Tire temps - what am I looking at?

johnnymat · Apr 2, 2017

I have recently come back to rFactor 2. I have forgotten how good the physics, ffb and ai are. I'm still trying to come to grips with setting up cars and tire temps are one of my problem areas. The attached photo shows the tire temps on a Camaro using one of the GT3 mods from the Steam Workshop. I know I had a little damage on the front of the car, but I'm not sure what the other colors mean. Can someone please explain this or guide me to a link? Thank you.

Andrew Ford · Apr 2, 2017

johnnymat said:
I have recently come back to rFactor 2. I have forgotten how good the physics, ffb and ai are. I'm still trying to come to grips with setting up cars and tire temps are one of my problem areas. The attached photo shows the tire temps on a Camaro using one of the GT3 mods from the Steam Workshop. I know I had a little damage on the front of the car, but I'm not sure what the other colors mean. Can someone please explain this or guide me to a link? Thank you.View attachment 183278

Hi Johnny
The green is how much wear (full green is fresh tyres.the dots diminish..then full yellow...they diminish...then red ...they diminish and then crash lol)

on the tyres themselves...blue is cold tyres, dark purple slighly warmer...then i think orange and then yellow is hottest.

you want to try and keep your tyre temps generally under 100 deg (the numbers) in most corners but that is not always possible. in the early laps you want to get those blue tyres heated to get grip but after theyre a nice purple colour, you want them to stay like that if possible.
the thing about rf2 is, it teaches you how to drive better - because you have to learn how to drive to suit the tyres. when i started, i could barely last 10 laps at sebring in a corvette without needing a tyre change. i would guess i could do about x 4 that generally speaking.

too much speed, too much steering input for too long will kill them and you wont end up with nice colours. hope that helps

johnnymat · Apr 3, 2017

Andrew Ford said:
Hi Johnny
The green is how much wear (full green is fresh tyres.the dots diminish..then full yellow...they diminish...then red ...they diminish and then crash lol)

on the tyres themselves...blue is cold tyres, dark purple slighly warmer...then i think orange and then yellow is hottest.

you want to try and keep your tyre temps generally under 100 deg (the numbers) in most corners but that is not always possible. in the early laps you want to get those blue tyres heated to get grip but after theyre a nice purple colour, you want them to stay like that if possible.
the thing about rf2 is, it teaches you how to drive better - because you have to learn how to drive to suit the tyres. when i started, i could barely last 10 laps at sebring in a corvette without needing a tyre change. i would guess i could do about x 4 that generally speaking.

too much speed, too much steering input for too long will kill them and you wont end up with nice colours. hope that helps

Thank you for your response. That helps me a lot. I'll work on getting better and more consistent tire temperatures.