Best Tire For Heavy Rain Season & Track Days????
 

Just picked up a set of 17x9's and I am trying to figure out what tires to pick up.

I'm really tempted to pick up a set of RE71R's but I'm concerned that with all this El Nino talk in Socal that they might not be a good choice. Anyone have experience with this tire in stormy weather?

My other thoughts are RE11A's which I had on my last car and were great in heavy rain or PSS which I have on the wife's TT which also seem to do well in the rain.

My hopes are to do at least 1 track day every dry month in 2016 but I also average 15k miles a year driving around for work.

Also, any opinions on 245's vs 255's?

Take a look at the Toyo T1 Sport, mine have felt fine in the rain, very confident. I'm running 245/40 on my 17x9s

I haven't really heard great stuff about the RE71Rs in the wet, but they are a great dry tire.
Though, I have used the Dunlop Direzza Z1ss on the (same) track in the wet and dry. They performed great, and am planning on buying another set for next season. Personally, that is what I suggest for a daily driver because they last a long time and give you great dry traction. I put just about 25k miles on my car(and about 20k on the Direzzas) in about 10 months and they still have 1 or two track days left in them I would say.
Also, the Direzzas are supposed to last longer than the RE71rs

My opinion will stay as that, an opinion. I may be a little biased because I have never ran the RE71rs. But the people I have talked to seem to love them. ALSO, I have been a passenger of someone who was on RE71rs trying to drift a roundabout(he has done this before) in the wet(cold tires, 70 degree weather) and busted one of his RPFjuans. I wont name any names, but if you read this, sorry bro.

Oh also, I suggest running 245s on a 9".

My RE11A's have performed decent in an extra wet track day at Sonoma raceway, granted I wasn't pushing very hard due to the weather, but I was very pleased with them. I would get another set once these are worn but tirerack no longer has the size I like, so it looks like I'll be going with the PSS.

Tire Rack reviews is your friend.

Check out the Maxxis Victra VR-1. Don't think it is out quite yet, but suppose to be a decent wet tire.

Small threadjack.

Care to share any other thoughts on the T1 Sport?

It's on my short list to replace the V12 Evo2 that I ran with this past summer.

Continental ExtremeContact DW. Constantly outperforms every other ultra high performance tire in the wet in comparisons. P-Zero, Star-Spec, R1R, RS-3, AD-08, s-04 PP, PSS, etc all finish behind the DW in the wet. Of course, there's a tradeoff in the dry, but even there it's no slouch for a tire biased for wet conditions. I autocrossed on them (in the dry) a few time in a different car than my FR-S, and while they weren't on the same level as RS-3s, they didn't embarrass themselves either. And the wet performance always had me smiling.

I push them pretty hard on super aggressive canyon carving runs and they've never let me down. Lots of grip and very predictable.

Only downside for some would be that they're pretty loud during day to day use or on the freeway.

@BigFatFlip also drove my car with them so maybe he could give some thoughts on how they directly compare to the RE11A?

Try all season tires

I use the DW as well in a 245 40 on a 17x9. They seem slightly better than the re71r in the wet and leaps and bounds better in standing water.

Thanks everyone for your input. Standing water is a concern for me given how much rain they are saying we are going to get.

I might just take a chance and get the RE71R's but part of me thinks that I'm over thinking this and I'm not a race car driver so I should just go with PSS's, DW's or Toyo's somebody mentioned.

Any good reason to go 255 instead of 245 on 9"?

Dunlop Direzza ZII. you can go for the Starspecs if you want to spend more, but the regular ZII's are good enough. you most likely won't be driving at the limit of your grip in the rain and the ZII's are good enough in the wet. they are also awesome in the dry. I have them in 235/45/17

If you plan to do one track day every month, buy another set of wheels and track only tires.
If you only want one set of tires for daily and track days, you'll end up buying tires after your second or third track day.