ltc

Sorry if it sounds odd......

Was at the kart track today (95 deg, humid, sunny....great day to be wrenching on my son's kart).

A gentleman whose son is a nationally ranked kart driver was walking by my son's new kart, looked down at the tires and said 'you have a lot of understeer'....just by reading the surface of the tire. Could see the rubber being pulled across the surface of the tire.
Widened up the rear a bit, narrowed the front a bit, checked the toe/camber with the laser, sent him back out, took a second off a lap immediately.

Has anyone heard of something similar in a race car? I'm not talking about camber/cording, but actually being able to see understeer in the surface of the tire from a couple of feet away?

JPhillips-998

I had a new hoosier with a similar tread pattern after a couple of sessions. Looked like scalloping across the tread. Hoosier told me I shocked the tire without letting it come up to temp and that I "drove through" my car's understeer. Both were correct. I flipped the tire on the rim and put it on the other side of the car. The tread cleaned up but I don't know what it did to the overall grip.

Matt Romanowski

You can tell a lot from the look of a tire. Even Carroll Smith makes a comment in one of the books that temps and pressures are not the whole story - the graining and wear tell you almost as much.

Matt

Enviroteacher924S

I just have Matt tell me what is on the side of my tires. It is good to have smart friends!

GUMBALL

Like many other things in life....it is easy if you know what exactly to look for. As for learning what to look for:
> read - Carroll Smith's books are very good, and there are others too
> look at your car - when the car is not good (understeer, oversteer, sliding too much, not putting
power down) look at the tires and remember what the surface and temperature were
- when the car IS good, look at the tires and remember what the surface and the
temperature were
> better yet, keep a notebook, and write down EVERYTHING..!
> talk to the tire engineers, if you ask the right questions, they are usually more than happy to explain
and tell (or show) what to look for, and, MORE IMPORTANTLY, what to do about it...