Re: quattro+rain

[Andrew Duane USG/PE <duane@zk3.dec.com>]

Hairy green toads from Mars made Solomon Ngan say:

> > killer!  Perhaps the Eagle Aquatred fits this bill?  At $100 plus per
> > tire it would be a pricy experiment for my current financial situation
> > although I would love to try them.  By the way, the trade-in value of
> > my wife's Pontiac (we now have a mini-van) last year was improved
> > simply because it had Aquatreds on it.
> 
> I have put on 4 Eagle Aquatred tires 195/60/14 on my 90q20v for about 
> 2 months.  So far so good.   I bought them for their "claimed"
> performance on wet roads and snow conditions.    It is difficult to 
> simulate an exact test or control experimence because there are 
> always so many variables.   So far, the tires 
> have not skided on me at all.  (I do drive pretty hard, including 
> hard cornerings)   We did have rain storms in the pass 2 months.  Of 
> course I didn't drive the same way in rain storms as on dry roads.

I'm sceptical about Aquatreds. My feeling is that they short-change
your contact patch on the road, replacing it with the "it-must-work"
feeling of that groove.

I have a good set of all-seasons (Comp T/A), and I've done triple
digits in the rain with no problem at all. OK, not triple digits,
but 80-90+ for long periods.

The Comp T/A's are also good in the snow. Are the aquatreds?

But, I notice that Continental puts out the CZ99 (?), a Z-rated
all-season aquatred design. They are pretty much racing slicks
with a groove routed down the middle. Hmmmmmmm.

-- 

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)			duane@zk3.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation		(603)-881-1294
110 Spit Brook Road			http://www.zk3.dec.com/~duane
M/S ZKO3-3/U14
Nashua, NH    03062-2698

Only my cat shares my opinions, and she has good traction, too.