I have a 2000 C5 but hope to buy a C6 soon. I want to give a safety headsup over what happened to me yesterday during a rain storm. For about an hour or we we were having a steady rain but nothing beyond normal. The road was wet but draining well and everybody on the interstate was cruising a little less than 70 mph.

Looking back now that was too fast on a wet road but we were all going about the same speed. All of a sudden I ran into an intense rain pocket and started hydroplaning for maybe 4 seconds. My Corvette drifted across a half a lane and I didn't regain controll until I rolled over the rumble strip on the shoulder. Good thing I didn't try too hard to steer as I could sense an impending fishtail. My car was sorta yawing about 10 degrees off course just like a boat on the water when it skids!

I have been driving for 43 years and had felt hydroplaning before. Nothing this bad ever has happened before to me. I think the rule is to steer in the direction of the skid until you regain control. It sorta worked for me. And to slow down more in the rain. Our big tires give us a sense of great traction, but trust me nature always wins. Drive safe you hear!

 

Sounds like then same experience I had in my C6 Z51 6 speed on the way back from Vegas this past winter! Scared the heck out of me! Tires were made for dry weather, not for the rain!

 

Runcraps and rain


TRR

 

Their even worse when it's cold and wet.

 

My experience has been that any wide, low profile tire will hydroplane. The runflats seem no better or worse than anything else in this regard.

High performance, summer tires are most susceptible to hydroplaning because of their dry pavement tread designs and lack of adequate sipes for water flow.

 

Any car with wide tires will hydroplane on standing water. I don't see why runflats would be any worse. I don't understand why so many people hate runflats. I've had several cars that have had runflats with slow leaks from nails, and I continued driving until I had time to get them fixed, or when the tire store was open. I see abandoned cars (some very expensive) with flats on the side of the road all the time. Runflats are good! By the way, I encountered a lot of heavy rain on my way home from Bowling Green - no hydroplaning.

 

 

 

Any tire can hydroplane, not just wide, low profile tires. Some are better than others, and some are really bad. I have been on the track with wide, low profile Bridgestone SO2's and Bridgestone SO3 Pole Positions. These are great really tires in the wet!
At Road America last year it was raining so hard that you could hardly see cars 150 feet ahead. I was passing cars on the SO2's that I could never pass in the dry. Conditions got so bad that they finally closed the track. I felt very comfortable with the SO2's. There are some really good rain tires out there, unfortunately both of the Bridgestones I mentioned do not come in sizes for the C6.
The Z51 Goodyear Super Car EMT tires get a lot of wet weather complaints, the standard Goodyear EMT is better but not great. The Michelin PS2's get good reviews but I have never tried these. A lot of people on this forum give the PS2's their top ranking.
While some of these tires are a lot better than others in the wet, in cold weather (around freezing) they all have poor traction.

 

The tires on the z51 ( goodyear eagle f1 supercar emt's) are really not rated that great for wet weather or hydro-resistance.They get a good rating for dry and a really lousy rating for tread wear.I noticed a major improvement in wet weather handling when I switched to non-run-flat fk451.The rating for ps2's in wet weather is also superior.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....h=true&index=1
Here's the Ps2 spec's http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ilot+Sport+PS2
Here's some reviews on the fk 451's http://www.1010tires.com/Falken_GRB_FK-451_tires.html

 

Does anyone know if the tire manufacture's publish a hydroplanning speed for each size tire or give a basic formula to use?

With aircraft tires, we use a good basic rule of thumb that is pretty accurate for standing water .5 inch or less:

7 times the square root of the tire pressure will give you the hydroplanning speed in knots. If you want the result in MPH, multiply by 1.15.

 

That's why I put all-season Michelins PS A/S on my car. I take a hit in dry weather, but don't hydroplane nearly as badly with the wide tires in the plentiful Mobile rain. For the record, I still don't like them as well as the stock GY's on dry pavement, but they seem to connect a little better when wet. Initially regretted the change, but I can drive 10mph faster in standing water now without worry, and that's worth something. Especially here. That said, still don't know if I'd do it again.

 

Ho de phone! You serious or is my math off?!!!

sq. root of 33psi=5/744 x 7 =40.2 x 1.15 =46.2 mph??????

You kidding? How's my math?

 

Yes - ANYTHING w/performance tires can hydroplane. I had awful AWFUL results with an infiniti FX45 - awd suv thing w/performance tires. Eventually got rid of it - lously in snow.

 

Same here, 05 Z-51 much hydroplane
Anything above 55-60 mph feels loose.

 

It probably doesn't need to be said but this forum would be a pretty empty place without people repeating the obvious.

As your tires wear down they will hydroplane at a lower speed or in shallower water. So Brand X may do well when new but could turn into water skies when 1/2 gone.

 

Not Kidding and your math is correct for an aircraft tire (tread pattern) within normal wear limits and .5 inch or less of standing water. Of course the result is a little higher when you have 80 to 100+ psi.

 

I am not sure that formula is applicable to cars. Aircraft tires I have seen do not have much of a tread pattern. Also, tire compound means a lot, that is probably why the Goodyear Super Car tires are so poor in rain and the Bridgestones are so good. The tire mfgs have done a lot of work on tire compounds over the years and this is a major element in determining how a tire performs in wet or dry.
Last year I was hitting 120 mph in heavy rain with a lot of standing water on all three long straightaways at Road America in my Boxster with Bridgestone SO2's, no hint of any hydroplaning. I was doing this lap after lap and was very alert for any hint of hydroplaning, never happened. According to the formula I should have been hydroplaning at about 50 mph. In retrospect I was probably getting too cocky and it was a good thing they closed down the track, but the tires were super in the rain.

 

Don't forget that it's not only the tread and footprint of the tire that needs to be considered, but also tread DEPTH. That's probably more important.




Josh

 

That's a 1/2 inch of standing water which is significant. But his formula is correct. (I have a degree in Aero myself.)