Are aggressive semi slicks instant suicide in the rain?

[lapsio]

I've been experimenting with tires for quite a while now and I found some very interesting super soft semi slick tires that performed great during winter, sprint and autumn. However now we're rapidly entering summer season and my lovely soft semi slicks simply started to melt and suffer overheat damage on my way to work...

My current summer tires are Michelin Cup 2 and well... they're not really all that great. I mean yeah sure I'm not saying they're bad tires but it's just that I believe they're not really suited for me and my driving style. I thought it's maybe pressure and tried to play around with it but didn't help. I simply can't manage to get them to optimal operating temps so as a result they grip like sh*t both in rain AND dry comparing to my lovely soft, wet compound TW80 semi slicks (Extreme Tyres VR1 W5) that I used in spring and autumn. And people while rarely notice small upgrades - they always feel small downgrades. So now it just bugs me how noticeably worse those tires are. According to my measurements I'm getting my tires up to 50-60 deg depending on how I drive so natural choice would be to look for some medium compound tires with optimal operating temps within this range.

And apparently Extreme Tyres does indeed make VR2 semi slicks in R7A TW140 compound made specifically for 30-80 deg operating temps which sounds just like what I need, however...



They look like this and I'm not gonna lie it looks a bit creepy xD I mean it's not like I'm complete noob in terms of semi slicks in the rain - I used to daily drive MX5 with bald Federal 595RS-R and I'm still alive but when I look at this Extreme VR2 tread pattern and compare it even to 595 it... gives some pretty sketchy vibe. I'm not tread pattern expert but they look a little bit similar to Toyo Proxes R888R so I believe they should be just as sh*t in the rain as Toyos so... Does anyone have experience with driving aggressive semi slicks in rainy conditions on street?

Alternatives that I'm also considering are Federal tires but unfortunately Federal doesn't seem to list optimal operating temps for their tires so I'm not really sure which ones should I get. That said FZ-201 seem to be made in super soft TW40 compound however then again I'm a bit worried that they're gonna overheat just like my autumn/spring Extremes.

[bkd705]

If you want something that sort of works all around, can't go wrong with an RS4. I've seen people set PBs on them. You'd be fine to run those for track and daily around town and they grip much more than a PS4S etc.

However, some of these "semi-slick" or "super 200s" can be okay in some light rain, its really just standing water you have to watch out for. I've run CRS, RE71R, RS4, etc from brand new all the way down to the cords. In wet weather its not too bad really, but you will get sketchy over standing water. I had a nice experience on the highway over some standing water on basically slick RE71Rs (hope you can read the sarcasm over the internet).

[DarkPira7e]

I drive Nitto NT555R drag radials in the rain just fine. As long as there are sipes and they are all mounted facing the correct direction, it should be fine unless you're driving through 5" of standing water at 70mph

[soundman98]

it's only a problem if you're turning, stopping, or accelerating.

[lapsio]

Originally Posted by bkd705

If you want something that sort of works all around, can't go wrong with an RS4. I've seen people set PBs on them. You'd be fine to run those for track and daily around town and they grip much more than a PS4S etc.

However, some of these "semi-slick" or "super 200s" can be okay in some light rain, its really just standing water you have to watch out for. I've run CRS, RE71R, RS4, etc from brand new all the way down to the cords. In wet weather its not too bad really, but you will get sketchy over standing water. I had a nice experience on the highway over some standing water on basically slick RE71Rs (hope you can read the sarcasm over the internet).

Well it seems that almost all semi slicks ever that are there, are made for 70-100 deg C operating temps range (150 - 210 F). And it's actually not really all that warm where I live. We rarely have temps above 18C (65 F) which makes it a bit pointless to get typical hard slicks.

I made some additional research and it seems that Nankang AR-1 grip almost immediately, even without warming up which sounds nice and just like what I'm looking for but when I look at them, even those Extreme VR2 that I posted look like chill, balanced rain tire XD Nankang seems like immediate death after encountering puddle.

[TommyW]

I had my NT01s in the rain many times and with all the Nannie’s on they were fine as long as you were not pushing things

[Clipdat]

Why are you driving so aggressively on the street "on the way to work" that you need this type of tire?

