Track day tyre pressure on a lambo balboni

[SpeedFreakDave]

Hi guys,

Lambo are telling me 2.4 fronts and 2.2 rears on the road but increase all tyres to 3.0 if doing speeds in excess of 260kph. On a circuit the speed on average is much lower than 260kph and it is all about the bends and the handling. On all other cars I track we drop the pressure.

What do you all do here, why am I supposed to be putting more air in? I think they are just talking about high speed straight runs.

Cheers

Dave

[kryten22uk]

If you have low pressure then on heavy cornering you get substantial "roll" of the tyres off the rims. This will destroy your tyres quicker and probably lessens performance. So increasing the pressure keeps the tyre more rigid on cornering.

[SpeedFreakDave]

But on a track the presure increases with harder driving.

[panic458]

your tyres are designed to work best at an optimum pressure when up to temp. when you use your tyres they heat up and when they do the air inside expands thus increasing the pressure. on the road they will not heat up very much so pressure will only rise 1 or 2 points. when you are on track your tyres work harder thus more heat and more pressure. if you increase the pressure before you go out on track you car will slide around like frog in a frying pan. this might be fun but will be very expensive in tyres.
work out what you optimum pressure is warm (manufacturers reccommended pressure plus 0.1 bar)
when you get on track do 3-4 laps then come in and drop your pressure back to optimum. repeat this until the pressure when you come in is about the optimum.
if when you finish you let the tyres cool completely you will see the pressure drop considerably. you could record this pressure and use it as your starting pressure the next time (though there are a few caveats to that)BUT REMEMBER TO put them back to road pressures before you leave.

Edited by panic458 on Tuesday 30th March 12:11

[SpeedFreakDave]

panic458 said:

your tyres are designed to work best at an optimum pressure when up to temp. when you use your tyres they heat up and when they do the air inside expands thus increasing the pressure. on the road they will not heat up very much so pressure will only rise 1 or 2 points. when you are on track your tyres work harder thus more heat and more pressure. if you increase the pressure before you go out on track you car will slide around like frog in a frying pan. this might be fun but will be very expensive in tyres.
work out what you optimum pressure is warm (manufacturers reccommended pressure plus 0.1 bar)
when you get on track do 3-4 laps then come in and drop your pressure back to optimum. repeat this until the pressure when you come in is about the optimum.
if when you finish you let the tyres cool completely you will see the pressure drop considerably. you could record this pressure and use it as your starting pressure the next time (though there are a few caveats to that)BUT REMEMBER TO put them back to road pressures before you leave.

Edited by panic458 on Tuesday 30th March 12:11

Yep that is exactly what I do usually but the lambo service guy told me different and I didn't believe him for all the reasons you just said! Thanks for the help, I thought I was missing something!