Track Day advice needed

[Psaudi]

At the end of the month I'm taking my 2016 S3 Saloon down to France for a couple of days on track.  Any advice on what pressure (cold) that I should set my tyres to at the start of the day?  I'm running on Continental 5P 235/35 R19 .

This will be my first track day, so any other advice for a rookie?

Phil

[Trevor]

Hi Phil

I hope you've got European Breakdown cover in place, lol.

If Le Mans 24 Hours was anything to go by, with temperatures on the track at 42 degrees, tyres were shredding in no time at all.

I would seek advice from a Race School such as at Silverstone or Castle Combe and see if anyone there can give you a calculation on the best pressures for track events.

Let us know how you get on with it

Cheers,  Trevor

[Steve Q]

My advice would be to ask fellow racers at the track. You'll find that even if you set your pressures at the start you may need to adjust them when you come in after each session depending on track temperature, weather temperature and tyre temperature. 

Id take oil and coolant with you too :) 

You may find you may shred your tyres or cook your brakes so bare this in mind if your driving home with it :) 

i speak from experience as my brother is a race driver :) 

[Psaudi]

Just back from France after a couple of successful track days.  I took advice from a couple of racers and the race instructor to leave the tyre pressures as advised by Audi.  The car worked a treat and surprised a lot of the other cars - lots of Porsches, Lotuses, 3 GT40s and a couple of M3s.  In the wet the traction was a real winner and very few could stay near me out of the tighter corners.  In the dry it still performed very well.  After about 6 laps (3.4 km per lap) the tyres were cooked and turned to 'chewing gum' - but they recovered fine for the drive home.

Brakes were very impressive, no fade at all.  This would probably be different with track tyres fitted, but with road tyres it's the tyres that give up first.

Fastest car there - probably the Audi A8, but a toss up with the full race spec. Porsche RS4 and the Ultima.  There was a Nissan GTR there, but the driver was pretty slow.