trackday tyre pressures

[stumc]

anyone got any recomendations on tyre pressures? will be running T1Rs on a std trim puma. worth just sticking with recommended road pressures orrr??? :?

*edit* i remember reading reviews sayng the tyrewall on the T1R, so could it be worth increasing over road pressures slightly?

 

[grayfox]

Well in theory, and I'm probably completely wrong here, but if your driving faster and braking harder for a extended period of time then your tyres should hotter than normal and so the air in the tyres gets hotter and expands so if anything I would of thought very slightly under inflating them would be the way to go? :?

 

[PumaJay]

drop your tyre pressure abit , i run mine at about 20psi on track, the extra heat generated by the hard cornering and heavy braking makes up for the lack in pressure

 

[grayfox]

Go Brain Go!! LOL

:happee:

 

[gingerdave]

No experiance with normal road tyres but with tracktyres run them at normal pressures get out do some laps then check the pressures and adjust down if needed.Would'nt think road tyres would change much temperature wise on track unless it was very hot.Imight be talking out of my bum i will find out at rockingham!!

 

[stumc]

No experiance with normal road tyres but with tracktyres run them at normal pressures get out do some laps then check the pressures and adjust down if needed.Would'nt think road tyres would change much temperature wise on track unless it was very hot.Imight be talking out of my bum i will find out at rockingham!!

i did consider getting a temp+pressure gauge or whatever but didnt wanna seem like too much of a geek in my std puma lol!

makes perfect sense whats been said about dropping them, i did think that but wasnt 100% sure. thought id better ask those more experienced :lol:

 

[Ziggy]

try fronts at 22 psi and rears at 30 psi - might help reduce understeer as well!

 

[PumaJay]

you dont really need to drop the rears as they dont get worked as hard... unless your me and you like abit of lift off oversteer!

but just dropping the front is ideal, like has been said they best way to do it is do a few hard laps, come in check pressures and drop adjust accordingly, for me it worked out to drop them to about 20psi when they were cold

 

[yippeekiay]

Check what they've been filled with first. Most places fill them with nitrogen now (or the ones I use) and that maintains pressure better through temperature changes....I believe :lol:

I actually raised mine once (when it had normal air) and it made the Puma much worse handling wise so as above, reduce a little in this case.

 

[stumc]

good advice, cheers men.

ziggy - dont know about anyone else but ive never had a problem with understeer in the dry, even with the dogshit tyres i had on before the T1Rs. and ive only ever had lift off oversteer in the wet driving like a prat and really trying to make it step out! pumas FTW!

 

[PumaJay]

If you have nitrogen inflated tyres you should have green valve caps

 

[stumc]

black caps alround here so...

 

[Ian G]

I wouldn't under-inflate them unless you're expecting them to get quite hot quite quickly.

Best thing is to inflate to spec and come back in after a few laps and see what is going on.

You'll be able to feel how its going but I'd favour a slightly higher pressure tyre that I'm planning to reduce over an under-inflated one which hasn't warmed up, particularly if you're not used to how the car handles in that environment.

Also the main key to reducing understeer is to go in slower, tyre pressures and for that matter suspension settings etc. are no substitute for getting the lines right.

 

[grayfox]

Wise words, I'll take that onboard, cheers.

 

[stumc]

seconded.

 

[wip3]

Especially with T1R (which by the way is a horrible tire in the 195/50R15 size for hard driving ) I'd recommend running higher pressures because the sidewalls are so soft that the tire will bend and only the edge of the tire will touch the road. Higher pressures don't cure the soft sidewalls but the tire shouldn't bend so much and when I upped my pressures to about 35 psi the car felt more responsive and stable.

 

[PumaJay]

i run T1R's never had a problem with them on the road or track

 

[yippeekiay]

Ditto, only problem I had was when I increased the air in them for the Ring, soon took some air back out and the Puma was back on song.