Ok, so... the dashboard in some road cars shows the outer air temperature. If you drive
very slowly (like 5mph) on a track, your telemtry's tire temperature should also be the surface temperature. I wanted to know what difference the surface temperature actually makes and checked the Willow Springs Horsethief Mile circuit (because it looks really hot there and I chose a supposedly extra hot day).
This is what I found (vertical axis in °C):
It's weird that the surface temperature is always above the air temperature, this is off. Also in PCARS the track heated up again before sunrise, sunrise was at 4:45, in reality it seems to be even later, at six on that day:
Next I wanted to know how a race would effect the track temperatures and did a Formula A race with 23 opponents on 100% AI difficulty on the Willow Springs Horsethief Mile (to heat the track up real good), parked my race car next to the track and let the AI do about 30 laps (my tires cooled down like in the diagram above), then drove 8 laps myself with only ~30mph while the AI lapped me (and crashed into me about 4 times). I did all this twice, first at 1:00 a.m. (lowest track temperature, time progression off), then at 12:00 p.m.(highest track temperature, time progression off).
The race heated up the track indeed...
[edit: "Practice" shows the tire temperature while driving alone on the track at the given times, again, at ~30mph]
Only problem is, that
in a race the starting surface temperature didn't matter, it seems to max out (no matter the pre-race surface) temperature at about 55°C.
So... my experiment wasn't really worth it, but I had some fun doing it.
Less from a gameplay perspective but out of sheer sim-physics curiosity, I'd still be interested in the following:
- how significant is the heating up of the tires from very hot brake discs
- how much does rain cool down the track and the tires
- are the
rear tires cooled down less from driving in the rain (best to test with a lap in an AWD car after a mean burnout)
- do the tires cool down more in the rain if you don't drive on the ideal line (in a race as well as in practice, because I've noticed that even in practice on a long track, there is less surface water on the ideal line)