Tire pressures on road course

R

Rick Zurzolo

Member
I am thinking of running the Lightning on a DE day at Lime Rock April 28th with my local Porsche club. This will be my first time out on a road course with the L so I am curious what tire pressures you guys would suggest. I have 295/45/18 Toyo Proxes S/T's on Forgeline 18x9.5 rims. Hawk ceramic pads and Eibach front springs. Stock shocks. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Tire pressure is going to vary, event-to-event, truck-to-truck, and with different driving styles. What I do to tune in my tire pressure is get a big piece of chalk & make a chalk mark that runs from the tread to about halfway down my sidewall (every tire). I run a quick lap & then look @ the chalk mark to see how much sidewall flex I've got. The chalk should rub off the top of the tread, and where the tread wraps down the side of the tire. If the chalk is rubbed off any more than that, then you need to add air to that tire... Any less & you need to take a little bit out. My truck is a Gen 1 so it will probably be a lot different, but I think that I ran 33 psi in the front & 28 psi in the back @ my last event. I hope this helps.

Steve
 
tire pressures

Steve:
Thanks for the tip. I'll try those settings as a starting point and adjust accordingly. I think the chalk idea will help get a good combination front/rear. My driving style is more of a slow in fast out with most braking straight line. The Toyos feel softer than the F1's so this should be a real experiment! Thanks again.

Rick
 
Rick, I'm sorry but your wrong on the Toyo's. They are much HARDER than the F1's. I can never get more than 20 to 22 thousand miles out of a set of F1's. My current Toyo's have 36,000 on them and they will go another 10,000 no problem. Well the rears are almost gone but that's not Toyo's fault. At the first track event I went to in the L, my son and I both drove it in two different run groups (that's 16 twenty minute sessions) and with 4000 miles on the truck when we left the track the tires were gone! I suggest you buy some used race rubber. I have two guys I buy from if you want their names. I give $100.00 each for Hoosiers and $75.00 for Toyo RA1's. I get about 10 to 14 twenty minute sessions out of a set of these tires. Much less money than running on street rubber. They are also MUCH faster......but you must remember you will be going much faster when you lose it and you will get less warning......damn I'm ready right now!



Jerry
 
Toyo's

Jerry:
Thanks for the heads up on the used tires. If my time and schedule allow me to start running road courses on a regular basis I will see about some good race rubber. I probably should have clarified my impression of the Toyo's vs. the F1's. I went from worn F1's with virtually zero tread to brand new Toyo Proxes with full tread and zero wear. Seat of pants feel is a softer ride probably due to the meat on the rubber tread. The Schattenbaum region Porsche club has already run a DE at Summit and has Watkins Glen on the schedule but Lime Rock is my dream to run on. Hopefully weather and schedule will allow this. Thanks for the advice!!!

Rick
 
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