The effect of a placebo should never be overlooked.
I for one am curious about the braking changes in wet. I’m curious with the new textured brake track if it is better in wet conditoon by helping water bleed away form the brake track easier. I’ll never find out though as I swore off carbon clinchers because my body weight+carbon×)+wet conditions is no bueno.
new brake track is astounding. I’ve not had the chance to test it in the wet (little problem with a drought in California…), but it’s truly remarkable the difference in the dry. I’ve gotten very used to the braking on carbon clinchers where I don’t have any fear or “issues,” but even the best combo I’ve ridden - Tangente Platinum pads on the Firecrest - was as good as aluminum rims when dry and only slightly less good when wet. The Showstopper brake track is roughly on par, in my experience, with disc brakes. It’s better than an aluminum brake track. Especially with hydraulic brakes. Hydraulic brakes + Showstopper brake track is easily the best rim braking I’ve ever experienced.
Aside from that, I never noticed any perceptible difference in ride quality or handling in the wind between Firestrike and Firecrest wheels. I do think, however, you can pick up a difference between wheels. I certainly noticed the difference between Firecrest and pre-Firecrest Hybrid-Toroidal wheels. And not just because of the carbon clinchers. I rode prototype carbon clinchers that were not yet the Firecrest shape. I will say that the Firecrest vs Hybrid-Toroidal difference is way more noticeable in the 808 than in the 404, where I never had any trouble handling the wheels to begin with. But that was a massive change to everything about the way Zipp thought about wheels - and developed them. The Firestrike project is not that same kind of change in thinking, so it’d be surprising to see such a change. That said, if you’re coming to Firestrike from Hybrid-Toroidal wheels (or from some other company’s wheels where stability was never a consideration), then sure, you might notice a pretty big difference.