Chris Stoddart wrote:
On Fri, 21 Oct 2005, William Robb wrote:
Neither of the BMW's that I have owned handled especially well in the
wet............
Obviously ~ wrong tires...
I'm not sure if I can blame the equipment. I have a bad habit of overdriving
the conditions.
But, I tried both Contis and Michelins on both. Neither would keep the
vehicle on the road the way I tended to drive at the time.
Yep, Keith's right; tyre/tire choice is critical. Over the last decade
I've tried several makes on my E30s
Michelins - arghhhh, like driving on grease
Continentals - average and expensive
Pirelli P6-somethings - not bad, would have them again
GoodYear Eagles - current fave
Of course tread patterns and rubber compunds in North America might bear
no relation to those in Europe, which I am sure are designed more for
wet, curvy roads? Ditto the car suspension? Also bear in mind BMW's are
meant to be a bit tail-happy because they're all about the driver being in
charge, not the car :-)
William (Shut up and Buckle up) Robb
Mind how you go,
Chris
My point was, back when I was racing, you could look up the tire's
"stickiness" in the wet. Some of them are almost like natural rubber,
and really DO hang on a line, while sacrificing wear characteristics.
Really good sticky tires wear very poorly.
It's all a ticklish compromise...
Keep in mind, however, when a good sticky tire finally _does_ let go,
there's little or no warning! All of a sudden you're all hung out as the
under- or oversteer characteristics of your car take over violently, and
if you're really lucky, all you'll do is slide.
The word "dicey" comes to mind...
keith
