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It really depends on type of tires as well. If you have Cup tires, horrible for hydroplaning. If you live in an area with a lot of rain, get all weather's. We are in AZ, so the summers are perfect year round.
imho c4 's and up are sailboats in the hard rain my brand new e was no different last week bringing the new car home in florida's rain 55 tops for an hour
That's a fun formula to think about, but doesn't account for tread depth, tread pattern, tire width, what psi the tire is designed for, car weight, weight distribution, road condition or a number of other factors. But in reality if you follow it you'd prob be fine.
That's a fun formula to think about, but doesn't account for tread depth, tread pattern, tire width, what psi the tire is designed for, car weight, weight distribution, road condition or a number of other factors. But in reality if you follow it you'd prob be fine.
Yep, that was from Wickapedia with my inputs. About the "equation" it states:
Tire tread wear: Worn tires will aquaplane more easily for lack of tread depth. Half-worn treads result in aquaplaning about 4.8–6.4 km/h (3–4 mph) lower than with full-tread tires.
Even that is just an indicator. As you state depends on the tread pattern as well. Frankly having had a bad incident that I and the car survived with no harm in ~1968 I promised as I slid from one side of a 3 lane highway to the other IF I got out unharmed (me and the car) I would swap those Inglewood tires from Southern California (where it doesn't rain ) and buy this new tire being advertised, an early radial by Pirelli as I I recall 72. I did that following week. Where the Inglewood tires had a wide tread super in the dry the skinny Pirellis were narrow, fine in rain not so good in dry. When visiting the NY Auto Show saw a new tire from Continental, 714's. It was advertised as great in rain and dry. It had a wide tread but to fit my car I needed Plus 1 wheels. With lots of measurements found wheels that fit. Recall when I bought my new Datsun 260Z the Continental tires on my old car were still good so bought a Minilite tyoe wheels and had the dealer put them the new wheels. But I always buy new tires when the first wear bar shows anywhere on the tread for hydroplaning. Often before one wear bar shows.
at the corvette course at ron fellows they flood a area and have a figure of 8 course and you drive it with weather off which is spin city and on where it is impossible for you to get the car out of shape. if yopur coauhgt in heavy rain slow down put weather mode and on it helps
imho c4 's and up are sailboats in the hard rain my brand new e was no different last week bringing the new car home in florida's rain 55 tops for an hour
Agreed; these cars are not good in heavy rain. Stiff suspension and wide tires are a recipe for disaster. If you have to drive; you are in the danger zone; go slow.
Yep, that was from Wickapedia with my inputs. About the "equation" it states:
Tire tread wear: Worn tires will aquaplane more easily for lack of tread depth. Half-worn treads result in aquaplaning about 4.8–6.4 km/h (3–4 mph) lower than with full-tread tires.
Even that is just an indicator. As you state depends on the tread pattern as well. Frankly having had a bad incident that I and the car survived with no harm in ~1968 I promised as I slid from one side of a 3 lane highway to the other IF I got out unharmed (me and the car) I would swap those Inglewood tires from Southern California (where it doesn't rain ) and buy this new tire being advertised, an early radial by Pirelli as I I recall 72. I did that following week. Where the Inglewood tires had a wide tread super in the dry the skinny Pirellis were narrow, fine in rain not so good in dry. When visiting the NY Auto Show saw a new tire from Continental, 714's. It was advertised as great in rain and dry. It had a wide tread but to fit my car I needed Plus 1 wheels. With lots of measurements found wheels that fit. Recall when I bought my new Datsun 260Z the Continental tires on my old car were still good so bought a Minilite tyoe wheels and had the dealer put them the new wheels. But I always buy new tires when the first wear bar shows anywhere on the tread for hydroplaning. Often before one wear bar shows.
Sometime between 2000 and say 2005, at the recommendation of good ole' Consumer Reports, I switched from my go-to Michelin tires to Pirelli. Those tires hydroplaned like crazy. I later discovered that Consumers had updated their report to show less than stellar performance in the rain for those tires. \
It was a front wheel drive car (a 2000 Cadillac Deville). And the rain was steady, but not heavy, and the road was wet but not flooded by any means. I noticed, in a steady cruise at maybe 60-65, the speedometer started to creep up in speed. The front wheels were spinning! While just going in a straight line at steady speed. Worst tires ever.
Sometime between 2000 and say 2005, at the recommendation of good ole' Consumer Reports, I switched from my go-to Michelin tires to Pirelli. Those tires hydroplaned like crazy. I later discovered that Consumers had updated their report to show less than stellar performance in the rain for those tires. \
It was a front wheel drive car (a 2000 Cadillac Deville). And the rain was steady, but not heavy, and the road was wet but not flooded by any means. I noticed, in a steady cruise at maybe 60-65, the speedometer started to creep up in speed. The front wheels were spinning! While just going in a straight line at steady speed. Worst tires ever.
