Falken Azenis tire pressures for AX Options

[Racer]

So.. I found one of the few sporty tires for 14" rims for my 914. Falken Azenis RT615-Ks. 195-60-14.

So far, I really like them. However, I can't seem to tell a good pressure for them at AX. First even started at 35 cold all around.. felt ok, and kept bleeding down to 35 as they heated up. Car felt good, but did feel as they heated up I was losing grip, hence the bleed downs during the day

Second event, didn't check cold (slow brain) but bleed them down, hot to 32ish. Couldn't really tell if they were better or worse than 35 hot...

My previous 914 and R comp experience was 205-50-15s (smaller sidewall) of Yoke A008, A032rs, Kumho Victoracers, RA-1s. For those, I never ran more than 30hot.

What could be skewing my memory/preferences is the last 3-4 years I ran a stock 1987 944, 215-60-15s Fuzion xxxx's and they really felt good at 35 hot all around.

Thoughts? Should I be closer to 30 hot with these too? Perhaps I fear too much sidewall flex for the 60 series tire...

[ThePaintedMan]

Alpha, sorry I forgot your name. Anyhow, what Shane (JetsetSurfShop) posted above is a pretty good baseline for many tires. 10 lbs for each 1k lbs will work as a decent cold setting for what most of us use our cars for. In general though, there is no perfect "go to". There are too many variables - what is the intended use of the tire? Street? Track? Autocross? Drag strip? Each application requires the tire to do different things, and each tire is constructed differently than the next. As some of the other guys have mentioned, slicks are a WHOLE different ballgame, as are super light cars and when you throw aero into the equation, it gets even more confusing. It's important to be able to at first, visually read the tire. Look for the rollover marks. If you're not hitting them, then your pressures are *maybe* too high, or your are *perhaps* not driving hard enough, or the spring weight on that corner *might* be too low, etc. That's why the engineers get paid so much money - they can determine which is the limiting factor by using onboard telemetry/data. But by reading the tire visually, and when you're ready, buying a pyrometer (to measure tire temps), you'll learn to maximize the work done by the tire.

There are a number of books out there that explain how to setup a car and understanding chassis/tire dynamics. I'll have to dig up a few links for you.

In the meantime, the next time you take your car out, you can bring a piece of chalk with you and mark the sidewall of the tire. By the end of the run, you'll see whether you're rolling into the chalk pretty visibly by how much shorter it gets. To answer your question, yes, there is some consideration for the sidewall height (actually referred to as the aspect ratio), given all other things equal. However, each person has their own tire choice, so you need to learn how to maximize what you're running on your car with you driving it. Don't worry so much about sidewall height, etc. Worry more about getting wear all the way across the tread pattern all the way out to the wear indicator.

Hope this helps.