Poopensharten
ClioSport Club Member
Golf R
Great tyres tbh. User error AFAIK.
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By using them in the dry I take it?
Just as I read this thread, I go to see how much tread I had left on my tyres an they were all bald. So after having to lend £300 I've now got pzero nero gt's. So far so good but I'll report back when it rains next.
172 cup
I disagree. They are so terrible to start with that a bit if extra grip in the rain doesn't make up for them being made of jelly.
You've obviously never hit a few inches of standing water unsighted at motorway speeds,
if it wasn't for Rainsports i'd be dead by now, they're incredible at dispersing water.
Sh*t at everything else though, I mean they grip well in the dry once scrubbed in,
but they fold over and shred themselves to do it.
if it wasn't for Rainsports i'd be dead by now, they're incredible at dispersing water.
Sh*t at everything else though, I mean they grip well in the dry once scrubbed in,
but they fold over and shred themselves to do it.
Never had any issues with my rainsports tbh. Still goes round corners well!
MRBILLYUK
ClioSport Club Member
FF Jeden Osiem Dwa
+1 . They're a brilliant tyre in wet and a good tyre in the dry , even when having a spirited drive , imo . Granted when i first had them fitted i thought WTF have i done ? They felt terrible , especially after coming from PE2's . But after a few miles under their belt and upping the pressure on the fronts to 36 psi i got used to them . If the OP had read all the reviews he would have seen that they do suffer from softer sidewalls .
Poopensharten
ClioSport Club Member
Golf R
£200 for four for the cup is a bargain tbh.
That is cheap tbf, just paid near that for 3 ps3's.
Poopensharten
ClioSport Club Member
Golf R
.GAZ. Put me onto RS2's about 4 years ago and i honestly find them better than a lot of other tyres. Different ponies for different beaches and all that.
Just noticed I put 3 ps3's I meant 2 lol.
I just went with the safe option couldn't be doing with putting tyres on I don't like. Parada spec 2's are brilliant in the dry but not very good in wet michelins seem at least as good in dry but much better in the wet.
Only problem is I've currently got ps3's on front and parada spec 2's on rear, has been a bit interesting in the wet on the occasion.
I just went with the safe option couldn't be doing with putting tyres on I don't like. Parada spec 2's are brilliant in the dry but not very good in wet michelins seem at least as good in dry but much better in the wet.
Only problem is I've currently got ps3's on front and parada spec 2's on rear, has been a bit interesting in the wet on the occasion.
LMFAO at all the slating. They're epic in the wet which funnily enough is what they're made for.
If you want to hoon around in the dry then buy something made for that rather than overheating the rainsports and winging about them being s**t
*most ironic post on Cliosport as I track my car on rainsports haha
If you want to hoon around in the dry then buy something made for that rather than overheating the rainsports and winging about them being s**t
*most ironic post on Cliosport as I track my car on rainsports haha
182
Surely its 99% down to the feeling you get on new tyres - floaty at the rear especially, like its steering itself from the rear and the front is sloppy to respond to steering inputs. I've been told this is the manuafacturing process leaving a residue on the tyres - ???. Howver, even when this has worn off, I doubt what you'd "feel" is the sidewalls flexing, more likely it's the large, soft tread blocks moving around, as other have said.
Basically, they will improve. I've not used rainsports, I take an interest in reviews (...really just peoples opinions, remember...) on tyres and made my mind up that they would not be to my liking, prefering tyres to feel sharp and responsive and dry-biased. But most tyres I've had felt like you describe (Toyo T1r, kumho Ku31, hankook v12, contisport contact) and they all felt crap and "soft" initially but all ended up being decent, even in the dry, once the tread wore down by just a couple of mm. Only Tyre I've had that felt "right" straight away was the Federal 595 rsr - recommended.
Basically, they will improve. I've not used rainsports, I take an interest in reviews (...really just peoples opinions, remember...) on tyres and made my mind up that they would not be to my liking, prefering tyres to feel sharp and responsive and dry-biased. But most tyres I've had felt like you describe (Toyo T1r, kumho Ku31, hankook v12, contisport contact) and they all felt crap and "soft" initially but all ended up being decent, even in the dry, once the tread wore down by just a couple of mm. Only Tyre I've had that felt "right" straight away was the Federal 595 rsr - recommended.
