Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Toe in for tires

Recently I was racing at a series race on carpet where we had to use the Gravity RC F1 tire.  Normally, with the Pit Shimizu tire (CRC, TCS) I keep front toe out at about 2*.  I have run much more in the past, but I discovered on carpet, the Pit tire can overheat with a large amount of front toe out.  That being the case, I have become a little more conservative with toe out on carpet.

As the day went on, I was getting a bit frustrated with the lack of steering on my car.  There was not a good amount of turn in, among the many bad habits my car displayed.  I went to local CRC driver Mark Sweeney, who mentioned he had been running quite a bit of front toe out on his car.  He gave me several tips which were excellent in getting my car competitive on the Gravity tire, but the toe out was interesting in that he felt that the extra heat generated by the toe out was a plus.  I think he is probably correct, seeing  that the Gravity tire is harder than the Pit.  There is not the same amount of steering with the Gravity tire. 

Adding extra toe out to the front of the car worked out.  I suppose the lesson is to consider the trade offs of the front end set up overall (less vs. more toe), but also to realize you can manipulate tire temps with toe.