[AlanBDahl]

It appears there is a 100% chance of rain for our first event of the season on Sunday. Is there any consensure about whether the stock Bridgestones or my new sticker DII’s would be better in this condition? We’re talking Seattle here so we won’t get buckets of the stuff but it’s likely to be slow and steady the whole day through. I run in the first and coldest group if that makes any difference.

P.S. What about running with ECS or TCS on? Has anyone tried that in the rain?

 

[RodMoe]

I would put the DZ's on and go out and scuff them in to get that newness off then use them in the damp. They do rather well in the wet last year on my FRS and I have no feel for the Bstones So maybe they are as good..

 

[wash]

My first autocross was wet in the morning but not terribly cold.

The stock tires handled that surprisingly well.

I didn't experiment with turning TC off until later.

 

[Mightymango]

The Toyo R1R are very popular around here in the cold/rainy conditions. You could still use them this year with the 140TWR but they would not work next year in ST/Stock running.

 

[AlanBDahl]

The ZIIs worked pretty well in the rain after the first couple of runs but I still decided that it was best to run in sport mode. I managed to win (by just 0.003) so that combination worked ok but I do wonder if different tires would have been even better.

 

[EBinVA]

The ZIIs worked pretty well in the rain after the first couple of runs but I still decided that it was best to run in sport mode. I managed to win (by just 0.003) so that combination worked ok but I do wonder if different tires would have been even better.

I'm curious about running with sport mode on... what did it do to help you? I tend to sit very firmly on the "ESC/TSC is bad, it doesn't know what I'm trying to do and it gets in the way" side of things so I have a hard time imaging a scenario where an unpredictable intervention/interruption of my inputs would be helpful. Maybe I don't fully understand how the car behaves in sport mode compared to having traction control all the way on.

 

[AlanBDahl]

The Fiesta's sport mode is pretty smart, unlike my Solstice it doesn't get confused and through up its arms and go into limp mode when autocrossing. The main advantage is that it can apply the brakes one wheel at a time to keep the rear end from stepping out. I'm sure it would get in the way in conditions where it's not soaking wet but it worked well in this case.

 

[EBinVA]

Gotcha, I just assumed is was about the same as VW's ESP which is absolutely terrible in the same way as how you describe the Solstice's system. It would just freak out like OMG WE GONNA DIE! and put the brakes on, basically killing any hope of making the car something useful. The test and tune I'm heading to on Saturday looks like it's going to be nice in the morning and then could rain in the afternoon so I may get a chance to check out what happens in the wet with the Fiesta.

 

[Purepump]

I rode on stock 050A's and walked all over more powerful Fords on the rainy day. Sport mode flared better than TC on.

 

[WScottCross]

My best run at Pungo was the one that i forgot to turn off TC. One run is hardly significant, but it does show that it doesn't get in the way as much as we might expect. Eric is a great driver, and smoked my times, even though my car had more upgrades, proving that upgrading the wingnut behind the wheel is the most important thing. He was running much higher rear tire pressures, which I want to try at my next event.