Another Tire Pressure Question

I did a search, but did not find the answer I needed. I just bought a 2002 VS wide body. Does any now the correct tire pressure for 225 50R15, both front and rear? The max psi listed on the sidewall is 44, but that seems way to high.

Yes, that's way high. Try something like 25 # front and 28 # rear for starters. You should expect to keep about 3 - 4 # difference between front and back due in part to the very light weight in the front.
Hoss

I'm running 205/55 R16 front and 225/55 R16 rear on 7" wide rims all around.

I've run them all down as low as 18, and they ride really nice, but squeel on cloverleafs and at the track.

Last couple of times I've been at the track, I run them up to 30 - 32 front and 34 - 38 rear, depending on outside temperature, and they corner like on rails and don't squeel, but they are a bit stiff out on the highway.

Hoss' recommendation is right on. 24 front and 28 rear still rides nicely and will handle street cornering situations.

Hoss and Gordon,

Excellent advice. Put in 25f/28r and went for a ride. The ride was comfortable, but handled well when driving through the twisties.

Thanks,

Michael

Michael -

Congrats on your new Speedy. Now that you have the tire pressure dialed in you can drive it like Gordon and Cory Hoopty do - DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!! It'll be too much fun!

Welcome to the madness!

Yeah...Drive it like you STOLE it!!

I went to a track day in New Hampshire the other day, and hitched a ride in a Porsche GT3. Absolutely AWESOME car, but a relatively novice driver/owner. He would blast down the front straight, peaking at around 130mph, then STAND on the brakes to slow for the entrance to the chicane, which he entered around 45 - 50 (I swear - he brought it down that low...) Piddle through the chicanes and then BLAST over the hill to "the Bowl", only to JUMP on the brakes before entering the back curves, etc....

All I could take was about five minutes of that before I started getting seriously car-sick.

Average RPM's through the curves was under 4K (sometimes down around 3K), but that engine would explode with power whenever asked. He would pull into 4th on the straight around 100 mph and it would continue to pull like it was still in third!!

As an indicator of his driving ability, we were getting regularly passed in the corners by "Spec Miata" cars with 1/4 the power of the GT3....

BTW: He was running 42 lbs. of air pressure in the tires.......

Gordon -

That was VERY diplomatic of you to hang in there for the entire ride.

Me, I would have JUMPED OUT when he slowed to 45 for the curves!!

Still, I bet it was cool to ride a GT-3 at speed!.

Jim:

Riding in a GT3 is like riding in a rocket. I've ridden in my son's 600+ hp Eclipse, and the straight-line acceleration is similar to that - really puts you back in the seat. I imagine that it corners really well, too, but I would never have seen it with the driver I went out with. It was his personal car, and, while he was brave enough to take it out on a track (the car is pretty new), he's also very afraid of wrecking it, especially after the track day organizer told everyone HIS story:

After ten+ years of dreaming about it, he finally talked his wife into letting him buy a Ferarri, which he did last December (I think he bought a 430). He had the regular shop service done two weeks ago (a tidy, $5600 bill) to get it ready for the upcoming cruising season. About a week ago, he had it at Lime Rock Race Park for a Ferarri event, took it out onto the track, mis-judged a corner, ran it off the course and hit a retaining wall with the left side. No insurance for track-related mis-haps, and Ferarris are notoriously expensive to get fixed. He told the story at the driver's meeting and then cautioned everyone there to "take it easy out there."

Maybe that's why my guy was timid through the turns......