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172
If it wasnt the fact i need 4 tyres soon id of kept them on through winter, going to just stick some normal rubber on for the winter and then stickier compound as soon as it starts to warm up again after the winter.. Think im going for either PS3's or Conti's all round for the winter
I feel this thread is in danger of misrepresenting the reality.
For road use on a Clio, which is all I can comment on (Clio Trophy in my case), it is a very good balanced tyre. Although a rain tyre, it is a "summer tyre" so saying it is brilliant in the wet, crap in the dry is to damn it with faint praise! They are not crap in the dry at all.
When people are posting comments like "terrible in the dry", what is the context or their reference points? The Nurburgring, the M6, compared to which other tyres?
I have tried Rainsport 2s back to back against the PS3 and Pilot Exalto 2 (same car, same day, same route) and there was virtually no difference between Rainsport 2s and PS3 but there WAS a bit with the PE2, the PE2 giving better steering feel and holding up better in corners.
On very hard cornering, the Rainsports felt like they "bottomed out" a little sooner than the PS3 but we're talking very marginal. Those using PS3 as the gold standard should consider the fact that Michelin made it a much more rain biased tyre over the PE2.
Perhaps as a result, members on ClioTrophy.net observed that the PS3 had soft(er) sidewalls, less steering feel against the PE2 and a couple (including me) found that at 32 psi on the fronts, they looked flat.
Given that the PS3 can be almost double the price over Rainsports, I don't think this thread gives a very balanced view on them (not sure why) and would leave most people reading it to discard Rainsports and go for something like ZZ3s (;-)) if pushed on price.
One could always get the Rainsports in W rating if you want a firmer sidewall and I always ran them with 2 psi more than my usual pressures F and R (did the same with the PS3 interestingly enough to get them a bit more alert).
Look at the two main tyre review sites and they get very very good reviews from racers and grannies on a broad range of cars - I dont think there's much in the scores between the Rainsports and PS3.
And then there's the wet performance. It is easy to forget after 6 weeks of sunshine that the most challenging and predominant road conditions in the UK are wet, greasy, icy roads and the tyre excels in such conditions.
The fact that some people seem to be suggesting track-biased tyres as a comparison/alternative is a bit odd.
For road use on a Clio, which is all I can comment on (Clio Trophy in my case), it is a very good balanced tyre. Although a rain tyre, it is a "summer tyre" so saying it is brilliant in the wet, crap in the dry is to damn it with faint praise! They are not crap in the dry at all.
When people are posting comments like "terrible in the dry", what is the context or their reference points? The Nurburgring, the M6, compared to which other tyres?
I have tried Rainsport 2s back to back against the PS3 and Pilot Exalto 2 (same car, same day, same route) and there was virtually no difference between Rainsport 2s and PS3 but there WAS a bit with the PE2, the PE2 giving better steering feel and holding up better in corners.
On very hard cornering, the Rainsports felt like they "bottomed out" a little sooner than the PS3 but we're talking very marginal. Those using PS3 as the gold standard should consider the fact that Michelin made it a much more rain biased tyre over the PE2.
Perhaps as a result, members on ClioTrophy.net observed that the PS3 had soft(er) sidewalls, less steering feel against the PE2 and a couple (including me) found that at 32 psi on the fronts, they looked flat.
Given that the PS3 can be almost double the price over Rainsports, I don't think this thread gives a very balanced view on them (not sure why) and would leave most people reading it to discard Rainsports and go for something like ZZ3s (;-)) if pushed on price.
One could always get the Rainsports in W rating if you want a firmer sidewall and I always ran them with 2 psi more than my usual pressures F and R (did the same with the PS3 interestingly enough to get them a bit more alert).
Look at the two main tyre review sites and they get very very good reviews from racers and grannies on a broad range of cars - I dont think there's much in the scores between the Rainsports and PS3.
And then there's the wet performance. It is easy to forget after 6 weeks of sunshine that the most challenging and predominant road conditions in the UK are wet, greasy, icy roads and the tyre excels in such conditions.
The fact that some people seem to be suggesting track-biased tyres as a comparison/alternative is a bit odd.
Agreed totally, this thread has two huge problems IMHO:
1) Its nonsense about the tyres, they are nowhere near as bad as is made out by the OP, maybe he has some underlying suspension problem that was being masked a bit by a previous much grippier tyre, or maybe he is just prone to exaggeration, but as you can see from replies by others like Cup Phil, that certainly is not the soul consensus of opinion on how these tyres behave.
