Caterham 17inch tyre pressure?

[CTrickle]

Hi All,

I'm doing a track day at RAF Woodbridge in a couple of weeks and currently have the 5 spoke caterham 16" wheels.

I had a look at the caterham details and that suggests 16psi, I thought that was quite low. Anyone have any info or advice?

Cheers
Ed.

[sjmmarsh]

16psi is the right starting point - if you check them after a session they should be around 18psi when hot.

Remember the car is light and so needs low pressure to get the correct contact area. The car is about 1200lbs, 300lb per tyre, so that means the contact area for each tyre is just under 20 square inches. Double the pressure to normal tiptop levels and you will halve it, resulting in a very lively car!

Steve

[CTrickle]

sjmmarsh said:

16psi is the right starting point - if you check them after a session they should be around 18psi when hot.

Remember the car is light and so needs low pressure to get the correct contact area. The car is about 1200lbs, 300lb per tyre, so that means the contact area for each tyre is just under 20 square inches. Double the pressure to normal tiptop levels and you will halve it, resulting in a very lively car!

Steve

Thanks Steve,

I first read that as 1200kg, I thought thats a heavy caterham!!

All makes sense, what would you suggest in the rain? Slightly higher pressures?

Ed.

[V7SLR]

Lower.

16" HPC wheels are pretty lousy on track anyway, but I'd try around 14 psi if it's wet. Certainly if it's wet everything's going to slow down quite a bit so take a footpump and a good tyre pressure gauge and try a few different settings - it's an opportunity to learn about the difference pressures can make.

Stu.

[curley]

Do you really have 17 inch wheels ??

[CTrickle]

No 16" as stated in the feed, was an error in the title.