Given
57%
while driving a
Lotus
(225/45 R17) on
mostly country roads
for 1,000
spirited miles
Rainsports always seem to get great reviews so I thought I would give them a go as more of an experiment really than anything else,a full set not being that expensive. The main reason I decided to try them being I was I was after a softer compound tire.
The car they were being fitted to does minimal mileage and as a result the recommend tires go 'off' really quite alarmingly,maybe 18 months before the compound starts to harden with no amount of heat cycles bringing them back. Pretty much within the first 5 miles of driving you can figure these rainsport tires out. First thing is yes,they are soft,it's a wet bias tire so to be expected,but I then remembered having an early version of rainsports fitted it a car years previously and I had forgotten how much the mass of the car floats on the tread blocks when steering is applied. It reminds me of really bad winter tires. The result is you tend to make two inputs to any corners when you're travelling at any reasonable speed,not a good feeling because you get the initial load from turning in then a split second later you get a 2nd load as the mass of the car catches up when the tread block settles down,the best way I can describe it is as if someone is nudging the side of the car part way through a corner,very unnerving and you're almost waiting for the inevitable following oversteer. The result is turn-in on the car has all but vanished with this tread block/side wall movement (to be fair to fit this tire to the front of this vehicle a higher aspect ratio has to be used so that doesn't help the side wall movement) It was a warmish day they were fitted and the road surfaces around the area where quite polished,the result was quite a lot of chirruping from the fronts when braking with even moderate force. This did disappear on rougher surfaces but braking distances have markedly increased in the dry with some instances where I was thinking this car isn't going to stop on some heavy braking. What these tires are good at is wet conditions not surprising really I guess,it's probably why they are used as 'wets' by a lot of club racers. That tread block then comes into its own clearing standing water extremely well and wet braking is very good.
I've covered about 1000 miles with half of that at decent speeds and heavy braking and they do seem to be changing their character slightly,the secondary movement on turn-in has reduced quite a lot but it's still present and feed back is as vague as ever. As an experiment they weren't a success so they will be coming off shortly.