Pilot super sports' PSI for track - stock suspension

What PSI do you guys run?

This is my summer setup and i'm trying not to trash them. I run 33F and 29R on the street. Thinking of starting them at 35 F and R and hoping to keep 'em at about 40 HOT.

I ran these once (also will be my last time) on autox at 45 hot up front - tried my best not to kill the shoulders. It wasn't fun. They are 235/40 on 18x8.5 wheels.

I want to say last time I tracked PSS(a long time ago, in a MK6 GTI), I did 33/31 or something and ended up pretty close to 40 when I came in...but I am running narrower wheel(8") and wider tires(245/40/17).
That car had just a Eibach rear bar, and at the time I think I used to autoX at 37/42.

Cool, thanks RacingManiac!

Make sure to check your tire temps with an IR gun and air pressure immediately in the hot pit after pulling off the track.

I don't know if temp gun is necessary, especially its not like you can change camber to influence that much. Simple chalked tire can tell if the tires are rolling over too much.

Just got back from my first track event and here is some data.

Tires were pumped last night to 35 F and R. Garage temp of 65 or so. By the time i got to the track today (1.5 hrs) fronts were at 39 and rears at 37.

Tire PSI increase by session (I wasn't paying much attention to rears so those may not be 100% but should be right about there - these are 20 min session):

Session 1: 41F 37R

Session 2: 42F 38R (Learned how to brake, after i was done the brakes were reading 470) ECS not completely OFF

Session 3: 44F 39R ECS OFF (Brakes were smoking when i pulled back in - forgot what they were reading - somewhere in the 600's - my bro's '17 STI was also smoking up front and his were in the 900's if i recall correctly)


As for the tires - w/ the heat gun they were reading 165-175 after session 2.

I didn't use chalk, wanted to and everything, but at the same time didn't want to worry about it that much. You can see something was happening to the sides but i can't believe that's because of them rolling. To me, it doesn't make sense. Overall their condition was ok and you can clearly see the edge to which they were pushed to, which was in line w/ where i wanted to see them.

I'm super tired. Figured i'd post this before i cool off and forget about this.

The car is a GTI, w/ apr Stage1 and CTS FMIC intercooler. I recorded some data via torque app during my last session so can't wait to see how the intercooler performed. Wish i knew exactly how much timing was being pulled and at what efficiency was the car performing (HP/TQ wise) at. Wonder what difference the RS7 spark plugs would have made - bought those just in case.

In short: tracking this car was ok. I have nothing to compare to it to besides auto-x events which are totally different. I feel like i can get as much fun on my bike in the woods. Maybe it's just me, or the GTI needs upgrades left and right where i feel like we're one. I wish i had an SS 1LE. Something NA and designed for this type of driving. Hopefully for my next time out i will finally get to installing my bilstein b12 pro kit (been sitting in my garage since May of this yr) for little improvement in the handling department. Setting up proper alignment and having a sway bar or two would probably help elevate the car from today's condition.

I'm pretty obsessive about tire pressure checks at the end of each session.

I like running my PSS hot at 37 front and rear. To achieve that I set cold temps to approximately 31 front and 32.5 rear at Sebring and lower the right side cold temps by 1-2 at Daytona because of the banking.

I've vetted these settings by listening to the tires talk and data logging track times. This is what works for me; however, I expect these psi settings to change over time as my experience grows and modifications to the vehicle are made.



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RacingManiac said:

I don't know if temp gun is necessary, especially its not like you can change camber to influence that much. Simple chalked tire can tell if the tires are rolling over too much.

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The tires have optimal grip on a certain temperature range. If you're too hot or too cold you adjust pressure

Do you know what is the optimum temp range for PSS?

RacingManiac said:

Do you know what is the optimum temp range for PSS?

Click to expand...

Not me personally I don't use that tire. Best person to talk to would be a local professional suspension guy or a Michelin racing tire rep or similar. Probably around 180-200 F I'd guess

And right, that's the point. Temp is good to know if you have something to use it for. For practical purpose having pressure gives you more than enough information to judge changes. Pressure change difference between axle can tell you if the car's behavior is using which end more, and looking at tire wear(or sidewall use, like chalking) will tell you if you are using the full contact patch or not, at least at the level we care about.

RacingManiac said:

And right, that's the point. Temp is good to know if you have something to use it for. For practical purpose having pressure gives you more than enough information to judge changes. Pressure change difference between axle can tell you if the car's behavior is using which end more, and looking at tire wear(or sidewall use, like chalking) will tell you if you are using the full contact patch or not, at least at the level we care about.

Click to expand...

JPH Suspension does that stuff for me, I'm just relaying the info

PSS is a street tire. I doubt a street tire will appreciate above 60°C/140°F temps.

Basically on a FWD you want to set front tire pressure for optimum grip, while you'll
set rear pressure above of this value for to decrease grip for a mor neutral cornering,
just to your liking. Granted, real life isn't always that simple and sometime you need
to raise the rear tire's temperature, though that's not what we're talking about.

However, the crunchpoint still is front camber ....

TecklenburgVW said:

I'm pretty obsessive about tire pressure checks at the end of each session.

I like running my PSS hot at 37 front and rear. To achieve that I set cold temps to approximately 31 front and 32.5 rear at Sebring and lower the right side cold temps by 1-2 at Daytona because of the banking.

I've vetted these settings by listening to the tires talk and data logging track times. This is what works for me; however, I expect these psi settings to change over time as my experience grows and modifications to the vehicle are made.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I believe that's about the same PSI I saw a few members on Corvette and Porsche forums recommending for the PSS's. I wanted to be on the safe side so didn't bother touching them throughout the day.

My front left was always reading about 1PSI hotter than the right front due nature of the track. If I recall this translated to about a 15F difference between the two fronts.

This will probably me my first and last time on PSS on the track unless I decide not to get a 4th set of wheels/tires (track oriented).

i would run the pss at ~37 to 39 psi hot..

if you are running a gti and exceed that pressure you will chunk the tire quickly.

if you are running a gti fast at a hpde event you will need camber adjustments to avoid chunking front tires..

beers