Tires for wet and cool lapping days?

A track in my area runs lapping days all year round, and around here our normal winters are mild (highs in the mid30s to high40s usually) and pretty wet. Does anyone have experience running such events in cool and wet weather, related to tire choice? I've got a set of DWS 06 on my factory PP wheels, and a set of MPSS ready to go onto another set of wheels when they show up. Will a real summer tire get warm enough on a track in cold and wet weather, or would a good all season actually be a better choice?

Really high hysteresis tires will still get hot but you would definitely need some tread to handle the water. You would need a very agressive (soft) compound though. Otherwise something like a 220 treadwear autocross tire like an re-71R might be a good solution.

EcoBlue68 said:

Really high hysteresis tires will still get hot but you would definitely need some tread to handle the water. You would need a very agressive (soft) compound though. Otherwise something like a 220 treadwear autocross tire like an re-71R might be a good solution.

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So are you saying the MPSS would likely get warm enough, but wouldn't likely be able to handle a lot of water?

They will be fine. Just take some time to build them up to temperature if your new to driving. The rubber on tires have something called a "glass transistion temperature" This basically means that the rubber acts like a solid compound with minimum grip until you reach a certain temperature. Typically the softer compound race tires have a lower transition temperature. The more aggressive the tire the better, although they generate almost no grip until you get them up to temp. Some race teams that are atune to this piece of knowledge know that you should never drop,bounce or roll race tires along pit road as they are at a low temp and micro cracks can actually form on the surface of the tire in these conditions, which basically hurts the grip and overall life of the tire.

In short just about any tire will work well as long as your aggressive enough as a driver to get them up to temperature. If your running in the wet then obviously you need decent water wicking tread patterns. The harder the compound (the higher the tread wear number) the less grip the tire has overall.

Personally Id run some re-71R's or re-11's but you could even run hand grooved hoosiers if your a pro

Thanks for the info. I probably can't convince my wife I need a third set of wheels and tires right now, but if I can get the PSS up to a reasonable temperature I'm ok sticking with them for now. I've got a little track experience, just nothing in the colder and wetter weather.

Nine said:

So are you saying the MPSS would likely get warm enough

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They will. Might take a couple of laps, though. By the end of the session they absolutely will be singing to you in the corners. Maybe a good thing is you'll be less likely to overheat them. I've tracked on mine at temperatures at least down in the very low 40°'s.

but wouldn't likely be able to handle a lot of water?

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Actually, they're pretty good as rain tires even in heavy rain. About 2" of the wet stuff fell that day. Session was abbreviated because of a 4-off that happened shortly after the spin you'll see at around 11:00.

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Norm

Norm Peterson said:

They will. Might take a couple of laps, though. By the end of the session they absolutely will be singing to you in the corners. Maybe a good thing is you'll be less likely to overheat them. I've tracked on mine at temperatures at least down in the very low 40°'s.



Actually, they're pretty good as rain tires even in heavy rain. About 2" of the wet stuff fell that day. Session was abbreviated because of a 4-off shortly after the spin you'll see at around 11:00.




Norm

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Thank you.