Hey there,

I was fooling around Westhill the other day with my XFR to see what's going on with the tire wear (how many laps it takes for a tire to pop etc) and I hit upon something that seems strange to me.

Forgive any noobness in this post as I have no experience in endurance racing or anything above 10 laps.

When the pad gets smaller and smaller, it tends to cool and heat more quickly (I guess because of less pad volume -> less thermal capacity -> less energy to change temperature but anyway).

So, while having an almost dead tire (wear-wise, not temp-wise), some rough cornering can heat up the tire quickly, but a short straight afterwards is more than enough to compensate that, giving you green tires for the next corner.

All that would be ok if the traction decreased with tire wear. But that was not the case, as the traction of the almost-dead tire at green temperatures was on par with the traction of a new tire at green temperatures.

Just note that the tire popped at the first half of lap 36, and on lap 35 I had made a new PB.

So to sum up, we have a tire that has like-new traction and cools down rapidly (useful in tire-eating tracks like Westhill Rev) until, of course, it pops. Sounds too good to me.

Is this really accurate? Shouldn't the tire lose a lot of traction after a certain amount of wear? My last laps were really effortless, fast, and with no worries about frying up the front tires.

You're absolutely right. Tyre should lose traction as it wears. In DMR 1 hour races, people are always clocking new PBs around fifty minute marker.

I think Scaven himself has said that this isn't correct behavior, so it's likely to be fixed when the new tyre physics are ready.

Thanks for the info. It makes sense now.

Looks like the physics engine always gives a particular compound fixed amount of grip regardless of wear level. When the tyre is thin it's easier to bend, and also cools faster, so you end up with more performance on the same compound after wearing.