Fwd car... track day.... soft sidewall tyre front or rear?

[robjnr]

Hi everyone!

Here's the situation...

I've got a 15min track session booked at combe this sat and would like to stretch the legs of my recent purchase around track, the thing I have noticed is that the previous owner has put Goodyear asymmetric 2 normal tyres on the front which have a lot of wobble and Goodyear asymmetric 3 XL on the rear.
I haven't got the funds to buy new tyres to match the rears before Saturday so I'm after a bit of advice on whether or not I should swap the XL tyres to the front.
Bearing in mind that it is ment to be wet on the day, would softer tyres up front give more grip in the wet? Or would it be better for the harder sidewall tyre to be on the front wheels?
Sorry if this seems amateurish but I am new to this stuff.

[Order66]

I would suggest if you aren't experienced on track then understeer is preferable to oversteer, so generally better grip on the rear. However depends on the car and if a FWD you might find it is naturally very oversteery anyway, so more grip on the front might work.

[HustleRussell]

Don't worry about it, no point messing around- I defy you to push it hard enough within 15 minutes to fall foul of axle imbalance without massively exceeding your own abilities first.

[Wh00sher]

HustleRussell said:

Don't worry about it, no point messing around- I defy you to push it hard enough within 15 minutes to fall foul of axle imbalance without massively exceeding your own abilities first.

100% agree with this.

[loggyboy]

On a 15 min session you will hardly have a chance to get your tyres warm and your eye in. Use as a taster and if you enjoy buy a spare set of wheels with track oriented tyres and do a full day. Much cheaper in long run than killing road rubber.

[anonymous-user]

Agree with the others, unless you're driving something properly quick 15 minutes is only going to be six laps or so (warm up and cool down laps included, so four or five "hot") laps maximum.

Also if they're the eagle f1's it doesn't matter what axle they're on, they're not suited to track work and overheat/melt pretty quickly in the dry. Good tyre to be on for a damp/wet day though so just get out there and enjoy it

[jon-]

charltjr said:

Agree with the others, unless you're driving something properly quick 15 minutes is only going to be six laps or so (warm up and cool down laps included, so four or five "hot") laps maximum.

Also if they're the eagle f1's it doesn't matter what axle they're on, they're not suited to track work and overheat/melt pretty quickly in the dry. Good tyre to be on for a damp/wet day though so just get out there and enjoy it

FWIW, I abused a set of A3's on a GTI for a good number of laps around miraval with a surprisingly little amount of dropoff.

The 2's on the back will give you weird oversteer, so as others have said, if you're new to the game leave them on the front and put a couple of extra psi (hot) in

[rallycross]

You need good stiff sidewalls on the front, 15 mins is hardly anything but still enough to kill the near side front tyre if you try hard enough round Combe. The rear will not have as much effect as the fronts.

Also set the pressure higher than normal to stop it from rolling onto the sidewall, 34 psi plus for a quick 15 min session should be fine (will be 2-5 psi higher when you come back off track).

[Lov31l]

agree with a lot of the others here, i did 15 minutes at french car show with one of the clubs i'm in. having never driven donnington before, the first couple of laps were slow with me learning the track (no sighting laps) allowing traffic to pass, then i started picking up the pace for a few laps then the session was done finishing with a cool down lap. tyres looked barely touched and they're ad08r's so a softer tyre.

[Flibble]

Lov31l said:

agree with a lot of the others here, i did 15 minutes at french car show with one of the clubs i'm in. having never driven donnington before, the first couple of laps were slow with me learning the track (no sighting laps) allowing traffic to pass, then i started picking up the pace for a few laps then the session was done finishing with a cool down lap. tyres looked barely touched and they're ad08r's so a softer tyre.

AD08Rs are a track focused tyre so better able to cope with heat. I would expect them to outlast your brakes, unless it's a fairly heavily modded car.

[C70R]

loggyboy said:

On a 15 min session you will hardly have a chance to get your tyres warm and your eye in. Use as a taster and if you enjoy buy a spare set of wheels with track oriented tyres and do a full day. Much cheaper in long run than killing road rubber.

This. I spend longer on my first 'sighting' session of the day, getting my eye/line in.
If you're getting anywhere near the limits of your car in 15min from cold, then you probably shouldn't be going on track in the first place.