Kuhmo Tire Pressures

[Blue Streak 21]

I'm changing tires this year from Hoosiers to Kuhmo V710's. I'm staying with the 275 - 17's. I'm looking for tire pressures that you think give good traction and long life. I've read a few postings on other sites that say lower pressures for the Kuhmos are better. Concensus seem to be to start around 25 to 27 psi cold and shoot for 33 to 35 psi hot. Anybody with data or suggestions?

I've got a pyrometer and will take temp measurements across the tire to see if the temps are even, but I don't want to start off chasing my tail.... Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks.

[Panoz Paul]

Greetings .... I'm in a tire evaluation mode , was running the BFG R1's for the last four years & found out w/ the last set , that they changed the compound & was going to move to Hooser R6's ...
Why are you going to the Kuhmo's over the R6's ???
Thanks / Paul W.

[Blue Streak 21]

I'm changing to Kuhmos to see the difference between Hoosier's (and Continential) endurance compounds and tires with higher coef of friction. I've only used Hooisers for the past three years. The races I run are mostly sprint races (7 to 10 laps in length), and many of the guys I race against use Kuhmos. My brief experience with Kuhmos is that they offer much more mechanical grip. I don't know if they'll go off quicker, but I think I'll find out this coming weekend.

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Blue Streak 21

I'm changing tires this year from Hoosiers to Kuhmo V710's. I'm staying with the 275 - 17's. I'm looking for tire pressures that you think give good traction and long life. I've read a few postings on other sites that say lower pressures for the Kuhmos are better. Concensus seem to be to start around 25 to 27 psi cold and shoot for 33 to 35 psi hot. Anybody with data or suggestions?

I've got a pyrometer and will take temp measurements across the tire to see if the temps are even, but I don't want to start off chasing my tail.... Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks.

Hi Jerry, we have not run V710's on the car but we have quite a lot of experience with Kumho Victoracers in 255 & 275/40/17. We have tailored the pressures for our local track (predominantly RH) and used 25LF, 24RF, 23LR & 23RR cold with the Kumho's. We look to run hot pressures of 30 - 31 psi and would bleed down to this as required on the day. These are all endurance setup pressures so may not suit you for sprint racing. We are now on 285/30/18's and pressures for these are not to different. My observation is that Hoosier recommend higher pressures in thier products than what we have ever used in Kumho's.

We had an excellent run with the Kumho's and really rate them. We have achieved up to 15 race hours out of a set of tyres by managing pressures and rotation on the car carefully. You cant ask more than being competitive and getting that sort of life.

Ultimately you will still need to check tyre temps and tailor the tyre pressures to suit your car setup, driving style and local track.

Hope this helps, Kel.

[Blue Streak 21]

Kel;

Very helpful. Many thanks. I will start with cold pressures around mid-20's and see what results for grip and wear.

[Blue Streak 21]

Quick update. First run I used 25 psi as the cold pressure and they were up to 30 hot. Grip was good and lap times were fabulous. The tires wore well on the outside shoulder, but on the inside they only showed wear to the tread wear indicator (2 cm to the edge of the shoulder). The fronts seemed to grain a bit, rears didn't grain at all. So I thought the pressures were too high. I dropped them 2 psi for the next run, and grip was still good. Wear was closer to the edge but not a bunch. No graining on the front tires. Thoughts? Suggestions?

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Blue Streak 21

Quick update. First run I used 25 psi as the cold pressure and they were up to 30 hot. Grip was good and lap times were fabulous. The tires wore well on the outside shoulder, but on the inside they only showed wear to the tread wear indicator (2 cm to the edge of the shoulder). The fronts seemed to grain a bit, rears didn't grain at all. So I thought the pressures were too high. I dropped them 2 psi for the next run, and grip was still good. Wear was closer to the edge but not a bunch. No graining on the front tires. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Jerry, hard to say without knowing the tyre temps on outside/middle/inside of the tyres. We use this as the primary guide to pressure and camber settings. We set up the expected camber and then use expected pressure to check camber via temps (just shooting them with a handheld infrared gun). If camber is in the ball park we then play with the pressures to get final optimised temps.

Other setting that we have found the car/drivers sensitive to is toe. We run just a smidge of toe in so that the car is not to wayward at high speed on straights.

Kel.