Assume the car won't hold and the tires aren't going to stick in the rain and you should be all set or correct.

 

Accept the reality. Your tail will step out one way or the other. There is nothing wrong about the car or the tires(unless they are bald and under/over inflated).

It is a light weight FR car, it supposes to rotate more easily than other types of cars.

With all that said. Spin out is no fun.

 

Reading through this thread makes me believe that some of you should not be driving in any conditions in any car.

 

It does give one pause to wonder sometimes, doesn't' it?

Having said that, I'll probably be the next one to roll it up in a ball so I'm trying real hard not to sit in judgment. Well, not too much anyway!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Maybe steve c will be the next one to stack it up

 

 

In the short time I've been on the boards, I've seen a ton of threads about driving this car in the rain. I'll admit, it had me wondering if there was some sort of problem with the car that I wasn't aware of... but I'm glad to say that there isn't.

If anyone here lives in the mid-atlantic or northeast area (I'm sure plenty of you do) then you know about the tropical depression that just blew through the region Friday and Saturday. Well, I've only been driving my AP2 for about a month, and since it is my daily driver, I had to drive it in the rain. And it was pouring for about 36 hours straight. I had no troubles at all. Didn't slide, didn't fishtail, nothing.

I'm absolutely convinced that tires make ALL the difference on wet condition handling, just like with any other car. Maybe people need to realize that having tires in good condition are more important on this car than maybe other cars they have driven.

 

Sounds as if your experience is similar to mine.

So, perhaps, as fire-starter, I can turn this thread into something constructive. Because the tires seem to be such a significant factor in all this, and because the AP2 RE-050s seem to be such a big improvement over those that came on the AP1s, what's a good choice for RE-050 replacement that will improve wet handling even more?

(Yeah, xviper, tongue-in-cheek, suggested TripleTreds; and, yeah, there's a whole board devoted to this topic. But what the hell.)

I think I'm going to try Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3s when my RE-050s wear out (or wear down significantly). I had a good experience with them as summer tires on an STi, in both dry and wet conditions.

And I'm thinking that 255s on the rear (with, maybe, 225s on the front) plus a Yellow Box to get the speedo right might be worth a shot. The choice of the fronts may change, though, pending a re-reading of all the stuff about contact-patch aspect ratios. HPH

 

I had a scare with S02 once. Tires quickly came off of my wheels. Sold it for $400 and picked up RE750s and now I am on second set. Contemplating whether to go on to third set.

Wet traction is phenomenal, dry traction is as good. Much more communicative and audiable which gives me great sense of control and it does help at the point of diminishing talent. Tracked these tires for second season. Tread lasts longer than I had anticipated. 5 track events this year and I still have about 4-5k miles left on the tires.

Alignment makes huge difference as I learned more so than anything I've done to my car. Tires, as long as the stagger ratio is correct and threads are new, every day drive shouldn't be an issue. I think people are just finicky although all they need is 6/10th of capability. Also they senslessly wish for their beloved roadster to perform the same way whether it is sunny and dry or wet and cold out.

In retrospect, I wasn't as prepared and educated as I am now back then
So tires weren't the issue. Never was...and never is...and never will be. But I believed they were so sold it and started learning to drive all over again with less grippier tire.

What limits the car from reaching its capability isn't the car or the tires. It is the driver. Limit changes. It is variable. As tire wears, as weather changes and road condition changes, the limit changes too. Understanding this and driving the car accordingly is driver's duty.

Same car, same set up and two different drivers in different level of driving skills. We will see two different outcome when they are pushed to their limit.
Point being, sometimes, all the gadgets in the world won't save a person from spinning and crashing their cars. Driver education is that important.

I see people spending thousands of dollars on mods that really doesn't do much except makes the car look more racy, loud and fast straight yet people don't even spend $300 on themselves to become a better driver.

Look, we can discuss this rain/tire issue all day long but the real issue here is the driver. The driver who ignores less than optimal tread dept, the driver who ignores adverse weather condition, the driver who does not change their driving characteristics depending on road conditions, the drivers who doesn't understand the simple physics of driving a tightly balanced rwd sports car like S2000.
Not sure whatelse do we have to discuss here.

 

Actually, I find the CAR very easy to drive safely on wet and other slick surfaces. Unlike many performance cars, the s2k can be accelerated very gently, if the driver wishes due to slick surfaces or $3.50 gas! Some s2k reviews say "It feels like a Civic unless pushed", and indeed the CAR can be driven just like a Civic with similar wet-road handling. Perhaps maybe a bit better, as torque steer has a bad habit of raising its ugly head in even the best FWD cars like the Civic.

The wet-handling problem (that has been discussed and cussed on this board for years) stems not from the CAR from the fact that Honda sells this car with performance tires that are not "all-season" with no all-season tire option. While Honda worked with Bridgestone to design the SO2 as the best PERFORMANCE tire for this car, Honda did no similar work to develop the optimum all-season tire for it. We owners who want or need all-season tires have been left to ask questions and guess. The Tire Rack forum on this board is full of this stuff. The SO2 will behave itself in the wet for only about 10K miles of wear (if you are lucky) and the AP1 versions are the worst at this. After this point, the SO2 would have poor wet traction, even if mounted on a Civic.

So if you want or need to drive your s2k on wet and other slick surfaces, there are two answers First, use some common sense, and adjust your speed, cornering, and following distance as you would in any other car. Second, if you have SO2's and want to keep using them, change them out frequently. Otherwise, change to an all-season performance tire.


Thanks,
Richard