Tire Center Bar Wear Question

[rice_classic]

Actually, the thermal imaging could be utilized usefully if it were being viewed in real time while the tire was going through the corner.

However, watch the video below, look how fast the surface temp rises and falls... Almost immediately after leaving the corner the tire goes back to purple, then black with the exception of the high cambered edge. So if you're trying get an accurate reading like the average joe, then you actually have to stick the needle in the tire.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNYUkRKslEw[/ame]


Now, with all that being said, there is more than one school of thought here. Some racers advocate dialing in your camber by using this method and measuring inside/middle/outside temps while others setup their camber by actually measuring how the tire is wearing and adjusting from there in small increments.

Anywho... none of this really matters, go back to the track it's more fun there anyway.

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by frssfo

I started out trying 35psi hot (measuring the tire pressure at the end of a session) and then lowered the hot pressure 1lb at a time each session until I got to 32lb hot. At 35lb hot the tires seemed to get "greasy" and I was sliding around after a few laps. Not so much with the lower hot pressure.

32psi hot is very low IMO... even low for R comp tires, I would start from 30-31 psi cold and shoot for 37-38 hot psi by checking the pressures between sessions ..

keep in mind when you lower your tire pressures they will also have tendency to overheat easier especially with the street-able aggressive tires like yours and if you start too high you reach the target PSIs more easily but not because you heat them up properly but because you start higher , in other words starting very low and very high have similar effects sometimes (e.g. 25 psi cold vs 35 psi cold) , one will overheat and become greasy and the other one won't heat up as much so it will also feel greasy.. because in reality they're still cold so you're not warming them up yet.. same symptoms from different causes.. so the ideal starting temp is essential....


you may also check with your tire manufacturer to make sure what's the ideal cold-hot PSI and cambers ...(I know it's between -2.5 and -5 for NT01 and similar with Hankook Z214s)

with that said starting low for R comps may become quite helpful sometimes,...since I sometimes have hard times heating up the tires (245/40/17 R comps) , I typically start with 27-28 cold psi and shoot for 35psi but, typically, by the time I heat up the tires well I also get closer to the limits of my cooling and oil temps' safety zone ..(thanks to the FI) so I have to act strategically and put down 3-4 hot laps and get in to a cool down lap