You can set at how much wear you change them by pressing F12... or F11 or one of those :P.

The tire wear and heat does affect your grip. When the tire gets thinner you get more grip but when it's red (really hot) you lose grip. Usually people tend to get them red to a certain degree and then they thing out and cool down and thin out and become more grippy and generate heat faster and cools down faster. (thats what I got from my LFS experience at least :P)

Hmmm...

That means I should get more grip the more my tires are used - only of course I do not overheat them...

Or at least I should not loose grip until my tires blow because of using all the wear - when I do not overheat them...

My problem is that I only have experience in short races about 5-10 laps and am limited in time to test it out and will have a 60 lap race at weekend...

Thank you!

Quote from Crady :

Or at least I should not loose grip until my tires blow because of using all the wear - when I do not overheat them...

Unless LFS simulates the actual tread of the tire (I mean the grooves and such), shouldn't the grip at a given temperature be the same regardless of treadwear?

When I run a FZR for about 20 laps during practice or qualifying I run my normal times but after lap 9 or later things really begin pick up ) I can pick up a couple tenths of a second a lap. Fuel is not in question here seeing as I usually carry less fuel during qualifying so I refuel every 5 or so laps.

Am I just nuts or does LFS actually wear the physical tires down other than on the tire status display (F9). Slicks or not.

Quote from skstibi :

Am I just nuts or does LFS actually wear the physical tires down other than on the tire status display (F9).

It could have an effect on gearing. Because when you flat spot a tire, you can see the car shaking in LFS. So if you evenly wear it then the circumference of the tire has changed.

Quote from skstibi :

Am I just nuts or does LFS actually wear the physical tires down other than on the tire status display (F9). Slicks or not.

Yes, it does physically make the tyre radius smaller for the worn sections.

Wear has nothing to do with grip, per se, but it will alter the car's behaviour in other ways - reduced ride height [but not necessarily the same amount front and rear, thus altering rake angle], reduced heat capacity, uneven wear will make the handling change slightly...

So it's not the wear that alters the grip of the rubber - that isn't modelled - but the dynamics of the car alter for better or for worse.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Wear has nothing to do with grip, per se, but it will alter the car's behaviour in other ways - reduced ride height [but not necessarily the same amount front and rear, thus altering rake angle], reduced heat capacity, uneven wear will make the handling change slightly...

So it's not the wear that alters the grip of the rubber - that isn't modelled - but the dynamics of the car alter for better or for worse.

I just was not sure if LFS actually simulated that or if I was just nuts

It could be both?

Less tread on the tyre means less movement of the tread block. That generates less heat so you can get away with pushing harder on a more aggressive setup when the tyre gets worn without overheating it. Take a hotlap setup and drive it at 6/10 for 10-15 laps then start pushing at 10/10. You'll be able to do more laps at 10/10 here than you would have been able to when starting off with the same setup (because of the reduced tread producing less heat).

A bit off topic, but not a lot: for some reason F9 does not show tire temps on my system. Used too, but not now. F10 does show damage, however. Is there an options switch that turns F9 on or off (if there is I can’t find it)? Is the a config file switch (ditto)?

If F9 doesn't show temps then something is seriously broken. There is no option to turn temp display on or off.