,
 |
| Tire pressure is one of the most important things to stay on top of in all motorsports, including drifting. |
Tire Pressure
Tire pressure has a huge affect on how a drift car handles. Generally for neutral balance if you have followed our guidelines, you want to run around 28-32 psi hot all around. This is your stable temperature after a few runs. You want to start with your cold temps a few psi below this and will probably have to bleed pressure after every run. Once you get some experience you will more or less know about what cold pressure to start out with.
 |
| Verena Mei checks her tire pressure before a practice run. |
The best tire pressure will vary a bit depending on the car, the type of tire, the rim width and a bunch of other factors but this will be a good starting point. If you have a low powered car with a stock engine like an AE86 you can pump up your rear tire pressures as high as 50 psi to help keep the car sideways. If you rock a big turbo car or a V8 you can run as low as the low 20’s to help with forward bite, although super low tires pressure are best left to the pros as it can make the car twitchier and the tire could debead with a sudden loss of tire pressure. Somewhere in the 30 psi range is a good general base pressure to start at for a beginning to intermediate driver.
 |
| Looking though our old pictures we found a picture of I think Henry Chung adjusting Ross Petty's tire pressures. I didn't know Henry worked for Falken or crewed for Ross before! |
Don’t be afraid to play with tire pressures, lower tire pressures can give you more forward bite but will perhaps reduce side bite. Higher pressure will make the car more stable, keep the tires easier to spin, make it easier to keep the car sideways and will tend to reduce overall traction once you pass the mid 30’s. Tire pressure makes a big difference in how the car handles and is the cheapest and easiest suspension tuning aid so don’t be afraid to experiment.
 |
| Annie Sam adjusts the tire pressure of her race car. Yeah I know this is an FF grip car but the important thing is that she is using a very accurate high quality tire pressure gauge. It is important to use an accurate gauge and handle it very carefully. Dropping it can really mess it up so don't loan your good gauge out! Gauges can be off by as much as 10 psi which is a world of difference! |
To read more on suspension set up and part one, check out this section. “The Ultimate Guide to Suspension and Handling”
Sources
SPL Parts
KW Suspension
Tein
Feal Suspension
Ground Control Suspension
Pro Parts
Koni
Speedway engineering
Whiteline
Progress Group
Energy Suspension
Super Poly Pro
OS Giken
Cusco
Kaaz
