Well I got quite a scare accelerating out of a short right hand sweeper in the rain the other day. I was kind of "experimenting" with the grip of my new Pirelli P Zero Nero's (225/50 16 at cold 32psi). Stock rims. The rear went right and left....and then I felt it was going to 360! I must have corrected correctly...because it came out straight. No other cars were around.

I then tried a medium stoplight acceleration start (to see if my cornering incident was a fluke..) and spun the tires..with another left/right wag. The left/right wag is probably the limited slip I guess.

I also did a low (35mph) speed brake test in the rain..this worked out much better...abs worked, but some loss of front traction just before stopping..everything felt very safe.

My question is; are these tires that poor in the rain? They had good rain performance ratings on Tire Rack. I got them because I wanted to save some tread on my SO3's, and run a better "cold weather" tire during the winter. I never intended to have to go in the snow, and now I will never even think about it.
I never experienced any wet weather problems with my SO3's in the rain.

My tires had 100mi. on them at the time...that must be enough miles to wear off the "mold compound"...right?

Now I understand why many of you warn young (old inexperienced) aggressive drivers about the manners of this car when the turbos kick in.

I was probably not too bright in my aggressive cornering...but I did learn something about my RX7.

Let us know about any "rain" experiences you have had in the RX, and what tires you were using.

Thanks,

Steve

 

My Yokohama AV3's suck in the rain. It's like driving a boat on the freeway if it's raining hard. I get much more wheelspin then with my S03's too. However, I don't think it's a fair comparison because my AV3's are on 18's and my S03's are on the stock 16's. I love the S03's and if they wern't so much $$$ for 18's they would be my next tire.

 

My Toyo T1-S are great in wet. I love them.

 

bridgestone potenzas handle amazing in the rain. You wont be dissapointed.

 

see I had the toyo t1s in the rain and thought they were pathetic and dangerous

now I run with nitto 555 drag radials and I spun my car out about 3 weeks ago going around a long bend in the road ~20-25mph constant speed. a lot of tires blow in the rain...ive been really happy with kumho tires although the dry grip is a compromise.

 

S-03s are great in the rain. I don't know one way or the other about the PZero Rossos.

My first thought was the tire mold release agent, but I agree that 100 miles is probably enough to wear that off. However, it may still be a bit of a factor if you hadn't done any aggressive cornering in that time, since the release agent might still be present around the edges of the tread. Still, I doubt that was a huge factor.

How cold out was it? If the tires are cold they won't stick (particularly true with "performance" tires). If you didn't warm up the tires first, I would expect them to slip and slide all over the place. If it is cold outside, it might take quite a while to warm them up.

-Max

 

temperature in low 50's....tires had been warmed up with about 5 min. of driving time. (I always am aware about warming up my tires)

I probably had not done much aggressive driving during that first 100 miles...

Steve

 

i also think it has somthing to do with the car being rwd and having a good amount of hp.

 

Low temps were probably the largest factor although it really sounds like you need to learn how to drive this car in the rain.....no tire is going to make the car stick in aggressive low-gear manuevers.

 

100 miles isn't very many miles, I'd still expect them to be slightly slippery at that mileage.

 

Less than 100 miles on the tires, chilly and wet out. It's going to be slippery.

 

/\/\/\/\ exactly.

 

I wear Yokohama Advan on the stock 16's and Ive always fealt them to be quite sticky wet or dry...

 

Sorry, but this is a pet-peeve of mine: "Yokohama Advan" does not uniquely identify a tire. What tires are you using?

-Max

 

Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine:
If you drive your car hard on wet roads, you are begging to be involved in an accident. It is easy enough to spin an FD on dry roads. Take it easy when its wet out.

 

well Ive run Advan AO32R compound H and after a few autox events and one trackschool, they were noticably harder, not to mention on a cold day they would never get up to temp on the street.... but man they were nice on hot days.

 

Thanks to all for your comments, and ideas.

I hope to limit this car's time in the rain...and drive with care if I do get caught in the rain.

I am glad to have experienced it's rain behavior.

I will report back with more info. on the M/S P Zero Nero's after they have some more miles on them.

Steve