The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Tire Pressure Loss

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,008
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
Pappy
So the Conti tires optimal temperature is 185-190? And the goal would be even temps across the whole tread to show that the contact patch is working equally across horizontally and not on the inner or outer shoulder? So camber on the offside tires may need to be reduced to make them "work harder" and hopefully add grip? I know that spring rates, corner weighting, air pressures and damping can also be used as tuning tools to add grip, change balance, improve exit traction or braking performance or a combination of all.

I would like to start a serious BMO setup/tire management thread and ask that you help us understand some of these nuances to improve performance. i know a lot is tire or chassis specific but I am not adverse to copying a race setup (or copying anything for that matter ;D) but also understand why it works. There is some good info out there but I would like to follow what the Continental GS class cars are doing because their type of road racing is closest to what I am doing during my track day events i.e. 30 minute Sprints as parts of a longer overall race day.

All input is welcome so the experienced Boss/Mustang shoes like Gary, Yellow Boss, JScheirer (hope I spelled it right) Pete, some guy named mwilson7, roketman, Arizona GT and all the others lets get it started. I'll post this on a new thread.
Steve
 
steveespo said:
I would like to start a serious BMO setup/tire management thread and ask that you help us understand some of these nuances to improve performance. i know a lot is tire or chassis specific but I am not adverse to copying a race setup (or copying anything for that matter ;D) but also understand why it works. There is some good info out there but I would like to follow what the Continental GS class cars are doing because their type of road racing is closest to what I am doing during my track day events i.e. 30 minute Sprints as parts of a longer overall race day.

All input is welcome so the experienced Boss/Mustang shoes like Gary, Yellow Boss, JScheirer (hope I spelled it right) Pete, some guy named mwilson7, roketman, Arizona GT and all the others lets get it started. I'll post this on a new thread.
Steve

Works for me. Let me know once you have started it. Actually I see you started it. Consider putting the word "tire" in the title.
 
steveespo said:
Pappy
So the Conti tires optimal temperature is 185-190? And the goal would be even temps across the whole tread to show that the contact patch is working equally across horizontally and not on the inner or outer shoulder?

No and Yes, temps will vary depending on any number of conditions, clean runs or traffic, track surface temp or other similar conditions. I have seen temps in excess of 210 and as low as 160's but I always look for the temp to be even across the tire, within 10 degrees is good. I have also seen temps vary quite a bit from tire to tire on the same run but as long as the temp is good on each individual tire I don't worry about it. I'm not sure how to even fix this condition when it happens, some of it may be normal like the left front being the hottest on a flat right hand track.

The best we can do as trackers without a crew is get a good starting point on pressure and work from there. Optimum pressure and temps will vary from driver to driver, day to day and track to track. The only way to keep up is keeping good records, like I said every little thing will make differences and I find driving on the same track, different days will get me different hot temps because of the track temp or traffic.

The 275 Contis have been very predictable for me, the rears I have been using this year are 285 Rolex tires and have been harder to control. I have run them at 37 hot at Sebring, then run that same pressure at PBIR, both right hand turns and see center wear which calls for lower pressure. Since I am using take-offs you can even take into account the number of heat cycles and age of the tire, things the race teams do not worry about. Even so I don't mind chasing tires temps and pressure for the cost of these take-offs. Trust me I have also worn a few of these wrong in the learning process.

There are certain things I can pass on having used these tires for a few track days. Much of it has been posted and buried in the forum somewhere but things like camber being 2.6 to a max of 3.0 is good. I start out in the 26-28 cold range but unlike camber that will vary wildly depending on many factors mentioned above. I have given this info to others and they end up with very different results. For me one of the most important things I learned is how to read wear and John may be able to tell you now how critical that is. Because in the end even wear (even temps) will show the entire tire is being used and that will maximize the tires performance.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top