Please excuse if this Question has been discussed before. At what speed will the S2000 start to hydroplane during a medium rainstorm on stock tires with medium wear on them?

 

That's going to be a little hard to answer since peoples opinions will differ on what a medium rainstorm and medium wear are. I can tell you from personal experience that once the rear tires have extreme wear (well past the wear bars and look almost like slicks) I had problems with hydroplaning above 40 mph or so. I got new tires put on the rear this weekend and the tread difference between the old and new is so great that you would think you were looking at two different types of tires.

 

Hydroplaning can happen at as slow as 35 mph. It all depends on the amount of water on the road and the tire's ability to "cut through" it. The stock S02s in the rear provide VERY POOR hydroplaning resistance even when new.

 

Wireguy, That is too hard to answer but I have a lot of calls where the car gets very twitchy in the rain at about 4/32" tread depth.

Jim

 

Wireguy, I just ordered a set of S03's from Tirerack for this reason. I was just approaching the wear bars on my OEM S02's when we had some rain showers last weekend. Hitting any standing water whether it was an eighth inch deep or more caused my rear end to get very twitchy - much like hitting little patches of ice. Not worth it to try and get the last 500 miles out of the S02's. IMO if you live where it rains a fair amount get the S03, ES 100, etc.

 

My thinking is that the whole point is never to find the hydroplane point.

drive slower than you feel is necessary in the wet and keep good tires on your car. You live to see another day.

works for me.

 

I agree

 

I found the KDW to be a pretty good wet tire... fair dry tire, but alot of work in the twisties.

For summer, I'll be on S0-3s

 

Tires typically hydroplane at a speed of 8.7 times the square root of the tire pressure.

 

I hate to be the consumate scientist but can you provide proof. that would be a cool fact to know if I could just accept it through understanding.