I'm getting very frustrated with my car. We've had 5 events and 2 were full downpour events. I've place next to last and mid pack respectively. My car just does not want to go fast in the rain. I know it's not me since I jumped in someone else's car and beat my own time and almost tied the owner.

My setup:
205/50x15" Azenis (almost new, almost full tread - 2 autocrosses), 15x7" Kosei K1s, 350f/400r Ground Control springs, Koni Yellows, Skunk2 camber arms (-2.7 front), Ingalls rear camber kit (-2.0 rear), ES suspension bushing kit, and Neuspeed rear strut bar.

The course:
weather was in the 70s, course was DRENCHED all day. Asphalt is cured. We haven't run on the lot since last month.

I tried everything:
1st run 38f/34r, shocks all soft - 36.1
2nd run 36f/32r, shocks all soft - 35.8
3rd run 35f/31r, shocks all soft - 35.7
4th run 35f/31r, 1/2 turn front, 1 turn rear on shocks - 36.9
5th run 38f/34r, shocks all soft - 35.7

Then on my fun runs:
1st run 42f/38r, shocks all soft - 35.9
2nd run 41f/35r, shocks all soft - 35.3
3rd run 40f/35r, 1/2 turn front, 1 turn rear - 35.7

So what's going on here? I keep hearing you should go down in pressures when it rains. But when I increased my pressures my car was a bit easier to turn (now I admit NOT great, but turned better than before).

In the dry I get my competitors by at least 1/2 second consistently. But in the rain I loose bad.

Thanks!
Mike

 

What was the winning STS time?
How does the car drive? Loose or understeer city? What are your dry pressures?

 

Tires. Gotta be the tires.

 

Yeah, ive heard nothing but bad reviews on the tires in rain regardless of how much tread you have.

 

I don't know mike, I'd like to say that a higher tire pressure would have helped but that doesn't explain how it was a half sec off in the dry too. ofcourse this means I have to learn a rain dance if I wanna beat your times.

Your fastest run was at your highest pressure so pump em up more and see what happens. Also were you full tanking it today?

you might wanna consider putting your old tires on for nationals. since that is all you changed.

Aaron

 

since ive been in the market for azenis, i did a good bit a research on them and while they are great dry preformers, they just dont do well when the whole course is drenched. supposedly a puddle or wet spot here and there wont hurt it but when its all wet theyre not that great.
dont feel bad i sucked it up at my autox today too.....guess my car just didnt like the course.

 

Howdy Aaron One of the guys who beat me

Ok got some good answers on HT.com.

One guy brought up CAMBER again. And then I thought about higher tire pressures and this got me thinking. I have alot of negative camber, right? So when you add more air pressure you bring the middle of the tire out a bit more than usual. So this makes more of a contact patch then lets say letting out air where now you are really on the inner sidewall. Kinda got it?

So anyway the Azenis in the rain is no problem for those guys who doubt me. I drove to the event and back on my Azenis in a monsoon at 80mph and I was fine. People who've been telling you horror stories about the Azenis in the rain either, don't have the correct alignment, or their tires are bald - which by the way ANY tire that is near bald will also hydroplane - duh!

 

Your research didn't pull up the people who use these for a purpose though.

In the dry my car is setup pretty well. I've tried so many alignments on my car to get it right. I write down surface temps, air temps, humidity, my pressures on each run, my shock settings on each run, etc...

 

The car is setup neutral. People who've driven my car have said the same thing; easy to drive, car rotates nicely.

My dry pressures are about 38-40 fronts and 34-30 rears. Last year it used to be 38-40 fronts and 45-50 rears, but I was getting snap oversteer in slaloms and hard transistions.

 

was it hard to get a neutral set-up? because mine pushes like no other. but then again its stock and thats what its supposed to do.