
- Aero? I guess a bigger front splitter might be possible…
- Be the guy going 50mph in the slow lane.
What do you guys think? It’s gotta be the camber, right? #2 I’m guessing is tire width?
