I was very surprised this weekend by the amazing level of performance a number of us got from well worn S02's in the rain. When I arrived at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) to rain filled weekend with only 5/32nds on my year old S02's. I had a low level of confidence in these much maligned tires and was ready for slow going or even sitting out much of the event.

Fortunately my instructor for the weekend (board member Allan Haggai ) had brought his S2000 with nearly bald stock S02's. These tires had maybe 1/64th tread on them. We did a few orientation laps in his car and I was truly shocked by their wet weather performance. He braked only 10-15% early and the corners were nearly as fast.

I went out on my old balding S02's with renewed confidence. Except for one very quick hydroplaning incident, I ran over 3 hours of high speed, wet track time with no problems. As Alan told me, if you drive smoothly and don't do anything stupid you'll have no problems with S02's in the wet.

Board member Sexton was also there on 6,000+ mile S02's with about 5/32nds of tread on them. He was also cutting very fast laps with no problems. Of the 100 cars there, 15-20 cars spun off last weekend with 6-8 hitting the barriers. But the 5 S2000's there stayed on the road throughout.

My new feeling is that the OEM S02's have a much poorer rain reputation that they deserve.

 

Mikey,

At the raceway...you must have been haulling ass down wet pavement...but you probably didn't hit too many big ass puddles.

The friction between the tire and road surface is reduced when the road surface is wet. But, if there is a long puddle of water and you are traveling at a good speed...you will loose your road holding.

What I am saying is that you can be driving on wet pavement with no tread and you will never hydroplane.

 

Sorry but I don't believe that for a second. I just changed my original "S02's" with 17K miles only because they became VERY dangerous in the rain. Fronts were fine (lots of tread) but the backs were looking a little thin in the middles.

One day I turned onto the highway in a mild rain. Running at 55-60 mph in a straight line under NO aceleration whoosh!!!! my ass-end jerked sideways with relatively no resistance forcing a loss of traction. My first thought was oil patch? Guess what? After that I was very caustious not knowing what caused it. Another few miles up the road it happened again. D-A-N-G-E-R!!! Needless to say I slowed to approx. 45-mph and ordered new tires that same night (Tire rack). From a glance the tires looked fine. I even ran them through a inspection station just weeks before and they passed.

When they get worn.... replace them or you may find yourself in a accident and a wrecked S2!

 

I think MIKEY likes everything.

I changed my OEM tires at 12k because the rain I drove through made the rear-end really upredicatable. I've got the Michelin Pilot Sports now and can fly through the rain without hydroplaning.

Worn OEM TIRES are dangerous in the rain period.

 

You cannot rely on being smooth on the street. I'm happy to hear the track event went without incident for you but I wouldn't share the same confidence in less "controlled" conditions. At 12K my rear OEM S-02's were very dangerous in the rain and were replaced. My fronts were replaced only today approaching 24K. I'm on my third set of rears as of today.
My experience with the OEM S-02 is fairly commonplace. Anything after 8K is on the downhill side when wet. As the tire approaches 12K and hardens with heat cycles, the stickiness of the tire is gone although plenty of tread may remain.

Use your best judgement and be safe.

 

As Phantom mentioned, there is a big difference between driving on a wet surface and driving on a surface with some standing water. We're in the wet season in Florida now and the SO2s on my car with about 6-7/32 left work very well at slow speeds, but will hydroplane at higher speeds (generally above 60 mph). When it is cold and wet, the SO2s don't perform as well, even when the road surface is wet without standing water.

Be careful! There was a group of postings warning about wet performance of the SO2s soon after the S2000 debuted, mostly on the highway at higher speeds.

 

Mine was terrible on wet roads with the S02s. Replaced them at 15000 miles with S03s..No comparison. I will stick with S03s in the future. No hydroplaning whatsoever so far for 7 weeks daily driving with heavy rains.

 

I'm in agreement with the others. Heck, my rear SO-2's were not even good on dry pavement after 8000 miles or so. The outer tread is much softer, and after the tires wear into the harder tread, the rear breaks away much easier. Also, typically, the front tires wear much more on the inner surface than the outer. I have 14, 000 on my fronts and will probably replace them in the next month or so. Replace them with what??? OEM SO-2's because there isn't anything out there as good for dry pavement, and I will just take it easy on the wet days.

 

I agree, really worn SO2's on the HW are dangerous!!!


I've gone through 2 sets of rears and you can tell on the wet roads that there is nearly no traction when they get really worn. I've nearly lost it several times at highway speeds, the rear totally breaks free at much over 45mph in heavy rains with bad tires.....don't keep really worn tires on your car unless you want to do some serious body work soon!!

 

I don't discount the fact that my experience was on a warm 70 degree day. In fact, Bridgestone tire engineers have told me that cold is more the enemy of these tires than rain. And I'll certainly be rid of these tires before the cold weather comes. But nonetheless, a number of us had good experiences using well worn S02's in the rain.

I'd have to disagree with you Svann, I think you can be just as smooth driving on the street as you can on the track.