Tire Wear

[ESMLefty12]

Ok, I searched all over for this and got nothing. The little four-tire thing in the bottem left hand corner of the screen is tire wear, I know that. What I don't know is the worst color it will get to before I should pit.

 

[Famine]

Blue = cold. Green = ideal temperature. Yellow = warm. Orange = very warm. Red = hot hot hot

It depends on the car. Some cars will push on with little detrimental effect on nearly red tyres. Most like orange at worst.

Run some qualifying laps and see how the car behaves when the tyres are going off. See if your laptimes suffer. Always pit the lap before your laptimes would start to suffer.

 

[ESMLefty12]

Thanks a lot Famine.

 

[SnowbordrWRX]

those are tire temps? they don't "cool" down if you just park the car for awhile, do they?

 

[RedOak]

As wierd as it may sound, there is no mention of the tire icon in the manual.

But i think it indicates the tire's usage rather then temperature.

Blue simply means 'new'.

 

[Dave A]

Originally posted by SnowbordrWRX
those are tire temps? they don't "cool" down if you just park the car for awhile, do they?

They arn't just the tyre temp, they are the tyres condition overall. A very hot tyre will wear faster and no matter how cool the tyre gets after that it won't get back to how it was, so no the colours don't change back if you leave them for a while.

 

[Boundary Layer]

Originally posted by SnowbordrWRX
those are tire temps? they don't "cool" down if you just park the car for awhile, do they?

no they dont,
it's works more as an indication of tread remaining, than tire temp, for that reason alone
ya, its kind of weird that way

anyways, as Famine said you should pit when you're losing more time on your tires, than it would take to pit for a new set

ie) say your on lap 5 of 10. On fresh tires you lap at 1:30, but you're currently lapping at 1:33 and slowing down at say, 1 second a lap, just for simplicity.

Then a 15 second pit stop and the 5 or so seconds to get back to racing speed will finish the race for you in about the same amount of time as if you'd simply continued on. Not to mention make it much easier to drive through traffic and reduce your odds of spinning.

ya, just call me Captain Obvious, maybe that was over-explained

Don't be like the AI and pit on the second to last lap, or final lap. Just ease off a bit and coast to the finish.

 

[MasterGT]

Both wear and temperature are important, otherwise a new tire would grip best.

New cold tires cause a lot of understeer on the first lap or two (or until turning green), so beware of how your car handles with new tires.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[Tedehur]

Originally posted by SnowbordrWRX
those are tire temps? they don't "cool" down if you just park the car for awhile, do they?

Even if this was working, you would lose less time by going into the pit than just parking on the grass and waiting for your tires/tyres to cool down. Wouldn't you ?

 

[SnowbordrWRX]

Originally posted by flat-out
Even if this was working, you would lose less time by going into the pit than just parking on the grass and waiting for your tires/tyres to cool down. Wouldn't you ?

I didn't actually mean that I'd do that in a race I was planning on winning. I just thought that the tire indicator only indicated tire wear which wouldn't "revert" whereas tire temp would.

 

[Famine]

It's not - as has been pointed out - an outright indicator of tyre temperature, but it fits nicely in the head that way. Cold tyres = new and need warming up to grip properly. Hot tyres = blistering and need changing. Ta-daa.

 

[musroc]

i noticed that when the tires start to get hot ... gripping is highly affected......... and the car has to slown down ....... and drifting helps the tires wear out ......

 

[Purple Platypus]

I wanna answer too!

For all practical purposes......Dark blue tires mean they're brand new AND cold. This means that they're too hard, and they will slip around.

Green tires are new but at a good operating temperature. They're nice and warm, fairly soft, and grip really well. You might notice that the recommended gear for some of the corners goes up by one.

Yellow tires are used tires that are still warm. They still grip well, but they have lost tread, so they can slide a bit easier. They are still better than the dark blues though.

Orange Tires (pinkish or just not quite red yet but definitely not yellow) are old tires that are still warm. They don't grip very well. Unlike the blue tires that slide around and oversteer a bit, these just don't want to turn, and make the Zonda go in even straighter lines.

Finally, there are flaming red tires. Congratulations. For all realistic purposes, you have managed to burn the tires off your car and you are now running on the rims. If you happen to be running a Zonda, prepare to make good friends with the walls. If you are at Laguna Seca, meet Mr. Sand.

As for tire changes, it depends on what kind of tires you're running. I am currently running t2's for 20 laps in an NSX, and they end up a bit orange. I could probably go another 3 before they get too red and I start dropping major time. For anything softer than "medium," pit once you hit orange. Next lap, your front outside tire will be non-existant, and you lap will be 5 seconds longer.

Well, there's my comprehensive tire guide....Hope it helps