guys,

i don't know how many of you took your cars out on the past wednesday (12th november) when there was heavy rain and wind. i was on the highway and felt the car slipping/tail-wagging like crazy so i had to slow the car down to 70km/h or less. so lucky i didn't crash and kill myself that night. i'm pretty sure tires are the problem here as the SO2's are not much better than racing slicks in the rain... are there any other tires that have better wet/dry performance? if so, what is the compromise in dry conditions?

also, to those who are new with this car and get caught in heavy rain... BE CAREFUL!!!! drive slowly and in the center lane as the roads are biased such that rain runs off to the shoulders so most of the death puddles are on the outer lanes. that night was an eye-opener for me...

 

How worn are your S02's?

I have found S02's to be OUTSTANDING in the rain. As long as you have more than 50% tread left. Believe me ive tracked my car at Shannonville with more rain than we had last week.

Im sure there are others here that would agree with me.

 

Ians dead on.

Its more being familiar with the car and skill I'd say. You're a newbie so you'll get to learn about this. Just don't do it the hard way.

If its raining and you twitch, you're going to tense up and make it worse. You did the right thing and slowed down. Sensible.

The S02's are fantastic in rain and dry.

Like DH says, you know you're getting to your limit when your asshole tightens up....listen to the asshole.

heh

 

as said, anything less then 50% and the SO-2's suck, before that they are freakin awesome..

You just can't mess around.

Also keep in mind, your tire might look alright, but look on the INSIDE of the tire, you might find it completely bald.. as mine were previously and they were deadly!!

The temperature factor also plays a role in grip even on wet roads, but not hydroplaning

 

SO2's are fine in the rain as long as they have some tread and it is fairly warm. I'm not saying they are the best, but they aren't stupid dangerous either. It's just the way the tire was designed, a summer only (rubber hardens quick with lower temp) and optimized for dry traction (OEM special rears with smaller than normal tread gaps). As long as you know that you'll be OK.

SO2's are probably the best dry performance summer tires short of R-compound tires. If you want lesser dry performance for wet consider SO3's or Toyo's. Of course you still would want snow type tires for the winter.

 

Mine are completly bald on the insides.....I dont even risk driving in the rain. It does make for an absolutely amazing drift machine though


alfredo_mancho, best thing for you to do is come with us to SAAB school in the spring. The best investment you'll ever make (I didnt make the last one )

 

indeed, know your limits Fred.. deserted parking lots make great testing grounds..

I, personally am not the biggest s02 fan, as I think I can get greater wear from Kuhmo Ecsta MX's, but that's just my personal choice.

How many km's before that 50% mark ? 10,000km ? 12,000km ? 20,000 km (without tracking it of course)

Regardless, the right thing to do is to SLOW DOWN..

s2ksimon

 

thanks for the replies guys. so the wear indicators on the tire mean 50% tread left? i thought it was more along the lines of 25%. the car has never been tracked and there's about 25000 km on it. i'd say there's about 1mm at most before hitting the wear indicator. it has already hit on other spots, but the wear is still fairly even all around compared to what tugz said about his car.

there's no doubt that i'll be going to saab school next spring/summer, i tried for the oct 10 but i signed up too late and all the spots were taken

anyway, the s02's aren't gonna be in for long. a fresh set of lm22's are on the way and i can't wait to try them out

 

My S02s had less than 50% during both the Saab and Apex schools, both were in the wet...especially the Apex day, so don't worry about the rubber. Like others have said, the trick is listening to what your car is telling you, but it sounds like you were already noticing the back end twitching around - so a good driving school will teach you why it doing it.

BTW, one thing I have learned about driving schools...you can learn a lot more if it's raining!

 

sorry guys, i'm not making myself clear here and it totally sounds like i'm saying the s02's are useless in the rain. they're not ! what was freaking me out that night were the fairly large puddles in the outer lanes. it felt like one side of the car was going over ice for a split second hence the wagging. even driving in the center lane with the rain, the s02's held up just fine since the water distribution was more even there. come to think of it, in the case of the puddles esp the large ones, i don't think any tire would make a big difference maybe with rain tires and the weight of the car.