Myself and a colleague of mine, who does trackdays on a bike, were discussing tyres at great length. I had been on the net looking for trackdays and was reading up a section on 'Palmer Sport' about how to prepare your car for a day at the track. Here it stated that it's a good idea to over inflate your tyres by a few PSI so that they will perform better on the track. However, my colleague Dave always lets his bike tyres down a bit for the track. This is because he expects them to get hot and therefore the pressure will rise, staying within the manufacturers recommendation. Surely it's the same for cars? Especially on the fronts where you'd expect a hell of a lot of heat from the brakes (if you have nigh-on standard ones like me). By the way, I have a Mk2 with the P-slot 14" alloys and Yoko A539s - so it's not exactly a wild load of rubber. Considering the 'high profile' of these tyres I reckon changing the pressures will make even more difference to side wall rigidity. Does anyone mess about with their tyre pressures on or off the track ?
That's what I do, both on road tyres and slicks. Run them at around 25 cold, then they'll increase to 'around' 30 psi hot. Obviously the left front will get hottest s you might need bleed more out of that tyre. Experiment, it costs nothing.
Thanks pal. Off to the continent on Saturday morning. Come on Ring Taxi's fully booked until next year Maybe get a late cancellation though....
Im also in the process of purchasing trackday tyres, found any good websites? So far Iv used 195/50/15 Eagle F1's on track and have played around with the tyre pressures quite a lot. At Castle Combe I started off with the tyres on road pressures 30/31psi front 28/29 rear and found them to heat up quite a lot without pushing them particularly hard. Next time out I dropped them slightly thinking they would come up and settle nearer normal running pressures. But instead I found them to rise even more and I was experiencing quite a lot of tyre roll (also killing the outside edges of the tyres). At their hottest the front left was on 44psi! I found starting them on +4ish psi than road settings meant they stayed cooler and I had less tyre roll. The lower the pressures in the first place the more flex you will get in the tyre wall which means more friction and heat, resulting in higher pressures. Although it depends on your driving style and how you like the car to feel. I prefer the tyres sliding slightly rather than the tyre walls rolling. Sean Edited by: seanlazyass
I should of said, what I prefer, some might not Get some used slicks, don't piss about with AO48s etc. But, you can't use slicks on the 'ring. Edited by: G_V_K
I agree Sean - better to use the part of the tyre that god intended. Try www.mytyres.co.uk - I got some bargain yokohamas from there. Thanks & regards, JK
Sorry Sean, scratch my last post. I got my tyres from : www.tyresonline.net - Birmingham 0121 2366787 4xYokohamaA539 185/60R14H MC 143.92 Not a bad price I thought, but shop around. There are loads of tyres available on the links from here : http://www.oilypages.com//links.asp?page=tyres Including slicks!!
