Will be venturing out in the car for its first trackday at the Lotus HQ Track this Saturday & just wanted to know if anyone has any suggestions on tyre pressures for a trackday.
I’m not a lunatic and will be a tad nervous to start with - so a “gentle” and benign car is required (it’s got standard everything - no modifications at all).
The car is a Mk2.5 1.8 Euphonic with the 16" wheels (205/45 I think) and various brands all around (Pirelli, Hankook, Vredestein) so this will be sorted after I’ve worn them all out on Saturday - but any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Just set them to what ever you use for the road and stop worrying, just enjoy yourself.
Do remove everything that could come lose from the interior and boot, including any mats that you have. Check all your levels, wheel nut tightness and tyre pressures before your first run and after every run. Try not to come back in straight after hot laps, do at least one ‘cooling down’ lap to get all the temperatures back down. Last bit of advice, do not put the hand brake on when you are in the pit area, pop it in gear to stop it rolling. Heat soak can ruin pads and discs.
Start slowly and build your confidence, everything will be fine.
Once you start getting faster, after a session check the pressure as soon as you come in, and drop them to what the handbook says, you’ll find when they’re cooled down they’ll look flat, but you’ll soon warm them up again and get the pressure up.
When you get them really hot with standard cool pressures in, they’ll get really hard and reduce grip when they get hot, so it’s worth dropping them once you do start getting them hot
