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Slicks on the Road and in the Rain

Drag tires
Posted October 24 2008 06:28 AM by KevinDiOssi 
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Kevin DiOssi

Learning something about tires....the hard way.


I, like many others, drive their "race car" to the track. I began racing on a DOT Drag Radials several years ago to achieve an extra bit of traction. Once I realized how much there was to gain by just adding some sticky tires, I figured it was time to step things up. I moved on to Micky Thompson ET Streets then ET Drags, a full-on race slick.

Well this would eventually come back to bite me the rear end since I live in Florida. Here in Tampa, we benefit from some of the poorest educated meteorologists in the United States. I took the weather man's promises of nice weather as an invitation to visit a local test and tune on the slicks. These "clear skies" soon became darker than Mick Jagger's lungs and I begin to worry.

Long story short, I had to drive home in the rain and I hydroplaned a handful of times. Even at low speeds, the lack of any tread underneath the rear tires was enough to lift them up through a harmless puddle. I kept my speeds bellow 20mph and thankfully I only have to drive about 6 miles.

Heed my warning: Get a second opinion on weather before you decide to take your performance car out on the street on a non DOT tire. (I don't encourage driving on the road with a non DOT-approved tire either way, but an ET Street is street legal and will suffer from the same burden.)

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