Tire pressure thoughts, again

[crobin4]

Think I shoulda ran lower pressure in the front for April rain event. I ran 42psi at all 4 corners, down from my normal 45 - 48 psi.
I'm thinking for the front, I should've run 37-38 psi.
Anyone concur?

[administerturbo]

what were you trying to do...more grip in the front/less in the rear? or more grip all the way around.

[SentraWV]

At the benefit event last year that went wet to dry, I stayed on street tires all day. At Bill's suggestion, I dropped the fronts about 5 psi from where I usually have them and it helped a great deal. Conversely, I didn't even check my pressures this past weekend, so I'm sure they were 8-10 psi below autox normal.

NP: Brian Eno & David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

[crobin4]

Well now, Big Brother isn't watching I can give this some time.

Yes, I am thinking about more grip in the front and relatively less in the rear.
My thinking is that in wet weather for a given vehicle with a given tire, it is impossible to generate the same load on the tire as if it where dry. I think part of the reason that we run such high pressures in autoX is that our tires are so heavily loaded in cornering and braking that otherwise they cup and rollover onto the sidewall.
If the conditions are such that the load generated on the tires is lower as allowed by friction (wet pavement) that it takes less air pressure to maximize the contact patch.
So, I'm thinking for a really wet, slick event like the April event running substantially lower than normal AutoX pressures would've been the way to go. Maybe on the order of 5-10 psi depending on the car/tire.
I would've in hindsight left rear pressures high to help the car rotate so I could jump back on the skinny pedal on the right sooner.

Does any of this make sense or am I thinking about it in the wrong way?
I haven't had any great amount of experience with setups for wet conditions, so looking a little direction. No pun intended.

[Davis K Powers]

Rain= soft as you can get.
Snow= throw out the swaybars, hahah

Yes, actually dropping off psi (on non-r-compounds) for a wet AutoX (and track) will be beneficial as you will now want some sidewall flex for optimum grip. I continue to think that your car would be VERY good (FTD or extremely close) in a wet Solo.

Pull up a chair...
When I lived in Sweden, my car was a 70hp Volvo 244DL. (4spd)
For the winter, my tires were steel studded Gislaved snow tires. I loved it. The lower hp (and very heavy car) taught me how to hold momentum thru a series of turns going from full lock to opposite full lock in heavy snow at speed. The tires themselves were very soft with funny looking bubblegum soft sidewalls.
In the rain, once (13 seconds) the car got up to 100kph (~62mph), the thin soft tires were a blast to drive, easily holding grip at higher speeds in turns. oh the memories...

[crobin4]

Thanks Guys!

[Hillbilly]

R-compounds or not I ALWAYS drop pressure in the rain for more grip. I started out low a couple years ago at King's River Church in the rain and raised the pressures when it dried out and held FTD all day. Kinda sold me on the theory.