JMon

I’ll start by saying I’m from Florida and I don’t deal with cold weather very well.
So I posted a topic a few weeks ago about slicks in really cold temps:
https://rennlist.com/forums/racing-a...es-slicks.html

Now my worst fears about the northern temps seem to be a reality. This weekend at Road Atlanta the weather reports call for lows of 27 high of 52.
-Do I need to worry about damage to my tires due to the cold temps as the car sits out overnight?
-Will the tires even come up to operating temperatures with weather that cold?
-If I can choose to run Michelins vs Continental, what one does better with colder temps?
-Any other suggestions on how to deal with this temp issue?

fstockcarrera

Michelins better than continentals for sure. Start @ 22lbs for the Michelins and bleed down to your target psi as the day progresses. 52 degress is not that cold. Michelins work fine in the low 40's, give them a few laps to come in. I drove in those temps two weeks ago without issue at a .5 sec / lap off the expected pace. No Worries start slow.

Veloce Raptor

I echo what Bob says. But below the low 40's, be VERY careful, Jared, as we discussed this past weekend at Barber. IMO, if it is truly 27 degrees when your session starts, skip it.

jrgordonsenior

Assuming you're going out in the cold morning on practice tires not stickers, I would start with even more pressures for 5 or so laps then come in and bleed them. If not possible I'd still run 25f/24r for that firsts session and stay off the curbs for awhile. Definitely Michelin's...

Scootin159

You can run into an issue where when it gets cold enough that the rubber becomes brittle and actually cracks when the tire flexes under the car's weight. The actual temperature where the crack is different depending on the brand and compound, but the 30's or low 40's is not atypical.

Another trick I know a lot of formula car and go kart people will use to get heat into the tires on cold mornings is to significantly overinflate the tires. The theory is that when they're too cold, you just can't get enough grip to put enough energy into them to get them up to temperature. By overinflating them you're only working the center portion of the tire, and hopefully by working less of the tire, you have a better chance of getting heat into it. Then once you get that center portion warm, you can drop the pressures to normal, as the added grip from the center portion is enough to get enough grip to heat up the full tire. With the added mass of full size cars this may not be as much a concern though.