The goal is to get all four tires with a as close to perfect heating pattern as possible. Occasionally, I briefly manage that for a given track condition. Those settings always coincide with my fastest laps. Expect it to take a few sessions of tuning if you are starting from scratch. Highly recommend keeping a notebook will all your measurements, brief driving impressions, car set up and of course, lap times.
- Without a cool down lap, get the car stopped safely but quickly in the pits
- Start with the tires on the outside of the track, example: left tires on CW track
- Start with the inside and work out; Inside, Center, Outside.
- The shoulder measurement must be in the scuffed an heated part of the tread, usually 1/2~ 1" inboard of the extreme edge of the tread. Not the shiny unused outer corner.
- Put the probe into the exact same area of the tread on each tire and push in the same amount.
- For a given car, always use the same sequence.
- You should see a 5~10° drop from inside to center, then the same drop from center to outside shoulder. The total gradient that works best for radials on the loaded side of the car (outside of track) is usually 15-20° in even steps.
- The outside tires (left side on clockwise course) are the important ones. It is possible for the more lightly loaded inside course tires to display a greater temp delta of 20-30° on cars with a lot of static camber and stiffer suspensions (more than OEM specs). This is normal and usually doesn't need to be corrected.
Center too hot - example: I 170° - C 180° - O 170°
Too high air pressure. This can be too high cold or "starting" pressure or excessive heat caused by sliding due to car setup or driving style.
Center too low - example: I 180° - C 160° - O 170°
Too low air pressure. This can be too low cold or "starting" pressure, car setup or driving style.
Inside high or low - example: I 190° - C 175° - O 160°
Too much toe out or negative camber can cause excessively high inside edge temps. The way to differentiate is if both LF and RF have the same delta, it's toe. If the outside course tires have a much different delta than the inside course tires, it's usually camber. Also, excessive toe out will usually show a scalloping or feathering of the tread where camber will not.
Outside high or low - example: I 170° - C 180° - O 200°
This is the pattern most commonly seen on production based cars and is usually caused by insufficient negative camber. One band-aid fix is to help make it through the day is to overinflate the tires to raise center temps. This can help reduce the workload of the overheated outside shoulder
With the pyro, you're seeing vehicle configuration, weather, setup, and driving style.
Example: Too much front sway bar/spring and not enough camber? Front tires significantly hotter than rear, outside shoulders hotter than inside.
Example: Rears like 50° hotter than fronts? Too much drifting
Example: All tires low temps? First session, cold day on old tires
Bookmarks