Your post just screams "I drive recklessly on public streets at every opportunity."

Fucking slow it down and realize that you share the road with normal people who are just trying to safely get from point a to b.

[churchx]

Well, if one "needs" much more grip on public road .. then yes, then maybe a bit safer driving might be beneficial.
Then again, i'd still prefer to use right tools for a job, and use non-slicks but good UUHP tires to have extra grip reserves for unexpected situations for incident avoidance even on street. (i mean tires of "PSS class", PSS/PS4/PS4S/EC7/Asy F1 6 and so on ..). It's not just about their sketchy grip, especially if weather is off, but also i'd prefer to wear them down on track, while driving on street on more universal/wet capable/longer lasting ones.

[Teseo]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Why are you driving so aggressively on the street "on the way to work" that you need this type of tire?

Your post just screams "I drive recklessly on public streets at every opportunity."

Fucking slow it down and realize that you share the road with normal people who are just trying to safely get from point a to b.

Maybe he is delivering ubber eats?

[NoHaveMSG]

Avoid standing water.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Teseo

Maybe he is delivering ubber eats?

30 minutes or less

[lapsio]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Fucking slow it down and realize that you share the road with normal people who are just trying to safely get from point a to b.

I'm UPS driver. Jk xD

My way to work in 90% does not go along any particularly rural areas (partially because I'm choosing such route on purpose, even though it's by far not the shortest one), I know this route, I'm driving here every single day in my BRZ or MX5 for like 2 years now (and before that I was driving here for many years in my previous car for like 4 years or so), I'm driving to work in hours where there's almost no traffic at all (like 11 am or later), there's no traffic lights or any other rng based obstacles, no road crossings, no pavements, no people, no pedestrians... And due to all those circumstances I'm typically driving in a bit spirited way, sometimes measuring my time and collecting OBD traces for further analysis and comparisons, testing mods. You could say it's equivalent of canyon run in a sense... This route is so nice that sometimes I'm driving here also during weekends, just for fun as weekend fun ride. Well in matter of fact I don't even have to go to office since I'm working in IT and could work remotely almost every day, I'm only going to office because I want to drive lol. Going to work is only an excuse to go for a ride at this point.

I have few favorite benchmark turns and jumps that always make me smile like an idiot and charge up my motivation for the rest of the day. And I simply like G's I'm experiencing on them. It's the kind of road where in worst case I'm gonna crash alone and probably not even kill myself unless I'd screw up really badly.

I'm obviously not driving like this everywhere, especially not in the city or rural areas. My idiocy has some well defined limits.

Inb4 just in case somebody was about to say I should take it to the track - I do - I'm tracking my MX5 in SPEC class, it's specifically track toy, hence it has Federals 595RS-R... Still longer, curvy, empty roads hit differently. It's just different kind of experience, we don't have such big closed circuits here. I never used even 4th gear in MX5 on track... They call it tactical tracks but I call them we couldn't afford reasonably sized piece of field tracks...

[lapsio]

Originally Posted by TommyW

I had my NT01s in the rain many times and with all the Nannie’s on they were fine as long as you were not pushing things

Looks like similar class of tire tread so I'll accept this as answer, thanks.

[bkd705]

Originally Posted by lapsio

Well it seems that almost all semi slicks ever that are there, are made for 70-100 deg C operating temps range (150 - 210 F). And it's actually not really all that warm where I live. We rarely have temps above 18C (65 F) which makes it a bit pointless to get typical hard slicks.

I made some additional research and it seems that Nankang AR-1 grip almost immediately, even without warming up which sounds nice and just like what I'm looking for but when I look at them, even those Extreme VR2 that I posted look like chill, balanced rain tire XD Nankang seems like immediate death after encountering puddle.

Yeah fwiw I agree with above comments, shouldn't need your tires to be in optimal temp ranges to drive to and from work.

But, to keep the convo going. I live in Canada and for about half of our "track" season we're around that 18c mark or cooler (ie. I'm going to track on Saturday and its supposed to be 14c). No issues running RS4s, Nankang CRS, A052, or other similar 200tw. Going that direction you'd have much better tire life and less worries about rain etc.