Wet braking

THE THREAT of rain during our day of testing turned out to be a blessing in helping keep one section of the road surface consistently damp. Wind and sun are not conducive to a wet track. “Every time I arrived it was exactly the same,” said Renato, praising the water truck that made a sweep minutes before each run. As with the dry, the wet braking runs start at 110km/h so the ABS is pulsing through 100km/h. Data collected by the VBox then gives us a precise stopping distance. Some tyres nearly matched their dry stopping time in the wet – such as the Maxxis and Continental PremiumContact – although we use different parts of the facility for the respective tests, so wet-versusdry comparisons aren’t easy. Best focus on how each tyre compared against its rivals. And it’s on a slippery surface that some tyres start to come undone. The difference between best and worst was 12.4 metres, or almost three Tucsons nose-to-tail. Put it down to compound, difference in tread pattern and how well the grooves handle standing water. Not that all tyres relied entirely on that wet bitumen. The Hankook was the only tyre to sail past the wet area and touch the edge of the dry bitumen with the front wheels. A full 52 metres from the 100km/h speed to the point at which the car was stationary. “They had pretty average wet weather performance,” was Renato’s somewhat understated assessment. The Cooper was better but still below par. “It went sailing past all the barriers,” said Renato of the water bollards that made handy visual markers of performance. The Kumho was similarly lacking in wet longitudinal grip, while the Toyo lacked the stopping prowess it had displayed in dry cornering moments earlier. “They didn’t amaze me in the wet weather braking,” said Renato. The Continental UltraContacts had the feel and control – “there were short, fast ABS pulses, so the tyre was recovering very quickly” – but it ran mid-pack, taking a full 45 metres to pull up from triple figures. It’s a rare blip on an otherwise impressive scorecard.