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E36 M3 Tire Pressures

The February issue of Motor Trend has a brief article (p.116) on the
effects of tire inflation pressures on handling.  MT varied the tires
pressures on four cars ('95 M3, Nissan Maxima, Corvette, and Eclipse) and
ran them through a slalom.  With the M3 they had the following results,
which may be of interest to M3 owners who are wondering about the best
tire pressures for a track event. 

	Tire
	Pressure (f/r)		Speed (600 ft six-gate slalom)
RUN 1 	33/36 (factory-spec)	67.5 mph
RUN 2	33/38			71 mph
RUN 3	33/40			68.0 mph
RUN 4	33/34			69.6 mph
RUN 5	33/32			65.9 mph

The AWD Eclipse had better times with front pressures higher than spec,
the FWD Maxima was slightly faster with rear pressure set lower relative
to fronts, while the Corvette had a marginally better run with slightly
higher rear pressures. MT also noted that the higher rear tire pressures
for the M3 and the Corvette, while helping response and balance, cut the
"margin of error" making them more prone to spin. 

Guillermo S. Christensen
Mclean, Virginia
'93 BMW 325is
'84 Audi 4000S Quattro