2) It makes wild accusations at this site that despite multiple requests for him to say where people on here have said all the things he claims, absolutely no such examples have been put forward.
The reality is that rainsports are an excellent wet weather tyre, and so long as you dont drive too hard on them they are an adequate dry tyre too for normal road use, but if its dry performance you are after then funnily enough for a tyre with "rain" in their name, thats not what they are best at, and god knows how the OP somehow managed to get the impression it was claimed otherwise.
1) Its nonsense about the tyres, they are nowhere near as bad as is made out by the OP, maybe he has some underlying suspension problem that was being masked a bit by a previous much grippier tyre, or maybe he is just prone to exaggeration, but as you can see from replies by others like Cup Phil, that certainly is not the soul consensus of opinion on how these tyres behave.
2) It makes wild accusations at this site that despite multiple requests for him to say where people on here have said all the things he claims, absolutely no such examples have been put forward.
The reality is that rainsports are an excellent wet weather tyre, and so long as you dont drive too hard on them they are an adequate dry tyre too for normal road use, but if its dry performance you are after then funnily enough for a tyre with "rain" in their name, thats not what they are best at, and god knows how the OP somehow managed to get the impression it was claimed otherwise.
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^^ Yup - as proven by the video I posted 3 pages back and people still are ranting saying they're terrible lol
RB 182 Cup
Good post is1. 
I had V rated RS2 fitted on the front, but when the rears arrived a couple of days later they were W rated.
I dont know if this has much of an effect on the balance, or sidewall stiffness as I've only driven the car a couple of times since, but I was initially disappointed with the feel.
However its the wifes car, and she really likes the feel of the RS2.
I wont be driving it for a good couple of months yet, but I'm looking forward to giving my opinion on how shes bedded them in.
Bear in mind that from Oct to March our weather is as you rightly say, predominantly wet/cold/greasy and we think we've covered the all bases, as the mrs is not likely to drive it on its door handles in the summer anyway.
I personally much preferred the positive feel of the Pilot Exaltos, they really were great for me. (I had Contisport Contact 2 on my previous 172 and they were also very good feel)
I will add something, though, I wont be replacing the tyres on my daily driver with RS2's. (you cant get them for a start, but I wont be having Uniroyals)
I've always been happy with Continentals and Michelins.
I had V rated RS2 fitted on the front, but when the rears arrived a couple of days later they were W rated.
I dont know if this has much of an effect on the balance, or sidewall stiffness as I've only driven the car a couple of times since, but I was initially disappointed with the feel.
However its the wifes car, and she really likes the feel of the RS2.
I wont be driving it for a good couple of months yet, but I'm looking forward to giving my opinion on how shes bedded them in.
Bear in mind that from Oct to March our weather is as you rightly say, predominantly wet/cold/greasy and we think we've covered the all bases, as the mrs is not likely to drive it on its door handles in the summer anyway.
I personally much preferred the positive feel of the Pilot Exaltos, they really were great for me. (I had Contisport Contact 2 on my previous 172 and they were also very good feel)
I will add something, though, I wont be replacing the tyres on my daily driver with RS2's. (you cant get them for a start, but I wont be having Uniroyals)
I've always been happy with Continentals and Michelins.
RB 182 Cup
Spot on Chip and Cup_Phil.
Looking forward to meeting you guys at the next Newark meet, we can compare tyre stories.
Have to say, these Rainsports do look good on the car.
I'm happy knowing the mrs has a very good performing wet tyre through the bad weather, and the slightly lower limitations in the dry will not be an issue as I dont foresee her fully exploiting them anyway.
Looking forward to meeting you guys at the next Newark meet, we can compare tyre stories.
Have to say, these Rainsports do look good on the car.
I'm happy knowing the mrs has a very good performing wet tyre through the bad weather, and the slightly lower limitations in the dry will not be an issue as I dont foresee her fully exploiting them anyway.
Spot on Chip and Cup_Phil.
Looking forward to meeting you guys at the next Newark meet, we can compare tyre stories.
Have to say, these Rainsports do look good on the car.
I'm happy knowing the mrs has a very good performing wet tyre through the bad weather, and the slightly lower limitations in the dry will not be an issue as I dont foresee her fully exploiting them anyway.
