No wonder journos find our cars a bit too sensitive
Discussion
Picked up the T350 from service/tappet adjustment yesterday. I had them check and reset the suspension alignment too. Driving home I thought it was feeling good until I got to a bumpy road and then a rutted inside lane on the M4. Crikey, it was all over the place.
Got home, checked tyres. 28psi. I heard this was part of the new factory settings. No wonder journos have trouble keeping T cars on the black stuff on road tests in rural Wales. Dropping the pressures back to 24psi completely changed the character of the car.
I'll be saving the 28psi 'offiicial setting' for the track only!
Got home, checked tyres. 28psi. I heard this was part of the new factory settings. No wonder journos have trouble keeping T cars on the black stuff on road tests in rural Wales. Dropping the pressures back to 24psi completely changed the character of the car.
I'll be saving the 28psi 'offiicial setting' for the track only!
Do you recommend 28 for the track? Racing Green set mine at 24 when I collected it from the 6k service, and said not to increase the pressue for the track the following Monday.
Being new to both TVR and track days I'm interested in all advice and guidance......
PS Drove home from a meeting along a stretch of the A31 (from the Hen and Chicken) Thursday evening, tyres at about 23psi (trying different setting) and the car was all over the place. Is this a particularly bad stretch of road, or do I need to worry about adjustment to more than tyre pressure?
Being new to both TVR and track days I'm interested in all advice and guidance......
PS Drove home from a meeting along a stretch of the A31 (from the Hen and Chicken) Thursday evening, tyres at about 23psi (trying different setting) and the car was all over the place. Is this a particularly bad stretch of road, or do I need to worry about adjustment to more than tyre pressure?
I've experimented quite a lot on track with pressures using Toyo T1 R & S, and 24psi is definately too low for track days IMHO. I ruined a set of tyres in just barely more than one session on 24psi. The ouside wear from all the heavy loading on corners just ruined that one side, leaving the rest of the tyre legal. Also the sidewalls were just too soft on 24psi, and the handling suffered especially badly on long corners. I was starting to have the back start to slide out too quickly. The more air I put in, the sidewalls stiffened and the better they performed (not to mention saved tyre wear of course). I now run with 30 on the back and 28 on the front on track days.
Personally I don't even run 24 on the road. I think it just deadens the steering down to a level which people find doesn't catch them out as much, which is fair enough I guess. I run 26 on the road now and that's a good enough compronmise.
Personally I don't even run 24 on the road. I think it just deadens the steering down to a level which people find doesn't catch them out as much, which is fair enough I guess. I run 26 on the road now and that's a good enough compronmise.
Edited by IbizaRich on Saturday 12th August 13:06
IbizaRich said:
I've experimented quite a lot on track with pressures using Toyo T1 R & S, and 24psi is definately too low for track days IMHO. I ruined a set of tyres in just barely more than one session on 24psi. The ouside wear from all the heavy loading on corners just ruined that one side, leaving the rest of the tyre legal. Also the sidewalls were just too soft on 24psi, and the handling suffered especially badly on long corners. I was starting to have the back start to slide out too quickly. The more air I put in, the sidewalls stiffened and the better they performed (not to mention saved tyre wear of course). I now run with 30 on the back and 28 on the front on track days.
Personally I don't even run 24 on the road. I think it just deadens the steering down to a level which people find doesn't catch them out as much, which is fair enough I guess. I run 26 on the road now and that's a good enough compronmise.
Personally I don't even run 24 on the road. I think it just deadens the steering down to a level which people find doesn't catch them out as much, which is fair enough I guess. I run 26 on the road now and that's a good enough compronmise.
Edited by IbizaRich on Saturday 12th August 13:06
Good Post - I have found the same prob on long corners on track as you but didn't try with front's lower than rears.
t40ora said:
Do you recommend 28 for the track? Racing Green set mine at 24 when I collected it from the 6k service, and said not to increase the pressue for the track the following Monday.
Being new to both TVR and track days I'm interested in all advice and guidance......
PS Drove home from a meeting along a stretch of the A31 (from the Hen and Chicken) Thursday evening, tyres at about 23psi (trying different setting) and the car was all over the place. Is this a particularly bad stretch of road, or do I need to worry about adjustment to more than tyre pressure?
Being new to both TVR and track days I'm interested in all advice and guidance......
PS Drove home from a meeting along a stretch of the A31 (from the Hen and Chicken) Thursday evening, tyres at about 23psi (trying different setting) and the car was all over the place. Is this a particularly bad stretch of road, or do I need to worry about adjustment to more than tyre pressure?
Well the latest factory suspension settings are said to be tuned to 28psi. I'm not saying anyone should do anything, but I'll be staying at 24-26psi for the road and 28 for the track. I'm saying 28psi on the road makes the car more nervous and darty which the journos always voice their dislike about.
Leaving the tyres at 24 (+ heat making them higher pressure of course) didn't knacker my tyres. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, but my fronts are the originals and are only half worn at over 13,000 miles with 3 full track days and 2 part track days.
Spoonman said:
Well I'm a journo - and I must admit my Tamora's a handful when I'm caning it on bumpy B-roads. Maybe that's because the tyre pressures were 32psi when I bought it!
Think I'll try 26psi front and 28 rear (or 24/26), and see if that makes much difference.
Think I'll try 26psi front and 28 rear (or 24/26), and see if that makes much difference.
It will most definitely.
Mr.t said:
I have a Tuscan Mk 1, what would you guys suggest I set the pressure's up for road use only ?. Thanks
Don't know, what is it at now? Try lowering them a bit. However, the Tuscan Mk1 is a different animal under the skin to the Tamora/T350/Sagaris so I'd ask on the Tuscan forum.
We definately found that Toyos need to be pumped up for track days because of the soft side walls and always take a decent guage with you and check pressures after each session, you will find that some tracks like Brands need 1 1/2lbs extra in the rear offside and Rockingham needs 1 1/2lbs taken out.
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