What tyre pressures for RE040s?

mrsmr2 · May 16, 2004, 22:19

I checked my tyre pressures today and found the fronts at 28 and 29 psi and both rears at 34-35psi.

I put them down to the figures in the manual 26 front and 32 rear and went for a quick spin. Ride was better but it may have understeered more.

I've only had my 2 for 48 hours so I'm still learning it. Therefore, being so new to the car, it's difficult to make accurate comparisons.

What tyre pressures do you use? What setting will give me less understeer?

juansolo · May 16, 2004, 22:29

Quote from: "mrsmr2"What tyre pressures do you use? What setting will give me less understeer?

Standard pressures = understeer. Reducing pressure at the front will help reduce this. As will not going into corners too quickly s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Couldn't tell you the pressures I'm at as I haven't been bothered to play with them just yet, now that I'm back on the Bridgestones that is.

SteveJ · May 16, 2004, 22:51

If this is your first rear-wheel drive mide-engined car then I would suggest staying with a mildy understeering setup whilst you get to know the car (which is what Toyota have set the car up to be staright out-of-the-box). Once you know what the car is doing, as Juansolo suggest, gradually lower the front pressures until the car has a tendancy to mild oversteer.

Don't drop them too much as you will find a very sudden tendancy to understeer caused by the tyre rolling over on the rim.

mrsmr2 · May 17, 2004, 10:32

Thanks for the advice. What I'm looking for is a bit more direct turn in. The car certainly hangs on well when cornering but there is a slight delay before turning the wheel. I don't remember the pre 03 model cars doing this when I drove them.

However, this could be due the fact that I was overawed by their agility back then and I've set my expectations too high now that I've finally got one.

And you are right, this is my first rear wheel drive car, so it is going to take me a long time to have the same level of confidence that I have in my FWD cars. For example, I don't know what the back end is trying to do under heavy breaking on bumpy roads.

Anonymous · May 17, 2004, 10:38

Get some Toyo Proxes on there as soon as you can... they rock and are super progressive... you just slide the back when you want and control it nicely. Plus a driver day at North Weald or such like will be a real eye opener on how to control the car.

filcee · May 17, 2004, 12:18

My '01 definitely felt 'twitchier' than my current '03. The difference in feel could be down to the suspension tweaks done between the '01 and '03 models.

With regard to oversteer/understeer; I find that my '03 will understeer if I carry too much speed into a corner, You can definitely feel the front trying to go straight on. To feel the back driving through the corner, you need to carry (slightly) less speed in, but be gently on the gas to accelerate out. How much is slightly less speed? Well, I'm still working on it ... every time I drive the car.

Heavy braking is fine, just don't try to change direction at the same time! The only time I have ever done a driving day this was the one thing impressed upon me at every opportunity - always keep the car as 'in balance' as possible. This means:

Accelerate OR brake OR steer

Never put an AND in there! This definitely goes against my "accelarate gently out" comment above, but you'll get to know how much throttle you can add when leaving a corner after a while (not much, btw). I would suggest you try the late braking for roundabout manouevre, but maybe not - you need to be used to the brakes first. Best bet is to practice *straight line* big stops on a clear, wide, no/limited street furniture piece of road. The brakes are excellent. You shouldn't have a problem once you are used to pressing the pedal. In fact, after the '2 the brakes on anything else will feel either snatchy (quick, modern hatchbacks with huge amounts of instant assistance), or crap (not the aforementioned).

North Weald is a must (haven't done a day there yet), but lots of people here have. No-one has said a bad word about it.

juansolo · May 17, 2004, 18:14

Quote from: "filcee"Accelerate OR brake OR steer

Pah! s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

markiii · May 17, 2004, 18:17

only if you want to go in a straight line s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

juansolo · May 17, 2004, 18:24

True that you should get all your braking done in a straight line and have the car balanced on the throttle on entry to a corner. Though there are times when trail braking can be very effective also.

filcee · May 17, 2004, 20:34

Quote from: "juansolo"
Quote from: "filcee"Accelerate OR brake OR steer

Pah! s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

You track day god, you s;-) ;-) s;-)

juansolo · May 17, 2004, 21:25

I didn't say I could actually do it... s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Slacey · May 17, 2004, 21:31

As for the ideal pressures, I know of someone who easily managed 20k on a set, so their pressures must be just right.....

mrsmr2 · May 17, 2004, 22:15

Just been out for a 20 mile blast with top down.

Found a good mixture of understeer (large roundabout) with lots of rear tyre squeal.

Plus extra turn in when booting car on winding road - went from slight understeer to extra turn in (maybe this is the diff working).

What I hadn't appreciated is how good the brakes are. Initially the front dives and I thought the brakes were OK (I was surprised at the front diving). However, pressing the brakes more increased the stopping force - I know this sounds obvious and how a brake pedal should work but I've not driven a car with such a progressive brake pedal.

Also passed a silver MR2 with top down, and a TF with top down.

PS love the car even more now I'm getting used to it.

Anonymous · May 18, 2004, 16:22

I know this only vaguely continues from whats gone above but I didn't want to start a fresh topic.

I have just returned from having a new set of Eagle F1's fitted (D2 version) to my 2000 standard MR2. (Before I was running almost bald Bridgestone Potenza's).

The difference in grip is quite amazing but I feel the car has more roll in corners. I presume as the tyre is gripping more than before then the G-force is being transferred to the suspension which is causing the roll. I think my previous tyres probably absorbed some of the sideways movement which resulted in less roll. could this be the case or is it just my mind playing tricks?

Anyway, on another note, am I running the correct pressure. I think the tyre fitters set the pressure to 30 at the front and 32 at the back. I have always set my tyres to 28/32 with the Bridgestones, should the Eagle F1's be the same?

Cheers

Mike.

Anonymous · May 18, 2004, 16:28

You may find the F1's have a softer sidewall and therefore require different pressures. 30/32 sounds too high at the frontl to me, i would say try a setup of 28/34 and see how you get on with that.

Anonymous · May 18, 2004, 18:21

I've recently adjusted the tyre pressures in my RE040s. I found that the front end didn't seem grippy enough, even when driving in a way such that weight was transferred to the front. I dropped the tyres pressure to 25 PSI - the tyres feel less buzzy and not so much like they are just skating across the tarmac. You can now really leam in the front end and exploit their grip. The rears have been left at 32. I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. Also see my post in the tyres thread.

markiii · May 18, 2004, 20:33

Quote from: "krisclarkuk"You may find the F1's have a softer sidewall and therefore require different pressures. 30/32 sounds too high at the frontl to me, i would say try a setup of 28/34 and see how you get on with that.

yep much softer sidewalls, I'd add 4psi to stock pressures and see where you go from there.

Anonymous · July 4, 2004, 17:33

I've got Eagle F1's on my '95 200sx at the moment. They're a fantastic tyre - the best I've ever driven on (and believe me, I've driven on quite a few!)...

The GS-D2's have a softer sidewall that can wallow under excessive cornering speed. I found that the best pressures were 30 psi all round with the GSD2's. I did over twelve thousand miles of driving (on two sets of tyres) to come to this conclusion including prematurely wearing out a set of rears on 32-34psi. I really wouldn't suggest going over 32psi on GSD2's cos the tread pattern 'rolls' off the edge of the tyre thus giving its better predictability qualities but also giving a slighly less contact surface width-wise. (NB: contact patch remains the same) Going over 32psi will result in uneven tyre wear.

When it comes to the '2 I'd use the GS-D3's cos they have a MUCH stiffer sidewall and a better wear rate. With the stiffer sidewall you can lower the pressures on the front to 25-28psi.

HTH

Paul