Hi all, just getting into LFS and I'm trying to tune up my own XRG. I have all my suspension settings more less dialed in so I turned to camber but I have a conundrum.

I want to set up my camber so that the outside wheels are flat against the road while cornering to maximise my grip. However, if I do this because most of the lap is not spent cornering the inside of my tyres get red hot. This is something I've come across in other racing games too. So my questions are:

1. Is it better to set camber so outside tyre temps are even, or better if I set up camber so outside tyre is flat on the ground?
   
2. How would your answer differ if tyre wear isn't an issue? Would the imbalance of temperatures alone affect grip more than the flatness of the tyre improves grip?
   

Many thanks guys

That's a tricky question.

0º will provide the best behaviour in straight line, but the time is achieved during corners, so that would not be a good setting to use.

The ideal cornering is achieved when the tire is (almost) flat on the ground (bear in mind tire flex, pressuere, etc), if the temperature of the inside part of the tire does not raise too much this is the setup you should use.

As tire inside will be always the hottest part, if you have to reduce it's temperature you should use a less agressive camber (among other setup changes), making the tire to "lift" the inside during corners (I can't find a better wording for this xD). That will help during long races, because when the external section gets too hot and losses grip, tire flex will also reduce, transfering tha stress to middle part, and after that inside part (if you arrive to this situation you are f*cked ).

It comes down to finding the best compromise. I normally just race with slicks, and they allow for some overheating on the inner parts of the tyre before they start giving up. In the case of R2 slicks, I can go as high as 105 degrees C on the inner parts, though the compund has a optimum temperature rating of 85 degrees.

How the load on the tyres will shift in the corners are related not only to how much the chassis can roll with the given suspension settings, but also how much the tyre deforms under stress. Higher tyre pressures will stiffen the tyre and prevent it flexing and deforming during cornering. But I haven't really noticed it having any effect on the current tyre physics. Who knows, it might be more noticable with the new tyre physics.

Higher pressures also will make the tyre more resistant to heating up. But this off course at the cost of less grip since the overal contact patch with the road surface is smaller. Another effect is the slip angle, which is the twisting of the contact patch regarding to actual direction the tyre is pointing in the corners. Slip angles generate force, which you experience as grip.

I don't know how accurate it is, I stumbled across a rule-of-thumb once that seems to work for me... a not-particularly-fast driver

Adjust the camber until the inner and middle sections of the tyre are equally heated for the best all-round compromise between grip and avoiding heat. After that, you need to reduce tyre heating with other settings and/or driving style.