Tire lockup in data?

I was wondering whether you could detect tire lockup in data (like on RS3). Which plot(s), if any, should I pay attention to?

Also is it possible to differentiate data patterns for rear / front lockup?

I learned that there is a fine line between an efficient lockup and locking up “too much” - so again, how to tell from data if I’m underdoing it, doing it just right, or overdoing it?

Another question because I’m quite confused - is it possible to tell through data ALONE if your tires are worn and you’re at the point where you should get new ones? I can tell somewhat through the feels - but still wanna know if it shows on data!

Rear lock-up is easy to spot in the RPM trace. Look for a very sharp dip in RPMs in the braking zone. Front lock-up is easy to spot just by watching the front tires when you’re driving. If you are running something with front brakes, I don’t think you’re going to want any lock-up. A small chirp of the rear tires in a rear-brake kart is okay because it lets you know you are at the limit of the tire’s deceleration potential. But even then, any lock-up should be pretty minimal, because if you are sliding the kart too much on the brakes, you are not getting maximum brake potential. Max decel occurs just before the tires fully lock. Excessive locking also overheats the tire.

If you compare a data set on fresh tires vs. used tires, you’ll see obviously slower lap times on the used tires, but if you look at your longitudinal and latitudinal Gs, you’ll see lower peaks as the tire does not provide the same maximum grip.

A tire loses performance every heat cycle. If you are looking for maximum pace, you want a few heat cycles on them as possible.

2 Likes

When you asked in my other thread, my answer was specific to automated data. In your case here, you can way simplify it. If you just do a scatter plot of rpm and speed, you’ll see a dominant line for most of it. Where there’s lockup, it’ll be a sharp dip. With RS3, you can both a scatter plot and the normal trace up, and it’ll highlight the scatter plot where the marker is in the trace, so you can see where the dips occurred.

If you want to go a step farther, you can calculate slip percent, but pretty much anything big enough to stand out in the data is too much

3 Likes

Thank you TJ this is so helpful!

Thanks again Caleb! I’m really into data too so i’ll give it a shot :slight_smile: