First track event is over, what did I do to my tires!?!?!?

[NigelStu]

keep your hands at 9 and 3 o'clock, not 10/2. it looks like you are using the steering wheel to support your body weight into a corner. Try snapping your seatbelt to engage the lock mechanism, then slide the seat forward to hold yourself into the seat tightly. The is a cheap trick to do if you aren't using harnesses.

I was going to mention something along those lines as well - but more about how you grip the steering wheel. Thumb ON the steering wheel, not around it and finger tips in contact. Finger/thumb tips have much more sensitivity. Its tough to get used to doing it if that is how you normally drive on the street, but if you force yourself to 'thumb' the wheel at all times on the street, eventually it'll become a subconscious action. (until it becomes the preferred subconscious action, your current 'death grip' will continue to happen and that's OK. Don't take much time thinking about it on the track, you need that concentration for the corners!)


Plus, you spin or have wheel contact while gripping, and it can break your thumbs off.

push vs. pull on STR wheel? equal effort from both arms.


Cheap seatbelt addition that keeps the hips in place for track days is the CG lock. I might have a few still around. locks the hips in, still allows UPR body movement.

[Sagaris]

So on the topic of hand position

People are saying 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock... is that AM or PM?
(ba-dum-pshhh)


but really,

if this is the steering wheel I have:

my fingers should be against the back of the spokes instead of curled around the rim of the steering wheel?
like this, but with the thumb on the face of the rim instead?

[Fusion]

How do you guys set tire pressures? What factors taken into account?

[Sagaris]

I started at 34 psi front 32 psi rear based on what a much more experienced e30 driver recommended.

[James Crivellone]

Also consider how much the tire moves side to side on the rim during high speed corner. You would be surprised.

Check out this video a buddy of mine made.

[yeaseth]

That is normal wear for an autocross event.

[Eric]

How do you guys set tire pressures? What factors taken into account?

It's a bit of experimentation to be honest. Your driving style and especially the brand and type of tire will dictate the pressure more than just what your paddock neighbor is setting his car too.

You can google what others recomend, for example, the spec miata guys have pretty much nailed down the sweet spot for RA-1's and R888's. When I ran R888's on my mini, I used the spec miata's guys advice as my baseline and moved the pressures up and down a bit from there.

You really don't want the tire rolling over onto the sidewall. This will wear the tire out very fast, and doesn't do the best for grip. I don't like to see wear on my tires past the little triangle, but I don't think that is the official "don't wear past this line" marking.

This is a great picture of what I'm talking about:



My E28 M5 only has .5° of negative camber, which is NOT a whole lot for track/auto-x! I have to monitor the sidewall closely to make sure I'm not under inflating the tire, or overdriving the tire.

So basically you want the tire pumped up enough that the tire isn't rolling over onto the sidewall, but not too much that the tire feels like a pair of skii's on an ice skating ring when you want to have ice skates.

Check out how much tires move around on the wheel, it's pretty impressive how much flex is happening!

235/35/18 Continental Extremecontact DW's


225/50/16 Hankook RS-3's

[Eric]

Also consider how much the tire moves side to side on the rim during high speed corner. You would be surprised.

Check out this video a buddy of mine made.

Dude, that is AWESOME footage! :bow:

[GillesBigCowboy]

Yeah, I melted the edges of my all seasons at my first track day too... Also ruined my street brake pads. Next time I went to the track, I had some r888s and some track pads...and it was a whole new world; the track stuff can take the heat! I will never run all seasons on track again, unless maybe it is all wet. get yourself some suitable rubber and track pads, and tear it up!!

[yeaseth]

My wheel cam



I also have some angles that show what those tires go through, I would get some RS3's there perfect for autocross, and still legal in STX

[Nsquared97]

Less song, more straight-six music!!! Haha pretty cool vid otherwise, course looks like a lot of fun.

Just a word of warning, be careful mounting the camera as low as you did in the 2nd camera angle, you can end up with what happened at my last event:


And for anyone interested in seeing my best run from that event, unfortunately there was a timing error so it didn't count, although from watching the video later you can see I hit a cone I didn't know about during the event.

[WERDNA75]

Track tire wear

4 wheel drift and too much tread causes this.
I think winter tires are hella fun on the track. Ive done it a few times and one of those times was on the Nurburgring. :)