Cheap track day rain tire?
 

Looking for suggestions on a cheap HPDE rain only tire for my car. It's a typical 949 follow the recipe 150whp build. I'm not fast enough to win a trophy at the HPDE so H2O's are not a consideration. Running northeast tracks (Glenn, MidO, PittRace, Nelson's, etc..)

I was thinking of getting a set of ~300-400TW 205/50/15's like the Yokohama S.Drive for $90/tire. I have a variety of 7"/8"/9" wheel sets around so plenty of tire size options.

These tires will sit on my trailer tire rack, get used a handful of times, and then age out. Open to your thoughts. Thanks!

I found the RE71 to be much better in the rain than the S-drives. Anything in the 300-400tw category is gonna have little to no grip in the wet.

Toyo R1R's. Best rain tire of the 200tw I've run on.

What tires are you running in the dry?

Flip flop between 225 Rc1 and Nt01 on 9’s

also interested in suggestions on tire width for rain? 205, 225, or...

205's pose less chance of hydroplaning and.

Andy Hollis has been raving about the Continental Extreme Contact Sport as a track-use rain tire. I have a set but haven't had a chance to test their track/rain performance yet. I can say that they're a really nice daily driver tire though.

I have run the Contis and I liked them.

205 Conti’s @$97/tire delivered sounds like awesomesauce

Can a 340 treadwear ExtremeContact Sport really be better than any of the 200TW tires?

I have a set of 205 RE71R's on 15x8 I use for rain and the occasional autoX. I don't see anything significantly better, except for big baller H2O's.

This video supposedly has a direct comparison between Continental and RE71R in the wet, but I don't have 30 minutes to waste and can't find a written summary.

You really never know until somebody tests them. The numbers are all made up and self-reported as opposed to being empirically measured by a third party.

Video synopsis:
Andy knows his shit...

200TW tires:

• Less tread depth
• Not many circumferential grooves - I was rather surprised they have more of an affect with water evacuation than the radial/angled grooves
• Large outer tread blocks
• RE71R's have predictable breakaway during hydroplaning - I concur they are easy to drive
• Rival S are apparently quite dramatic during hydroplaning.

340TW tires:

• Have a much broader temp range than 200TW - if it's 30's/40's *F and wet it will be challenging to the 200TW tires up to temp, so these will be faster - this is autoX specific, track driving puts much more heat into them.
• Pilot Sport 4S is slightly quicker than ExtremeContact Sport, but not as smooth a breakaway.
• ExtremeContact Sport is better when using cars with stability control, due to the the less abrupt loss of grip.
• PS4S is roughly 1 sec slower in the dry than RE71R, so 1/10th in every corner may be outweighed by one corner with standing water.

Conclusion:
If you have standing water, go with a PS4S/ECS.
If temps are cold, also consider PS4S/ECS - this is subjective
The 200TW tires will be faster once there isn't standing water - Although, once it's only damp I'm switching to R7's as long as I can get them warmed up.

yes the ecs' are that much better than the 200tw's in very wet conditions (even the re71's which are considered the best of the 200tw's in the wet).

I would not have expected the PS4S to be that close to the RE71R in the dry... that's pretty amazing.

RA1s?

--Ian

Its impressive, but unfortunately not very applicable to NA/NB guys; smallest they come in are 17"

Yeah... I've been looking them for the next daily tire on our ZL1. I just had never heard they were that close to an RE71R in the dry.