North Weald - tyre pressures
North Weald - tyre pressures
Author
Discussion

Dino D

Original Poster:

1,953 posts

247 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
Hi All,

Attending one of the £39.00 action days this Friday, first time on 'track' with my Z3.
Not planning to break any records on the high speed bend or anything but more a day to explore my cars handling in safe environment.

My car is a Z3 2.8 with 18inch Falken 452's (225front and 255 rear). It is lower and firmer than standard too and corners very flat on road but I think on track I will get a bit more lean. It is set up to understeer at the limit so I expect allot of feathering of the fronts if I over do it, especially on the concrete surface.

Car limits suggest running the pressure up to the maximum on the tyre side wall to protect the sidewalls.

Just wondering what are others thoughts and experiences - seems like good advice but what if it rains, does the advice still hold true?

wormburner

33,096 posts

279 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
North Weald murdered my tyres. Even at max pressure, it totally murdered them.

Car Limits predicted 1mm wear - it was more like 3mm, and totally ground-away the shoulders.

Great day though...

Dino D

Original Poster:

1,953 posts

247 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
That's allot!
Was that on your MX-5 on one of your 'barges'?

wormburner

33,096 posts

279 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
An e30 325i. And in fairness I was being silly.

DiscoColin

3,328 posts

240 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
Do what they say. I once saw a lowly Vectra manage to pop both tyres on one side off of the rims at a car limits day. If you don't run the pressures all the way up you can utterly murder the sidewalls.

spyderman8

1,748 posts

182 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
wormburner said:
North Weald murdered my tyres. Even at max pressure, it totally murdered them.

Car Limits predicted 1mm wear - it was more like 3mm, and totally ground-away the shoulders.
Me too. Needed new rears the following week; still running with the same fronts, though.

billyboysm3

171 posts

181 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
Ive done this, awesome day but it will muller the tyres as said above, but there were only 4 of us all day so we all got plenty of action smile

How many people are going on the day?

If I were to do this day again Id buy some ditch finders off ebay for the day to put on.

billyboysm3

171 posts

181 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
My problem was they were new Eagle F1's (school boy error) im sure your be fine on the action day as more car = less time to ruin tyres.

You will love the high speed bend with the 1 finger technique.

Billy

spyderman8

1,748 posts

182 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
billyboysm3 said:
You will love the high speed bend with the 1 finger technique.
Did you also try the "stamp on the brakes mid-corner" technique?!

wormburner

33,096 posts

279 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
spyderman8 said:
billyboysm3 said:
You will love the high speed bend with the 1 finger technique.
Did you also try the "stamp on the brakes mid-corner" technique?!
We did. I was and remain totally staggered by both exercises.

That's the one thing I think back to when I'm pondering on how easy motorsport looks on the tv.

They're making the car dance like that (not the mid-corner brake stamping so much!) bend after bend after bend.

spyderman8

1,748 posts

182 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
wormburner said:
That's the one thing I think back to when I'm pondering on how easy motorsport looks on the tv.

They're making the car dance like that (not the mid-corner brake stamping so much!) bend after bend after bend.
I have to admit I've yet to try that during a race!

wormburner

33,096 posts

279 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
spyderman8 said:
wormburner said:
That's the one thing I think back to when I'm pondering on how easy motorsport looks on the tv.

They're making the car dance like that (not the mid-corner brake stamping so much!) bend after bend after bend.
I have to admit I've yet to try that during a race!
Yes, the thought I singularly failed to get across in that post there was that those two exercises showed without shadow of doubt that I was by far the limiting factor in what the car could do.

That I would be a better racing driver if I was able to just give the car some general idea of where the track went (perhaps write it a letter), and let it sort it everything out itself. It seems proper drivers are able to do this to a much better degree than I, and the more actively I drive a corner, the worse I make the result.

billyboysm3

171 posts

181 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
spyderman8 said:
Did you also try the "stamp on the brakes mid-corner" technique?!
Yes whilst trying to avoid the imaginary wall.

All good fun & would highly recommend!

shim

2,051 posts

234 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
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45-50 psi


But if you drive like a loon,the tyres will be goosed anyway!

Dino D

Original Poster:

1,953 posts

247 months

Sunday 13th May 2012
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Decided to stick on the original 16 inch wheels with part worn tyres.
Glad I did because it made the back end even more mobile and had allot of fun without worrying about ruining expensive tyres.

Had plenty of fun but not so sure I'd be back there again. The high speed bend an one if the handling circuits are very bumpy and just make it harder on the car. Would like to find a place that isn't so so bumpy and hard on the car at speed.
Not bad for the price though.

Oh and I picked up an Allen key in my rear tyre, one of those Ikea ones that made a hole too big for tyre weld and meant putting the space saver. But that had a rusty valve that let the air out! Had to get the valve fixed in Harlow before heading back to Kent at 50mph. Lucky it was sunny and Friday traffic was slow anyway. Got 40+ mpg too!
11 mpg on the track..



billyboysm3

171 posts

181 months

Monday 14th May 2012
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Dino if you do want to do another day of car control Rockingham have a wet grip area which I highly recommend.

I used no tyre wear and also great fun.

Billy