Improving wet traction

[Skelshy]

I started with a 2022 ecoboost premium. Came with Achilles StreetHawk Sport "Ultra-High Performance All-Season" tires on 235/18/50 I think.
Monroney says 3.31 axle ratio, no mention of limited slip

Problem: I live in the Pacific Northwest, where the streets are often wet. I can gently drift this car around a street corner at quarter throttle and the rear end will still be wiggly on a freeway on-ramp at half throttle. I've also had the car going sideways doing a left turn on a road that had a center turning lane and that was pretty sudden (maybe the road was uneven)

What's the best approach to make this better? I don't mind a little fun but sometimes it feels my Pathfinder (with it's Falken Wildpeaks) has better traction.

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[rxryanm]

Better tires. I wouldn't put crappy Achilles on my lawn mower.

 

[GrabberBargeCaptain]

Get some actual good tires? I've never even heard of that brand.

 

[Skye]

I did a search for Achilles StreetHawk tires. The large vendors, like Discount Tire and others, do not carry the brand; that's something of a tell by itself. The vendors that do carry Achilles, they sell more value brands than quality or performance.

Look into the A/S offerings by Continental and Michelin; they each offer performance A/S tires that receive great compliments and ratings here. Either brand would be a great choice.

Depending on the wear of the existing tires, it might be worthwhile to check the alignment.

With the new tires, confirm they are set at the correct, cold pressure. Check your pressure gauge vs. the TPMS system that is accurate and the two are tracking one another.

Once you have that sorted, see how things are. Afterwards, you can consider other upgrades or changes.

I'm attaching the technical specifications for the 2022 Model Year.

The 2022 EcoBoost came standard with a 3.31 Limited Slip differential.

 

[skinnyb]

I third the tires. Really good all season tires will make a world of difference (IE Continental DWS 06+ or Michelin Pilot All Season 4)... I have ran them both and aside from a few dollars price difference, they both are excellent.

 

[paulm1]

get wider tires in a good all season brand. I have a '21 GT I drive year round in NE PA. The stock pirelli P0 255's were actually pretty good in the rain.

 

[ORRadtech]

Your tires are your connection to the road. Crappy tires have crappy connections.
So, like everyone else, I'm going to say get new, good tires.
I'm currently running Continental DWSs and they are great. Very solid and are wearing much better than the P Zero's it came with.
I know tires are a big expense so if you have to wait a bit then when the weather is bad toggle the mode switch to the wet/snow position. It will put the nannies in some kind of hyper mode and dumb down the throttle response. It's not really fun to drive in that mode but it's better than getting up close and personal with something solid.

 

[robvas]

I did a search for Achilles StreetHawk tires. The large vendors, like Discount Tire and others, do not carry the brand; that's something of a tell by itself. The vendors that do carry Achilles, they sell more value brands than quality or

to be fair, discount does carry a bunch of crappy tires

they sell Corsa which are made by the same people as Achilles so it's kind of weird that they don't also sell those

but it is more of a hood tire shop brand, or Walmart-amazon type thing

 

[Weyland-Yutani]

A hundred years ago, I had a 240SX. It was only 150hp or so but you could break the rear loose pretty much any time you wanted. Good tires or not.

I mean sure, get the best tires you can, but you still have a powerful car that will demand restraint at times.

 

[LDHunter]

The Pirellis that came with my GTCS were incredibly poor. 4 times they hydroplaned on me and twice I was almost completely sideways before I got it straightened out and at 70MPH on an interstate that ain't fun. Dry pavement traction was poor as well.

After 20K miles on them I simply couldn't get behind the wheel without getting nervous especially in the rain so I went to Discount Tire and got some Michelin Pilot Sport tires and problem instantly solved. These are GREAT tires.

 

[GTP]

I put on the new Conti ECS 02 summer tires on my car in July. In August I went to a new-to-me track and the first session was wet. I was passing everyone else while I learned the track! (Of course they may have been running track tires instead of summers...)

 

[junits15]

DWS06+ best all round tire I've used to date. Don't expect miracles in snow or ice, but rain, hot and cold are all exceptional. The summer performance is startlingly close to a dedicated summer tire. Wet performance is great, very stable and gives good confidence. They wont surprise you with any accidental drifts.

I daily drive my car, its really impressive how far all season tires have come.

 

[Bluemustang]

Just fitted DWS06+ tires and they're very capable in the wet. Very impressed by this tire.

 

[Keeffa]

Stop the hop kit helps.

 

[WildHorse]

Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 has incredible traction in the wet. My Perelli P-Zero A/s were also very good in the wet.

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