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Old 04-17-2003, 08:01 PM
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The absolute best results can be reached by using the following procedure... this was stolen from an excellent post on NASIOC:

Quote:
Posted by Dands42 on 04-17-2003 10:50 AM:

You can go a little more high tech with this tire pressure thing and get it perfect for any tire.

Last track event I had a similar issue. It was my first track day in the car and the first time with this brand of tire, so I had no idea where to start.

I borrowed an infrared temperature gun from work. For those of you who have not heard of this I'll give you a brief run through of the process.

1) Take a guess at the right pressures and take an autocross run or a few laps on the track.

2) Measure the temp across the contact patch starting with the outside then the center then the inside. Write it down and go to the next tire.

3) What you are looking for is a trend. If the center is less than the outer areas, add more air. If the center is higher, let some out.

That's the generic version. You can also adjust your camber this way... if you see that outside of the tire is higher then the center is less then the inside in a linear way, then you don't have enough negative camber but the pressure is pretty good because there is no "bow" in the numbers. I have been told that the ideal camber set up is such that the inside temps are slightly higher lets say 120 125 130 from outside to inside. This came from an SCCA club racer who really knew his stuff, a U.S. Marine engineer looking kind of guy.

Looking at the front to rear differences can tell you what you probably already know: it will tell you how much work either end is doing. If the fronts get much hotter than the rears then the rears are not working as hard and the car is understeering. Steering will also add some heat to the fronts. But like I said, you already knew that but it can tell you if the change you made really made a difference.

I got my pressures dialed in and found I needed a lot more negative camber and of course I found out that my car understeers badly.

Hope this helps.

Dan
I edited the post pretty extensively for grammar and content... no offense to the original poster, his ideas are good.
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