The large grooves are good, but the small sipes are what are going to cause the tread squirm.

This is one of those things where it's REALLY difficult to make a recommendation because conditions are constantly changing. If it is pouring and the track has standing water, the tires you haev will work better. If you have a track that is graded and is only a thin layer of water that is running off, then a tire like the AD08 or RE11 with full tread will work better. If it is just damp/wet, but no real layer, then your slicks will still work best.

And that explains why F1 has dry, wet, and rain tires. Thanks for the explanation, Mike, I appreciate it.

Two things going on in the wet:
1. potential for hydroplaning in standing water, which is a purely mechanical phenomenon and a function of tread depth, void ratio, tread pattern, and width. Here, Max Performance category tires are generally going to do better than Extreme Performance in standing water.
2. grip level between the tire and the wet road, which is a function of the tire's compound. This varies GREATLY, and is totally independent of tread pattern. And there are plenty of "all-season" tires that SUCK in this regard, while most of the good Max and Extreme summer tires are very good here.

I don't ever buy tires for my car or the wife's car without going to Tire Rack and looking at test results and customer survey results. This is really the only reliable way to know about a tire's grip in wet, dry, and winter conditions.

The RS-3 is great in the dry, but its compound doesn't provide much grip when cold. In the wet at the track they're actually not bad when warmed up. Weirdly they seem to lose more longitudinal grip than lateral grip, I was spinning the tires exiting Moss corner at Mosport in the no-torque S2k, but oddly not getting all that sideways. On the street in cool wet conditions they suck (makes for easy U-turns, though!).

I got the RS-3s on the S2000 for warm-weather street and some track use, but if I were buying tires today for the same usage it would be either Dunlop Z2 (more tracky) or Bridgestone RE11A (more streety). They both should have much better cool/wet grip.

Curious how you set up your dampeners with the idea of a softer front spring ...

Did going with the softer front spring rate cause you to adjust the manner in which you were setting them up compared to others/yourself running higher spring rates in the front previously?

I've been going back and forth on some compression/rebound settings for the front on my KW V3s, wondering if you have any suggestions since most people seem to balancing the car with a different mentality ...

We always set up for critical. Using damping to change balance is a band-aid. Springs for coarse balancing, sways for fine tuning, dampers (and possibly custom valving) to compensate for aero balance.

What about the best DD tire out of those four trackable street tires, if rain totally wasn't a concern?

Honestly, it almost never rains in SoCal, so it shouldn't even be a concern..and for those who say otherwise, you really don't know what real rain is, lol...so I honestly think Cali people shouldn't even worry about which tires are the best or work good in wet/rain weather and only focus on non-rain tires...since it never even rains in SoCal...and when it does, it's usually light rain that only lasts a day or 2. The heavy rain? ..those are super rare occasions, and will still not last for more than a day or two. SoCal is a desert...do you need rain/snow tires in the desert? Nope.

And, I wouldn't be interested in track days on rainy days/forecasts anyways...so track rain tires I am not interested in neither.

Idk... reading people(whom are located in SoCal) worrying about which tires are good in the rain are kinda funny lol.

All 4 tires need "warmup" to get to optimum grip... but I'd still recommend the RE11A for DD.

It's not just about the rain grip.... better feedback, NVH, etc.

Got a track related question? I'll try to answer.
 

I put on my race pads(hawk hp+) today. It's my first time with the race pads. It feels like the front brakes are much stronger than the rears, also the fronts lock up much easier than with the stock pads and it sounds like one side(in the front) locks up before the other? Is that all normal? Thanks!!


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Cool..I'll def look into the RE11a

Are you using the same pads front and rear? The HP+ is a hybrid pad, but not a race pad.

Got a track related question? I'll try to answer.
 

Yes Mike same pads front and rear. Sorry yes there hybrid's, I'm going to use them for an auto x on Saturday... I didn't bleed the brakes, could that be it?

Also I had to push the pistons in with my fingers a little(very little) to get the caliper back over over the new pads...

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I recommend you follow the bedding procedures. It sounds like the pads may not be mated to the rotor surface properly.

Thank you Mike!!

Thanks a lot for the XP10s and RBF600. Just did my first track day and my brakes were rock solid all day long.

Question about learning progression. I ran the whole day traction control on. I noticed it started to kick in in the 3rd and particularly the 4th/last session. It was flashing on corner exit but I didn't feel any noticeable intervention. And on 1 turn the was down hill right hander I could tell the car was getting light and as I tried to gradually apply throttle the TC kicked in with some ABS.

Anyway, I still have the stock tires although after the day they have a little wear particularly along the edges (only -1.3 camber). Would you recommend next track day try sport mode? Full off? I still have a lot of learning and practice to do just want to know what would be a good way to go about it so I don't become dependent on the TC.