Topic: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Howdy Folks,

Our team switched to Hankook RS4's (From Dunlop Direzza ZIII's) and have our first race coming up at Pitt. The car is FWD, 2450 lbs-ish, 15x8x225's, -2deg front camber (ish), neutral toe. Does anyone on the forum have some cold/hot tire setting recommendations on these tires, or at least some place to start? For the Dunlops we usually started 28/29 PSI cold, 31 PSI or so in the rear, when the ambient temp was around 60/70. Any info on how the Hankooks respond to pressure will be hella appreciated!

Thanks in advance gang. See you at Pitt~

Signed,
The Perpetual Bridesmaids

2 (edited by Lemon_Newton-Metre 2022-03-27 11:02 AM)

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

This is one question I haven't asked, because I read the authoritative source:

HankookTires website
  / Premium Brand
    / Motorsports
      / Competition Tires
         / Catalog
             @ ~p.44 Circuit Tires. (.pdf)
             @ ~p.66 Full (.pdf)

3 (edited by DirtyDuc 2022-03-27 11:25 AM)

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

here's just a regular link: https://www.hankooktire.com/global/file … ircuit.pdf

To save you a little time, the answer according to the catalog is "at least enough, depending on conditions, car, track, and driver."

That guy

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

our 3500 lb car with driver and fuel runs 36 hot and they seem to be happy at that temp.

Wear is consistent and the feel is good.   When its raining or colder we raise the cold temps by 1 psi.  Normally we run the rears at 31 and the fronts at 30 cold.    If its raining or below 50 degrees we start at 32 and 31.

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Use a pyrometer, but in general 35 psi hot front 32 rear.  If you are at Pitt I will lend you a probe pyrometer and. Advice.

Chris from 3 Pedal Mafia

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

I like the simple chalk method that auto-x-ers use:  3 chalk lines an inch on the tread and onto the sidewall.  Run a lap and check whats left.  ideally, just the on sidewall.  Some of the sidewall missing? Add air.  Some still on the tread?  Lose some air.  Very simple cheap, and takes all the variables into account on all 4 corners.  Use other inputs as a place to start.

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Also, mostly this conversation doesn't mean much with hot pits. If you can't adjust tire pressure in the hot pit, just pick something that seems reasonable and send it. Even if it isn't ideal, it'll likely not make a difference if you haven't otherwise changed the car. Set them cold as you like, and adjust on Sunday morning if you don't like the handling.

It seems to me that in most places the variance during the day makes a static setup nearly impossible to maintain.

That guy

8 (edited by Max 2022-03-28 07:02 AM)

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

FWIW - in our Miata at HPR (a right-turn heavy track) we run 22-24 driver front and 24-26 for the rest (cold).  225/45x15 RS4s.  3.7 camber in front 2.5 in rear.  Max caster (~5 degrees).  0 toe in from and a little toe in rear.  Used a pyrometer a few years ago.  Driver front wears just about perfect, a bit of excess outside wear on the driver rear, a bit of excess inside wear on passenger front, and a decent amount of excess inside wear on passenger rear.  Rotating crossways halfway through a race works pretty well.

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Max wrote:

FWIW - in our Miata at HPR (a right-turn heavy track) we run 22-24 driver front and 24-26 for the rest (cold).  225/45x15 RS4s.  3.7 camber in front 2.5 in rear.  Max caster (~5 degrees).  0 toe in from and a little toe in rear.  Used a pyrometer a few years ago.  Driver front wears just about perfect, a bit of excess outside wear on the driver rear, a bit of excess inside wear on passenger front, and a decent amount of excess inside wear on passenger rear.  Rotating crossways halfway through a race works pretty well.

Not to derail the thread but are you using 15x7 or 15x8 with those 225/45r15?

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Thanks you folks for all the good info here, this gives us a hella good starting point. We'll rough it out with what's here and send it.

ps. If you happen to be at Pitt, come stop by and say Hi, team #312 (Red Mini Cooper S, black trailer) after the track goes cold and we'll send you some beers for the advise~

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Sonic wrote:

Use a pyrometer, but in general 35 psi hot front 32 rear.  If you are at Pitt I will lend you a probe pyrometer and. Advice.


Thanks Homies, we'll be partying with you Three Pedal Mafia folks at the pit partay, looking forward to it~

12

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

Halfkeck wrote:
Max wrote:

FWIW - in our Miata at HPR (a right-turn heavy track) we run 22-24 driver front and 24-26 for the rest (cold).  225/45x15 RS4s.  3.7 camber in front 2.5 in rear.  Max caster (~5 degrees).  0 toe in from and a little toe in rear.  Used a pyrometer a few years ago.  Driver front wears just about perfect, a bit of excess outside wear on the driver rear, a bit of excess inside wear on passenger front, and a decent amount of excess inside wear on passenger rear.  Rotating crossways halfway through a race works pretty well.

Not to derail the thread but are you using 15x7 or 15x8 with those 225/45r15?

Crazily enough we actually run 15x9.  Yeah, a bit of a stretch but they work.  Only issue I've run into is some shops won't do the install, Discount won't but Walmart TLE will.  I bought wide in case we ever want to try 245s.

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

We run RS4's on a prelude, so very similar to your setup... similar camber but we run 245 on a 9" wheel (going 225 in a couple weeks). We don't run the car a lot so my memory is fuzzy but I believe based off the pyrometer we ended up around 36 PSI. RS4's are pretty pressure forgiving but generally speaking higher is safer than lower. YMMV, Only a pyrometer will be able to tell you what YOUR car needs.

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

14 (edited by majo 2022-03-28 03:22 PM)

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

We recently switched from Falken 615's to the RS4's after a decade of running the Falkens.  FWD, 2750ish lbs., 225/50/16 on 16x7" stock wheels.  We started at 28psi and just sent it and didn't bother with checking hot psi.  Ran as fast as we did with the Falkens, but with less wear.  You're gonna like the RS4's -- we're definitely converts.

COM ( Chief Operating Moron ) of Burnt Rubber Soul Racing
Current fleet: 95 Ford Probe, 81 Mazda 626.  Past: 81 Imperial
Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/burntrubbersoulracing

Re: Hankook RS4, FWD, tire pressure experience?

It really depends on too many factors.
For us we start at 26 cold and float around 31 to 33 hot and it looks to be max traction and even wear.

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