“School House Rock” might have had the cool name, but “Sesame Street” really rocked our worlds when we were youngsters. Jim Henson’s puppets combined with entertaining lessons to shape our early lives. Not only did “Sesame Street” make us laugh, but it probably helped us more than our early formal schooling. We’re even pretty sure that Bert and Ernie’s domestic …
Just commenting here so I can find this and read this in detail later.
The center reading in most cases indicate too much pressure ?
I'd love to see a comparison of a proper pyrometers readings to a simple infrared temperature gun. It would also be interesting to see how quickly temperatures dropped after coming off the track with both measurement methods (fresh off the track, 2.5 minutes after and 5 minutes as an example). The convenience and price (probably already have it) of the infrared setup is hard to ignore but if the numbers are that much more accurate from the pyrometer then it is likely worth the cost. At the end of the day it is probably the delta between the temps that matters the most at an amateur level and maybe surface temps can give you that.
This is great, especially because my daily is a 2005 MCS. I keep the camber around 1.5 degrees as a compromise between sporty and tire longevity. It's nice to see I'm only giving up about a second a lap the one or two times a year it sees a track.
iceracer said:The center reading in most cases indicate too much pressure ?
Yes. I would likely have bled of some air to get the pressures better so only the camber settings were the most influencing factor.
I go off of trackside photography and my gopro facing the tires to kinda see what I need. Plus the good ol get out and feel my tires with my hands
My lazy ass needs to bring either my infrared gun or get a tire pyrometer just to confirm.
On my more street bias Yaris I run 2-2.1* on my one Tercel thats more track focused I run 3-3.2*
I think it is important to note that some cars will experience a change in toe when you change the camber. Camber plates make the adjustment easy but then you have to adjust toe back to the original setting. (if I remember correctly, my 88 MR2 had that problem)
Another note, my 87 Rx7 needed 6 degrees of camber to get even tire temperatures with 350 pound front springs and aftermarket sway bar but it only needed 3 degrees of camber when the front springs were changed to 450 pounds. (the rear suspension is not a strut and has different camber gains that are less sensitive to camber settings)
As a fomer Spitfire GPROD racer, I'm very familiar with how much camber can affect lap times.
Swing axle cars are far less forgiving than Struts or wishbones.
Back in the day, pyrometers were beyond the reach of most amateurs, but we could still play
with the camber and tire pressures to try to find the 'sweet spot'.
Great article.
I always thought that a good test would be to mount an infrared camera in the wheel well, pointed at the tires while on-track. I suspect that by the time it comes into the pits, the actual thermal "wear area" will have widened and cooled substantially, misleading the crew on what's needed. OTOH, I'm guessing that much the same could be accomplished by watching tire wear, though that's more reactive than proactive.
F1 used to do this - the color changes as the cars went thru corners , braked or accelerated were fascinating to watch. Wonder why they stopped doing those? Give competitors too much info?
kb58 said:I always thought that a good test would be to mount an infrared camera in the wheel well, pointed at the tires while on-track. I suspect that by the time it comes into the pits, the actual thermal "wear area" will have widened and cooled substantially, misleading the crew on what's needed. OTOH, I'm guessing that much the same could be accomplished by watching tire wear, though that's more reactive than proactive.
Already available and not very expensive, basically a set of tires.
http://shop.veracitydata.com/collections/autosport-labs-products/products/tirex-advance-thermal-sensor-4-corner-package
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