Wickster

I have always run 32 psi in my Michelins but just noticed they say to run 50 psi. Do I want to run that high at the track? I have a track day tomorrow and wondering how much to run.

BTW, Michelins Super Sports, not slicks.

Nick_

I found I was having the most success running mine around 40 cold on the track. I didnt play around with them too much, just slight variances, and this seemed to work well.

Bill Dearborn

No. Don't run them that high. Stick with the pressure on the door label. You may actually find you want the cold pressure set lower than the door label recommendation. On the track the tires will get much hotter than they do on the street due to the higher speeds, cornering forces and braking forces. You want a cold setting that will give you a hot temperature between 37 to 40 psi. It isn't unusual to see a 10 psi gain from cold to hot especially with street tires that have a lot of tread on them. When I ran Sebring last year I drove 700 miles to get there and had my new PS2 ZPs set at the recommended 30 psi cold. The tires held up fine with that cold setting. They didn't chunk on the edges and actually held up to the abuse of hard braking and cornering quite well and they had plenty of grip. When I Instruct at the Tire Rack/BMW Street Survival Course we jack the tire pressures up to their max to make the cars slide around more.

Back in the days of the narrow bias ply tire people would pump them up pretty high to keep them from rolling over and coming off the rim. With the advent of the radial wide tire that pretty much went by the way side 30 or so years ago.

Bill

ax_vette

For cup tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...nd_Feeding.pdf

ROAD RACING (psi)
Front: 25 cold; 32 hot
Rear: 28 cold; 36 hot
Note: If your road-racing hot pressures are too high, start
with slightly lower cold pressures.
AUTOCROSS (slalom)
32–36 psi hot (front/rear)
Note: Though autocross hot target pressures are the same
as those for road racing, you may need to start at a higher
cold inflation pressure to compensate for the lower pressure
gains in autocross racing.

rfn026

Buy a pyrometer and take tire temps. That will tell you very quickly what your tire pressures should be. I try to get to 32 psi hot. Autocross people run much higher pressures.

You can always use the old white shoe polish technique. That served us all very well for a long time.

Here's a link to one of my tire articles.

Richard Newton

morris

Don't run below 26 psi in the tire as it will give the active handling fits

Robert R1

On my sport cups, I run 32F, 36R per michelin recommendations. I keep bleeding them down as needed.

If you have an aggressive alignment and run too high of a tire pressure, you'll destroy your fronts quickly. I know...

Wickster

Thanks for the tips guys.

It was a hot 2 days but found I could run 30 before the runs however they would come up to 36 fronts and 35 rears on average. One run they did get to 39 fronts but I didn't have a clean run making every pass off line.

Bad Karma

Based all off of feel (no pyro data to back myself up). I'm happy when my hot pressures are front 40 psi and rear 38 psi.

6SPEEDZ

Michelin super sports like to be at 27 psi cold

blkbrd69

+1

I start them just above where I get the low pressure tire warning.

lefrog

You probably read the max pressure on the sidewall. This is the maximum pressure that the tire will tolerate cold.

Coach62

+2. I actually start at 29 cold front 30 rear

rfn026

Sart checking your pressures when you come off the track. 32 psi hot seems to work nicely. I start at 25/22 psi cold. Remember though you have to get the tires up to temperature before you do a banzi lap.

Richard Newton
High Tech Coatings