Road tyres on track

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:40 am

Just trying to get an idea of where to start off with setting the tyre pressures for running road tyres on track. Would you set them slightly higher or lower than you would with the 888s.
Also would a slightly softer set up be advisable.

Post by **Stuart** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:02 pm

Most road tyres, and I stress 'most', will have fairly soft shoulders. This would inhibit soft pressures as they will just fold over under hard cornering. Too high in terms of pressures and you stand the chance of massive understeer as the tyre slides over the surface.

Too many variables to answer this one mate; I would start with OE pressures and monitor them closely lap after lap (or every ten minutes) until they stabilise in temps and pressures.

Do you actually mean conventional daily use road tyres or just road legal ones? If they only need to be road legal, rally intermediates are tough, cheap and grippy. Useless for daily use but hey-ho.

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:11 pm

Actual road specific tyres, namely pirelli nero's.

Post by **Stuart** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:23 pm

The key seems to be common to all tyres; monitor the pressures and don't over drive them. Fletch is probably the best guy I know for keeping an eye on tyres and how they 'feel'. The tyres should be fine but please be aware of how quickly a good road tyre can become a dead road tyre.
Surely Pirelli have advise on tyre pressures for your application??

drifter · Post by **drifter** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:18 pm

I've never felt a major issue with road tyres running at OEM pressures, but then I don't drive anywhere near the pace of some on here

Only temp test I used was my girly hands, but did keep an eye on the pressures which seemed to stay fairly static. That was Falken FK452s

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:43 am

Pirellis advice was that we would be better off going to an 18" wheel and using the p zero:smilielol5:

Think we'll just start off with oem settings and tweek accordingly.

Mr Fletcher · Post by **Mr Fletcher** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:48 am

I have never used these so cannot comment on the specific tyre but i would probably get a couple of sets ,book a trackday and do some pyro temps across the tyre, depending on what they are like i may also get a set shaved ,you may also find that only a couple of flying laps are possible ,best of luck guys .

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:04 am

Have looked into getting them shaved and that is an option. Think we'll be looking into doing the test day the day before as well.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:12 pm

If it`s of any use I run Kumho tyres 17" with 40 profile pressures are 30 front 32 rear but obviously come up when heated on track. The 40 profile is quite an improvement over the previous 45 profile, tyre temp (not measured) seems good and tyres are quite sticky when warmed up. Have to sat that the car handles very well with this setup.