ok... so im at a dillema...

Dropping tyres pressure causes more flex in the tyre and therefore more friction and therefor more heat...

Increasing tyre pressures starts the tyre at a higher pressure allowing it to build to a higher temperature...

My issue... softening a pressure to get heat is a technique for a qualifying lap as the temperatures will rise quickly and then cause overheating????????

Increasing pressures will allow the tyre to slowly build temperature and provide more consistancy over a race distance in terms of tyre wear????

Is that correct... any thoughts?

But I think lower pressure will hurt your top speed so not great for qualifying.

Low pressure tyres:
Goods - more grip, warm up quicker
Bads - wear out quicker, slower top speed,

High Pressure Tyres
Goods - Last longer (much longer ), higher top speed
Bads - Warm up slowly, less overall grip.

In rl too high a pressure or too low a pressure both result in bad overheating problems and uneven wear.

In LFS the tyres are much more tolerant and the heat model isn't quite right in some areas.

So long story short in LFS adjust your pressures for optimum temps verses speed. As reducing pressure increases rolling risistance you need to come to the best compromise between temperature profile (cornering grip) and pressure (top speed/acceleration) for a given combo.

generally, I find most of the time that the best qualifying setups are a medium between a qualifying setup and a race setup (basically, a sprint race setup). Quite often its best for qualifying as you can drive the whole lap, confidently. Usually, with hotlapping sets, the tyres begin to overheat 3/4 of the lap in and you can't exactly go as hard into the last few corners as you would otherwise could if the tyres would still be around optimum tyre temperature.

Generally for quali you can use more agressive cambers, too, since you don't have to worry about tyre wear. I find that this can be very effective: it gives you little rolling resistance on high speed straights (since basically only the inside of the tire is in contact with the ground). If you use this together with quite low pressures you get plenty of traction in the corners because the tires flex.

A side note: I find it much more difficult to tweak pressures/cambers on cars with wide tires, such as the FZ5. Too much camber and pressure --> outside doesn't get warm. Too high pressure, less camber --> middle gets too warm. Lower pressure and camber --> better (and this is what I use) but I get more friction.

Most of the race setup I use (I only really drive the FOX) have the tyre pressures maxed out (or close to it). The tyres warm up within a lap or 2 anyway, so that's not an issue, but you really need the high pressures to get the required life from the tyre (for a 1.25 hour race). Of coarse, the handling is sharper with higher pressures too.

Don't make the mistake I did and think that you want all greens all the time - in a FWD car cooler rears mean the rears slide more, and if you use that to your advantage and let them slide a little then the car understeers a hell of a lot less.