Still very much a newbie, I'm wondering how people approach managing the tires through a run, if they do at all.
I'm on the standard 245/40/17 RE71R's (17x9) and upon reflecting on recent performance I'm wondering if I'm overdriving them over the course of a run. It seems like I can endlessly chuck the car into the first corner or two or three of a course, but as I continue trying to put heat into the tires the grip goes away and seems almost slippery, like the car is a bit manic to hold onto. I'll get very little wheelspin initially but as the run goes on I get progressively more and more tire squeal.
Contrasting to some of the fast guy's videos, their wheelspin is much more measured... applied more judiciously I'd say.
I know I'm wasting valuable speed by not being patient enough, but I guess I'm curious if it's not just me overdriving, and if it's agreed upon that even on a small 2nd gear ~40s course you can take 'street' tires over their happy space, which would mean I'm making two mistakes and not just one. Just to be clear here, I'm not talking about outright stupidity and drifting burnouts, but rather someone who's going a toe over the line every corner when the trick is to step back from the limit and approach it with caution where necessary. (Or at least that's the mentality, whether or not I'm successful at achieving that approach is... well I have a long way to go).
fwiw, keeping the tires at about 32-33 psi hot, last week I got the LF up to ~120F, others were between ~100 and 110, I'd say it was a 'cool' day in the 70's with the sun shining.
Knowing that taking the first portion of the course hard to get up to temp and then dialing back a notch to manage the heat isn't the mentality I would have guessed is necessary in autox, but in hindsight makes perfect sense.
I figure asking and being told 'yes/no dummy' is a much quicker development path than burning up valuable rubber trying to figure it out on my own.