Will be good to meet you too, although not sure if Phil is going to the meet or not, hopefully
I think anyone who feels they dont have enough dry grip on the road on a set of rainsports is probably going to benefit from them being on there, from a license point of view, lol.
This is the tyres afterwards though as it dried out later in the day:
Absolutely ruined, and it still wasnt anywhere near actually bone dry, in fact there was still standing water at the gluepot corner even at the end of the day.
The tread blocks are tall and slim, and hence can lean over if pushed too hard, which in the dry then ruins them.
Those pictures taken from a thread on here that clearly the OP of this thread didnt read if he thinks cliosport bums RS2 tyres as a dry option!
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?654698-recommend-me-some-tyres/page3
Absolutely ruined, and it still wasnt anywhere near actually bone dry, in fact there was still standing water at the gluepot corner even at the end of the day.
The tread blocks are tall and slim, and hence can lean over if pushed too hard, which in the dry then ruins them.
Those pictures taken from a thread on here that clearly the OP of this thread didnt read if he thinks cliosport bums RS2 tyres as a dry option!
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?654698-recommend-me-some-tyres/page3
I won't be at the newark meet - sorry
Nippy white cup
TBH I haven't read the whole post but from my experience I wasn't a fan. Basically I had std contis and switched to the rainsports. When I set off up the motorway even slowly changing lanes felt vauge like the car was floating for want of a better expression. Checked the tyre pressures which were fine but certainly compared to the contis they felt much softer which I guess was down to the softer walls. I dare say that they gripped well and I might have got used to them but ended up getting shut pretty quick
Yes. They are softer and have more tread because they are rain tyres lol.
Conti's are awesome though - ran them for years on 106's
Conti's are awesome though - ran them for years on 106's
So may as well spend a bit more on premium Conti's, Goodyear's or Michelin's and have the same wet performance with better dry and wear performance.
Im not convinced any of the others are quite as good in the wet as the rainsport TBH
Thats fair enough. I'm basing a lot on various magazine reviews:
In the 2010 evo test it doesn't perform very well in all conditions compared to the typical premium lines. And these have been superseded by newer versions - to the point by the 2012 evo test it's not even tested including many others like Auto Express, Auto Review etc.
Then the 2013 ADAC test shows they are good in the wet (not as good as CS5's) and matching PS3's. They then fall short in dry grip and wear.
So in reality it depends if you want a mid range tyre that's good in one area, or a more expensive but ultimately better balanced tyre imo. That all falls on budget available...
We've moved over to RSR now for our wet/road tyres, the reason being that I got fed up with when it dried out a bit the rainsports were falling apart but it was still too damp for our dries to work well, but the rainsports were really good in VERY wet conditions, and im not convinced that the mag tests use enough water to show that up TBH.
If I was doing a road rally on roads with half an inch of flooding all over the place and fords to cross etc as well, I'd pick the rainsport over the premium brands you mention personally. But reality for me is I have full wets for the really really wet days anyway, so the rainsports have now ended up redundant, as the RSR cope very well with everything but "monsoon" and for that I have the proper wets.
So for that reason I doubt I will personally ever buy another set, but I still think they are the best of the road tyres Ive tried for really wet.
If I was doing a road rally on roads with half an inch of flooding all over the place and fords to cross etc as well, I'd pick the rainsport over the premium brands you mention personally. But reality for me is I have full wets for the really really wet days anyway, so the rainsports have now ended up redundant, as the RSR cope very well with everything but "monsoon" and for that I have the proper wets.
So for that reason I doubt I will personally ever buy another set, but I still think they are the best of the road tyres Ive tried for really wet.
I'm not denying that they aren't very good for wet appliactions. The ADAC review praises them highly for this exact point.
It's when people go on about daily road use that a more rounded (excuse the pun) tyre is surely a better option even if it does ultimately cost more.
Depends how hard you want to drive on the road, personally I find in dry conditions that even a new set of rainsports (deffo they are worse in the dry when new due to the tread depth) still affords me more grip than I actually want to use at any point other than if im being a bit of a wally driving how I shouldnt, I find myself normally modulating my speed based on visibility or based on endangering of my licence on the road far more than based on grip available.
Of course it does. I expect average Joe wouldn't be able to tell a difference.
But as we are enthusiasts, driving cars developed and renowned for handling I think we can expect most people to be 'exploring' these limits and feel. Hence mixed user reviews in the dry.
EDIT: And I'm more likely to push hard in the dry than wet
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