Were those Pirelli tires Scorpions? I had a set on my 2010 Toyota Venza that were "eco" tires--lots of plastic, and they would spin if the road surface was wet when I accelerated from a stop light. But they did last almost 60,000 miles. I replaced them with the same brand but the newer Scorpions have less plastic, and they don't spin like the first set did. Got 40k on them so far and lots of tread left.
Were those Pirelli tires Scorpions? I had a set on my 2010 Toyota Venza that were "eco" tires--lots of plastic, and they would spin if the road surface was wet when I accelerated from a stop light. But they did last almost 60,000 miles. I replaced them with the same brand but the newer Scorpions have less plastic, and they don't spin like the first set did. Got 40k on them so far and lots of tread left.
That's a fun formula to think about, but doesn't account for tread depth, tread pattern, tire width, what psi the tire is designed for, car weight, weight distribution, road condition or a number of other factors. But in reality if you follow it you'd prob be fine.
Turns out most of those values are unimportant, assuming the liquid is water and the depth is greater than the tread depth.
The unreduced version of the formula is MUCH longer.
It should be pointed out that the hydroplaning speeds obtained from equations (3) and (4) are valid for smooth and closed pattern tread tires which do not allow escape paths for water, and for rib tread tires on fluid covered runways where the fluid depth exceeds the groove depths in the tread of these tires. Little quantitative data are yet available on the hydroplaning speeds for rib tread tires on fluid covered runways where the fluid depth is less than the groove depth of the tread.
Correlation of hydroplaning speed, as determined by means of equation (4), with available experimental data is shown in figure 4. Note that the calculated hydroplaning speeds of equation (4) are in reasonable agreement with the experimental hydroplaning speeds obtained for a variety of tire sizes having a vertical load range from 925 to 22,000 pounds and an inflation pressure range from 24 to 150 pounds per square inch.
Here are some #'s: Pirelli full wet tire in Formula 1, when running at 300km/h (186 mph), can displace approximately 85 liters of water per second (~22 gallons per second.)
I get the PSI relationship. Makes sense as the contact patch is optimized at the proper PSI.
I also know the best rain tires I ever used on any of the two previous vettes all had one thing in common: complete and unobstructed side drainage of the footprint. The tradeoff was always noise! I have never driven on Michelin's in the wet on a vette. I suspect that they are good as the Pilot Sports were a fav among my C5 & C6 buddies back in the 2000's.
I also know that now that I have a C8 (I got mine used) I intend to use Weather mode in the wet.
I have experienced a world of handling difference in heavy rain with changes to A/S tires from the original Max Performance Summer tires for my Z cars. Lose some tread on those Max tires and I found myself having to drive 20 mph slower on the freeways. Very scary slippery. Drive the A/S tires in heavy rain is no sweat but watch out for any ponding to be safe.
I'll share this for the fun of it.
Our Corvette club decided to go to Bowling Green Ky about 200 miles for the "Corvette King of the Bend". This happened many years ago. I could not store my slicks, so I just drove up there with them on the car. What could possibly go wrong. Long story short, got caught in the rain and at 45 mph my back end was all over the place. I don't like going that slow on the interstate. I didn't think it would be that bad, but it completely freaked out my wife and me too for that matter. It was like driving on ice! It rained for most of the trip. What was really bad, I was lead car for our corvette club. They saw my problem and hung with me.
My Street Rod is worse then my Vettes, which were not good in wet (except my AWD E-Ray which is great.) A few years ago I had promised a Car Club I would bring my ProStreet Rod to a new Show venue. There was light rain and just before I reached the Show location had to go over a step up and down overpass over I95. Didn't think much about it, as I take it all the time with the Vette. But it started to slide sideways going up. Had to slow to a Crawl.
Yep 16.5 inch section width Micky Thompsons not good on cool wet morning!
On the way home from the Museum (R8C), we came upon a nasty storm in Colorado; wind and rain. The wind was blowing a three-trailer UPS truck all over the interstate. I waited and chose my opportunity to pass.
After passing, the highway changed from level pavement to a ~15 degree incline. Unforeseen, there was huge pond at the bottom of the hill. The steering wheel went limp and the back end drifted, but only for a moment. Almost instantly, the C8 stability control took over and drove us out of trouble. To this day, the Bride boasts that the C8 saved our lives.
At the top of the hill, there were 20 or 30 cars pulled off to the side of the road. Some were probably collecting themselves. My guess is that others were changing underwear.
Hydroplaning
) and buy this new tire being advertised, an early radial by Pirelli as I I recall 72. I did that following week. Where the Inglewood tires had a wide tread super in the dry the skinny Pirellis were narrow, fine in rain not so good in dry. When visiting the NY Auto Show saw a new tire from Continental, 714's. It was advertised as great in rain and dry. It had a wide tread but to fit my car I needed Plus 1 wheels. With lots of measurements found wheels that fit. Recall when I bought my new Datsun 260Z the Continental tires on my old car were still good so bought a Minilite tyoe wheels and had the dealer put them the new wheels. But I always buy new tires when the first wear bar shows anywhere on the tread for hydroplaning. Often before one wear bar shows.
