My son and I run Hoosiers on Monza wheels but would like a Plan B for the occasional wet course in Houston (even though it rains a lot here, luckily, our course is usually dry). In any case, my question is this: What "rain tire" that would fit on the stock 15" hollies is recommended? Given that these tires probably will see little use, investing in another set of legal 16" rims does not seem cost effective. The goal, of course, is to have better traction in the wet than with the Hoosiers.

 

My recommendation would be a set of full tread Kumho V700's. They have always been considered the best of the R tires for standing water.

 

Hoosier Radial wets!! without question. However, they will wear very quickly if it drys.

 

How much water is too much water for Hoosiers?

 

Simple wetness is fine for Hoosiers that are aired down. Once the puddles come out, that's when you have problems. If there are no puddles, you simply want the stickiest tire possible, grooves or not.

For the deep rain? No doubt in my mind, Toyo RA-1's. Deepest grooves, still get sticky, and seeing as how my co-driver and I had the fastest FIRST runs in the pouring rain at Nationals, my guess is they work well. My co-driver ended up in second because of his rain runs.
I vote against the V700 in the deep water, take a look at the tread next to a Toyo sometime and you'll see why I say that. The V700 is not deep AND does not fully exit to the side from the center grooves.
Now, if you REALLY want to be set up, have a set of dry's, V700's as intermediates, and RA-1's as deep water's.

Don't get me wrong, Hoosier Wets SHOULD be the best, but I haven't seen anything good on a MINI yet. The Alan/McCrispin car ran them at Nats, but they were quite a fat set (225/50R16). We were much faster than them on the first run, but there are plenty of other variables.

An advantage to the RA-1's over the Hoosier wets is that you can sell them to any autocrosser if you don't use them much. Trying to get rid of the Wet Radials is going to be difficult, likely requiring a National autocrosser.
In your situation, the Toyo's are cheaper and easily re-sold if you want.


Brian
(who will be buying another set of RA-1's this year)

 

Thanks for the input, all. What about the stock 15" wheel issue? What size will fit? Or is it a waste of time to try to use the hollies in the first place? As a practical matter, we will need two sets of mounted tires to deal with dry/puddled conditions.

 

Stock 15's would make a perfect rain tire wheel. Most of the tires are available in a 205/50R15, that's all you'd need. Heck, you almost want the skinniest you can get, so if there are any 195 or 185's, you'll want to consider them.

So you know, the factory Continental tire is incredible in the pooring rain. Marshall Cone, my co-driver from 2002, is simply going to run a fresh set of them this year for rains. He did it with a worn and hard set in 2003 at Petersburg and kept up with Chang Ho Kim on Hoosier Dirt Stockers.

Marshall and I have run them in the past and gotten FTD and pooring rain events as well. Mash your foot to the floor and simply steer with those tires.

Brian

 

Thanks for the info, Brian. I never would have thought the stock 15 inchers had any potential for autocrossing.

 

NSXguy - PM'd you Derek

 

The Hoosier wets are now available in a 205/50/15...

 

Brian,
I'm running a baseline of 53 f 48 r. Would 5 pounds all around do the trick? It doesn't rain around here enough to get a chance to play with pressures. I just want to be semi prepared when it does.

 

Well, when I won the Altanta Pro in 40 degree rain on the R3S03's, the tires were below 30 psi... There WAS standing water at that event as well.
I ran against people with V700s, Street tires, and Dirt Stockers at that event.

By lowering the pressure, you keep the car from loosing grip as quickly as well as significantly heating up the tires.
Brian