Experience with tyre wear

[hessi]

Hi there,

I've done two Endurance Races so far, 300km Grand Valley and 200M Laguna Seca. I've used a highly modified BMW 2002 Turbo for Grand Valley and a stock RUF 3400s, both with Sports Soft tyres.
The tyre wear indicator behaved similar on both cars, after about 10 laps the indicator showed about 1/4 gone (3/4 remaining).
Interestingly enough though, while I could drive the RUF for close to 40 laps without significant deterioration in handling, I had to pit the BMW every 12 laps, because it began to be all over the place after lap 8.

My assumption is that tyre wear is basically a linear loss on the grip of the tyre, similar to the value used to distinguish between the different tyre types (Comfort H/M/S, Sports H/M/S, ...), but I was still surprised how bad the BMW handled so quickly into the race - I've tried driving it with Comfort Mediums, as well, and while it is quite a handful, it's still a lot better than it behaved after 12 laps on Sports Soft.

Is my assumption regarding the linear tyre wear influence correct? What's your experience with tyre wear? Can you drive all your cars down to the last bit per tyre or do you change tyres half the way down, as well?

Thanks.

 

[Jorsne]

I use racing soft, MUCH better lap times and just some fewer laps between pitstops.

 

[luchre]

Indy 500 enduro cars have big differences in wear. Holding X down lap after lap can get a P08 to 35 laps, while a Hybride lasts about 25 and thats with each car on default settings. Noticed too that R10 gets unstable with fair bit of blue left, whereas P08 can keep going with almost nothing left. Individual cars seem to have individual wear patterns built in, in my experience at least.

(P08 not included in race line up ofcourse but have used it round indy).