rain/soft tires. same thing?

[Tower Turn 13]

What the heck is the difference? Dumb question I know. But some cars have hard/mid/rain tires and some include softs on the selection screen. I just figured rain tires were softs but then again I have no idea.

 

[MetalJet]

Rain tires come in regular (for hard rain) and Intermediates (for light rain). Racing softs are for dry pavement, but seem to work well in the rain on most cars... or at least as well as regular rain tires.

 

[budious]

Rain tires come in regular (for hard rain) and Intermediates (for light rain). Racing softs are for dry pavement, but seem to work well in the rain on most cars... or at least as well as regular rain tires.

I think Race Hards handle better in rain under some cases. Maybe Race Rain is equivalent to R1, and Race Intermediate is R2 from GT4, Race Hard is R3... ? If the rain doesn't last long then you can keep on running the normal tire where the rain tire becomes noticeably less efficient under dry conditions.

 

[IceMan PJN]

What the heck is the difference? Dumb question I know. But some cars have hard/mid/rain tires and some include softs on the selection screen. I just figured rain tires were softs but then again I have no idea.

Far from it.

"Soft" refers to the compound of the rubber from which the tire is made. Softer tires have a shorter life but provide better grip. "Hard" then means a harder rubber compound, which has relatively poorer grip but lasts longer, and "medium" is in between. Soft, medium, and hard compound tires are all independent of rain tires.

Often in motorsports, like in Formula One, they race on slick tires, which have no grooves carved into them, which means that the entire tire surface makes contact with the road. Rain tires have grooves carved into them, like you would expect on a typical road car. Intermediates are sort of in between full rain tires and racing slicks.