Sport Softs in the Rain? I think they work!

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FishHunters

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Flsurffisher
Nurburgring. Dream Car. 3 laps. Started with sport softs. Competition had Racing Rain. It was a downpour. Jumped out to a 2:03 lead after one. Competition pitted and switched to Racing Hards. 2:31 lead after two when I pitted and switched to Racing Rain. Competition did not pit on the 2nd, kept the racing hards. Increased the lead by :28 even with the pit.

My Bob was in the BMW V12. Noticed a highspeed crash on the 2nd lap with the Sport Softs. Noticed competition slipping and sliding into the sand after pit on lap 2 and switch to RHs.

On final lap looks like they are closing. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you what the final gap was if it's over 30 secs. In my estimation they were still 1:30 behind at least.

Anyone else want to test SSs in the rain? Gonna give it another shot for the duration.
 
Yeah, GT mode uses low grip reduction in the wet, rather than "real" grip reduction. Slicks seem to work better.
 
Running it again. Nurb in the rain.

Started with Sport Softs. The field is in RHs and are going to pit to change. Bob is not pitting. Huge lead already on the first lap. Bob took the first set of S turns at 40+mph the field took it at 28+ mph. Bob took the long straight before the turn north as high as 125 mph; the field 105 mph. Curious what tires they will switch to.

Update to follow:

3:46 lead after one. Still in Sport Softs, field is in Rain tires. The Ford GT LM Test is making a contest of it. His last lap was 11:15, Bobs best is 13:21. Gap now is only 1:40. Looks like the Ford GT will win this on the final lap (3). Bob came in 2nd -9:13.
 
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As crimson said, rain doesn't make the track as slick as it should in GT mode. However, the AI will still switch to rain tires when it rains even though it's slower. A better test would be to actually drive the car yourself on a variety of tires and at the "real" grip level option turned on.
 
freedomweasel
As crimson said, rain doesn't make the track as slick as it should in GT mode. However, the AI will still switch to rain tires when it rains even though it's slower. A better test would be to actually drive the car yourself on a variety of tires and at the "real" grip level option turned on.
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Gettin' to it.
 
Trying it again, this time with Racing Rain on from start to finish. AI started with Racing Hards. Off to a huge lead again.

First lap 11:15 and a gap of 5:37.
Slowest car in the field the Mitsubishi FTO Super Touring was holding everyone else up being in 2nd place.

2nd lap in at 11:16. The Mitsu FTO was passed by the Fords LM Test & LM Spec, should see alittle closing of the gap.

Final gap about 5-6 min. 2nd place car was 5:54 into the 3rd lap when Bob crossed the finish line. The Fords best lap was 10:47.

Conclusion: No real advantage with Sport Softs. If you happen to start a race with them on, by accident or purposefully it won't be a hinderance; but I'd still pit and switch to rain tires.
 
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It makes sense that Sport tyres work best because they have more grooves that allows the rain to channel through.
 
counter345
It makes sense that Sport tyres work best because they have more grooves that allows the rain to channel through.
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Exactly.

"Sport" tires in GT represent street-legal, high-performance / summer street tires in real life. These tires are street legal mainly because they have groves for channeling water and thus allowing the treads to make maximum contact with the road/tarmac.

"Racing" tires in GT are slicks and do not have grooves (aside from wet). Slicks can't channel water out from under the tire and therefore do not maintain maximum surface area contact with the road/tarmac. They will basically "float" above the surface of the track when it is wet.
 
Sports Softs have to work in the rain, like the 2 posters above have noted they are 'cut' tyres that have to lift some water off the track if it's wet.

In Rallying you'll sometimes see teams on tarmac rallies just cut some grooves into their slick tyres when the stage is 'greasy' or wet in some parts but not others..
 
All Sport tires are completely useless on a fully wet track, if grip reduction is set to real. They have a few grooves, but not even close to as much tread as intermediate tires. They might last a little bit longer than slicks on a dampening track -- as long as PD modeled it correctly they should, but once the track is actually wet they aren't much different than slicks. You'll be taking 80mph corners at 30 and still running off track.

Rain tires work, and Comfort tires work. The others don't have enough tread.
 
Interestingly, racing softs definately work well in the rain in GT Life. Last weekend I tested this using an FGT at Suzuka in the Formula GT Championship, running as a single race instead of as part of the Championship. In heavy rain, running the race on racing softs without pitting, I lapped the entire field several laps before the end of the 20 lap race. This was a race I was struggling a little with in the dry.
 
HERE ARE THE FACTS:

1) The games' software obviously thought it was o.k. to run Sport Softs in the rain the entire way because it DID NOT make the AI driver pit to change them.

2) Running on Sport Softs with the AI running RHs the Softs allowed the driver to take a substantial lead driving at a pretty good clip. The difference being about 2 minutes around the 24hr Nurb Course, between SS & RR tires.

The conclusion WITHIN the GAME is obvious. Run on RR's. But IF you get caught with SS's don't sweat it. You'll be in the game and can pit and change if needed.
 
I did a little race in High Speed Ring in rain (arcade) on my Nismo Fairlady Z-Tune (comes with SS tires). Around the 9th lap some cars pitted and from there onwards cars would pit every 1-2 laps (glitch?), while I completed 25 laps and the tires didn't show the slightest wear. I saved the replay.
 

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