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well since we seem to be having more serious and more informative posts in this section. i've decided to join in on the real tech stuff. today's question(s) are about... tire pressure! how does the vehicles tire pressure affect the performance of the vehicle? is there a difference in tire pressure settings in different forms of driving? ie. drifting, auto-x, drag, daily driving. for you guys with experience, what pressure settings do you guys feel is proper to the type of driving you are engaged in? welp... have fun replying
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well in drifting.....a harder tire gives you less grip and a softer tire gives you a lil more grip.....
so put 2 and 2 together you get harder tire in the rear for less grip and the softer tire in the front for more grip
im not sure about the exact pressure to load the tires to, that should be a Question
does anybody know A good tire pressure for the front and rear tires??
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I run Dunlop FM901s all the way around, right now I have 36 psi in the rear. These are on an s14.Comment
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you dont really need high rear tire pressures to drift. have you ever tried dropping the rears to under 30psi? it changes the sidewall characteristics so the contact patch is more on the outside of the tire. i feel this makes it easy to initiate a drift and of course as you heat up your tires the pressure will rise. if you drive with your tires this aired down though it'll lead to cupped wear
i dunno if this approach will neccessarilly work for everyone, its definitely somewhat unconventional, and i have a relatively large rear sidewall of 205/55, and -3 degrees of rear camberComment
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very good answers but not the answers to the questions i was asking. the topic of what type of tires has been covered in many other threads. we are focusing on tire pressure here. you did bring up a good add-on question though... what tire pressures are recommmended for the front and rear tires?Originally posted by Drift IT
well in drifting.....a harder tire gives you less grip and a softer tire gives you a lil more grip.....
so put 2 and 2 together you get harder tire in the rear for less grip and the softer tire in the front for more grip
im not sure about the exact pressure to load the tires to, that should be a Question
does anybody know A good tire pressure for the front and rear tires??
(s13)Comment
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the best way to set tire pressure is by getting a thurmo probe or inferred temp guage..
and mesure the temp of the tire.on both out side edges of the tred and the senter and adjust the camber and tire pressure to make it as even accross the bord as possable
btw: the higer your tire pressure the more the center will boldge but the stiffer the side wall
the less tire pressure
the more the center will colaps ad you will wear the out side edges of the tire and roll the side wall...Comment
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This is exactally why when people autocross they generally overinflate their tires a bit, i know i used to bump it to around 37 psi for events.Originally posted by PearlWhiteMike
you dont really need high rear tire pressures to drift. have you ever tried dropping the rears to under 30psi? it changes the sidewall characteristics so the contact patch is more on the outside of the tire. i feel this makes it easy to initiate a drift and of course as you heat up your tires the pressure will rise. if you drive with your tires this aired down though it'll lead to cupped wear
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For street driving I run between 30 and 32 (all matched). I don't do any other types of motorsports regularly so I can't really make any comments about them. For drifting I set my tire psi to give me the most even tread wear possible. This way I get the most bang for my buck out of my tires. I dont adjust my tire psi to make the car slide differently. Adjusting the pressure up or down will change how it slides, but also can cause uneven tread wear. If I need more slip or more grip then I'll adjust my tire size or type. When I didnt care about tread wear (aka when I ran used tires) I would run super high psi, between 45 and 50 to make the centers buldge. This would make the tires lose traction much easier. To get great treadwear on Goodyear GT II's (245/55/16) I would run 38 or 40 psi. When I graduate to 17's I'm going to start running stretched tires (255 on 9.5"), so I'll probably have to re-learn what works and what dosnt. I know the psi will have to be high, and I imagine I'll get uneven treadwear no matter what.Comment
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I usually run the recommended max, 35psi normally, 44psi for my last pair of Firestones. This is of course for normal everyday driving. For serious racing, you'd use the pressure to fine tune understeer/oversteer. For drifting, I'd think a higher pressure would be prefered. It would not only limit tire wear(edges), but it will also allow you to bring the rear end out easier and provide a better, more solid feel.Comment
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My last set of tires that i really liked and had a chance to drift hard on where Bridgestone <a href=http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+R E910&vehicleSearch=false&partnum=065TR5RE910&fromC ompare1=yes> Potenza 910</a> They were cheap, and handled better they any budget tire i've had before. Excellent all around tire. I really believe the Potenza series is a good series, i've heard nothing but good things about them. (they actualy may of been a different model, but they are very similar to these) I think the recomended tire pressure was 32 PSI. I ran 32 Psi for a while, then i dropped the frotns to about 30 and raised the rear to 34. I didnt like it. It was difficult to predict the cars handling. I later raised them both to 33 PSI rear and front. I liked that alot better. Now that i think about it i should of increased it even more.
Raising the pressure made the car easier to handle. Probably because of my stock suspension. The tires would slide before i received too much body roll. Making the car seem alot lighter on its feet. At least thats how i precieved it.
In my opinion based on my limited experience the best Tire pressure for drifting would be slightly higher then the tire's reconmended max. Even on all four corners. I have never ran staggered tire sizes, but i would be hesitent to do so. Especialy on a light car like a S13, or especialy a 86. To me Even tire pressures seem the best, so it makes me think even amounts of rubber works the best. One thing i want to mention as well. When i was running the staggered pressure, i didnt realize how crappy the car handled until i evened it out and i could immediately feel the difference. Any one where ever run staggered tires, then go to none staggered tire sizes i am curious to see what they think of it.
When i get my car back and running i will try out different kinds of pressure setups and give you guys more info.Comment
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I usually run staggered tire pressures. More pressure up front will lead to more understeer, and more pressure out back will lead to oversteer. My car naturally has a lot of understeer built into the suspension, so I run one or two psi higher pressure in the rear tires than the fronts. If I run higher than three or four psi more than the front, the rear gets very twitchy. I often mess with tire pressure depending on where I'm going- mountain runs are downhill, so I stagger the tire pressure toward understeer because I don't run a rear interior and my weight distribution is about 56/44. (I drive grip-style, mostly... and enjoy trail-braking) If I'm going to be driving over vastly changing land, I usually run roughly equal pressure or slightly biased toward oversteer.Comment
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In drag racing you want lower pressure for a bit more flex in the sidewall to get you a better bite.
For drifting even if you have equal pressures all around the rear will become slightly more pressurized as the tires warm up.
-MRComment
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Thats probably why i had no problem getting over steer trail braking after my car had made a few runs, even while running equal pressure. The S13 naturally understeers but its not as bad as S13 haters claim. Just like most cars the front will give up first if all else is equal. Of course as a drifter we have to make things not equal, threw technique or modifcation. (usually both)Originally posted by mranlet
In drag racing you want lower pressure for a bit more flex in the sidewall to get you a better bite.
For drifting even if you have equal pressures all around the rear will become slightly more pressurized as the tires warm up.
-MRComment
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