Tire pressure

[Polaris Man]

What tire pressure is everyone running in the factory 1LE tires?

[schecter7]

32 psi as recommended by Chevy.

[markgws6]

I've not checked my pressure yet. I assume you'd want to run the recommended factory PSI unless you are going racing...Then I'd have no idea. Anyone can tell us what they run when at a track (road course)??

[Dropspeed]

32psi at all 4 corners. At the road course I also start at 32 and let them warm up naturally

[flyinlow]

You can drop them a few pounds when you're tracking the car (30psi would be good). You will build pressure in the tires as they will get really hot on the track. Also, the idea is to let your tires have some flex so they can grip properly, having them fully inflated won't allow that.

[t&t moyer]

32psi cold

[Dropspeed]

Originally Posted by flyinlow

You can drop them a few pounds when you're tracking the car (30psi would be good). You will build pressure in the tires as they will get really hot on the track. Also, the idea is to let your tires have some flex so they can grip properly, having them fully inflated won't allow that.

I do not agree with the above. The tire compound is designed to provide the grip on a track. The 35 series Goodyear, like a race tire does not flex nor do you want this as if there is too much "flex" the car becomes unpredictable in a corner.

EDIT: My 1LE was aligned before hitting the tracking adding some camber in the front which helped keep tire temps even across the tire starting at 32 psi

-Matt

[flyinlow]

The thing you have to remember is that the recommended tire pressures on a road car are there for ride, comfort and fuel mileage.
Remember your tire creates heat from changing shape and flexing. To low and it is making a flat spot under corner loads and losing it's natural shape. It is like bending a piece of metal it gets hot. Street tires are thicker and develop more heat as they flex. Also on a car running a road course the brakes contribute significantly to heating the rim and tire. There are also many variables, what is the ambient temp, what's the track temp, what kind of track is it (short straights lots of curves, or the opposite, or something in between), how much tread is left. These all factor in. You should check your temps throughout the day and for these tires, best is to be running somewhere around 38psi hot. In this case, its better to measure hot temps because of all the variables mentioned above, it will change where you start with your cold temps.

[Orange Crush 1LE]

Matt and flyinlow (and anyone else), I'd like to learn more about optimal pressure at the track. Everyone I talk to has a different opinion, including some of the more experienced guys at the track. The guy next to me in a higly modded Corvette starts at 24 or 25 psi cold, that seemed low to me. But he was running R compound tires.

On my stock Goodyear F1 G2's, I ended up letting air out so that I was at 37psi hot, right after a 25 minute track session. To do that, I need to start at about 29 psi cold. I don't have a temp gage to measure the temp at the edges and middle of the tire to see if it's uniform across it's width, perhaps I should invest in one as a next step.

[markgws6]

I realized above I said "racing". :-) Most on here probably have never been in a full on race competition on the road course but that would be awesome to do I'm sure. Just track days and time trials are probably all my baby will get to do in terms of on track time. Thanks for the replies guys and OP I hope we are doing a good job helping you with your initial question. I too am a novice when it comes to "track" tire dynamics. It would be cool to have a FLIR device to see the tire temps in real time.

[flyinlow]

Sometimes they have tire guys show up at these track days where guys can buy tires and they will mount them right there. Doesn't happen often, but if someone is there talk to them. They usually have a pretty good take on what pressures to run for the tires you are running.

@Orange Crush, not surprised at all that you had to drop your cold pressures down. Track time puts alot more heat into everything, not just tires.

[CrystalRedTintcoat]

Big O comes to HOD events in CA and NV. They filled mine to 29 pounds with nitrogen in all four corners. Purge. Fill. Purge. Fill.


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[cornerspeed92]

Originally Posted by CrystalRedTintcoat

Big O comes to HOD events in CA and NV. They filled mine to 29 pounds with nitrogen in all four corners. Purge. Fill. Purge. Fill.


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Yes,they were there for my track day as well.I always ask the tire professional what they recommend for pressure, they said 32 as well.I didn't go the nitrogen route.What did they charge for that?

[Abdi]

For the track I used higher starting pressure of 35 PSI cold and after my initial session I keep the tires at 41 PSI hot. Over the two days I noticed that my rear tires had a linear 1 PSI rise higher that the fronts after the initial 25-30 minutes session, but were consistent in pressure rise with the fronts for the rest of the day after I purge the extra pound out of them.

I used the tire chart at the bottom of the following page to help guide me. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=72
By no means do I think this is the last or only word on tires pressure. It's just something I used since I've had very difficult time finding a good source on this topic.

Traditionally I've tried to communicate with the tire manufacture and use their advice to guide me for the track day events and I feel it's been fairly successful for me. I've always heard back from Toyo, BFG, Kuhmo, and Hoosier. Goodyear is yet to reply to my emails. Not pointing the finger at them I just haven't heard back.

I've had plenty of experience adjusting pressures to gain or lose grip on the front or back of the car but finding that ideal starting pressure I think is dependent on the weight of the car, the tire load capacity, and the expected top speeds.