Published June 25, 2026
Located adjacent to our South Bend headquarters, our test track allows our team to discover how each tire will behave under the extremes of emergency situations on the road or the limits of performance in competition.
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Length: (05:55)
2024 BMW M2
Short answer for our BMW M2: most Extreme Performance Summer and Streetable Track & Competition tires preferred a hot pressure of 34-36 psi, with R-compounds and Hoosier Racetrack & Autocross tires happier at 30-32 psi, and one notable outlier (the Falken Azenis RT615K+) thriving at 40 psi. Full results, methodology, and a tire-by-tire table are below.
Anyone who's prepped a vehicle for the track knows there are a massive variety of variables to keep track of. Maybe it's because we're tire people (that's absolutely the reason), but one of the most common questions we get from our enthusiast customers is about tire pressure. What's the right pressure to use when you're prepping for the track?
The honest short answer is... well, there is no single answer. There's a lot of discussion - online, in person, behind the scenes - but once you account for tire, vehicle, wheel width, camber, suspension setup, track surface, driving style, and many other factors, it gets complicated fast. Even with all of that dialed in, it's still a balancing act between traction, tire wear, and plain old subjective feel. It's tempting to throw our collective hands up and say "well, it depends." It does - but that's not good enough.
So we used the controlled environment of the test car and skid pad to gather concrete, usable data. This test ultimately serves a dual purpose: we wanted to provide general insight into how pressure affects tire behavior, and - more relevantly - to determine the optimal hot pressures for each tire ahead of our upcoming full track test.
We divided the tires into four groups, the same groups we'll use for the full track test.
We isolated pressure as the single variable, building tire temperature gradually with laps around our test track and increasing intensity until the tires reached their ultimate hot operating temperature. We then bled pressure down to the initial test value of 42 psi. We recorded one lap in each direction of the skid pad at every pressure level, dropping 2 psi at a time until we swept the full range from 42 psi down to 26 psi. Tire temperatures stayed under continuous monitoring to prevent any uncontrolled influence from heat.
Here are the numbers we landed on - and then we'll dig into what they mean.
| Tire | Optimal Hot Pressure (psi) | Peak Lateral g |
|---|---|---|
| Super 200 - Extreme Performance Summer (275/35R19) | ||
| Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RZ (19") | 34 | 1.07 |
| Vitour Tempesta P1 P-01R | 36 | 1.08 |
| Vitour Tempesta P1 X-01R | 36 | 1.06 |
| Yokohama ADVAN A052 | 34 | 1.09 |
| Endurance 200 - Extreme Performance Summer (275/35R18) | ||
| BFGoodrich g-Force Rival+ (control) | 36 | 1.06 |
| Continental ExtremeContact Force | 34 | 1.05 |
| Falken Azenis RT615K+ | 40 | 1.04 |
| Hankook Ventus R-S4 | 36 | 1.04 |
| Streetable Track & Competition (275/35R18) | ||
| Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3R (control) | 34 | 1.11 |
| Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RZ (18") | 34 | 1.08 |
| Hoosier Track Attack Pro | 34 | 1.09 |
| Racetrack & Autocross Only (275/35R18) | ||
| Yokohama ADVAN A055 (control) | 34 | 1.14 |
| Hoosier Track Attack R Race A8 | 30 | 1.12 |
| Hoosier Track Attack R Race R8 | 32 | 1.12 |
| Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Track | 32 | 1.12 |
| All pressures are hot pressures, measured immediately after a skid pad run on our 2024 BMW M2. Pressures that produced peak grip on this car and setup; treat them as a starting point and iterate. | ||
Several things made themselves clear as we worked through the specs. The 32 psi hot pressure we'd traditionally used on the M2 sat a little low for most tires. Incremental differences in lateral traction across the pressure range ended up very slight, but the high and low ends produced more notable results.
At 40-42 psi, nearly every tire was slightly slower and produced excessive oversteer that demanded constant correction. Above 36 psi was generally too much for every tire, while nothing excelled below 30 psi. In the sub-30 psi range, most tires went sloppy - frequent correction was required to manage sudden, edgy transitions between understeer and oversteer. At those low pressures, the tire deformed enough that we ended up driving on the shoulder (and even the sidewall on some of the grippier tires), producing audible scrubbing and visible shoulder wear.
The optimum pressure range for most of the tires landed in the 34-36 psi window, with a few interesting outliers. The Hoosiers generally favored lower pressures, and the Falken Azenis RT615K+ thrived with greater-than-average pressure. For most tires in that 34-36 psi window, they delivered their best controllability - allowing precise placement near the cones with minimal inputs and a stable attitude throughout the lap.
Between the extremes, the variation was more about subjective behavior than measurable grip. We ultimately selected final pressures on the basis of balance, precision, controllability, and even temperature distribution across the tire face - after confirming that lateral traction remained competitive.
We focused on the pressure that balanced the best traction with the best overall feel. That's the same advice we'd give anyone tinkering with their own setup: rather than chasing marginal gains in peak grip, the bigger improvements in lap time will come from how well you sync up with a tire's individual characteristics - and your own car's idiosyncrasies - rather than from minuscule increases in raw traction.
Obviously, this skid pad test provided useful insight into how we land on track pressures for a specific vehicle, setup, and intended use. The numbers above will be only marginally useful unless you're running a comparable car and setup. If you are, treat these as strong starting points.
In the real world, the best method is experience and tinkering. There is no silver-bullet pressure for any of these tires. Get out there and drive, stay consistent with your inputs, and iterate on what works. The good news: outside of really under-pressurizing or over-pressurizing your tires, the differences are relatively small, so you have a decently wide band to work with. The rest is finding the right zone for you.
It's a bit like learning to cook: we all start with a recipe, but maybe swap out some ingredients based on personal taste, what's quicker, or what just doesn't work for us. So get out there and cook - because ultimately, isn't that slow process of refinement part of the enjoyment of track driving? One more lap, one more run, maybe with a little extra spice this time.
Pressure changes the tire's contact patch shape, sidewall stiffness, and how heat builds across the tread. Too high and the contact patch crowns up, reducing grip and producing twitchy, oversteer-prone behavior. Too low and the tire deforms onto its shoulder, scrubbing speed, generating heat unevenly, and chewing up the outside edge.
Tires gain several psi as they heat up on track, and grip is determined by the pressure the tire is actually running with - not what you set it to in the pit. We set, drove, measured hot, and then bled down or pumped up as needed to land on the target.
Probably not exactly. Vehicle weight, wheel width, camber, suspension setup, driver style, and even ambient track conditions all shift the optimum. The data here is most useful as a starting band - most cars on these tires will land within ±2 psi of what we found on the M2. We recommend iterating from there.
Our Super 200 and Endurance 200 sets are the bulk of the 200-treadwear market. On the M2, those tires preferred 34-36 psi almost across the board - with the Falken Azenis RT615K+ as the standout exception at 40 psi. If you're hunting for a baseline on a 200 treadwear tire, that range is the safest place to start.
Every tire in this test is in stock at Tire Rack and can ship for free to your door or shop of choice typically in 2 days or less. Browse our full lineup of Track & Competition tires, Extreme Performance Summer tires, and Streetable Track & Competition tires, or use the Tire Decision Guide for a tailored recommendation. Looking for fitments specifically for your car? Start with our BMW M2 tires.
We can't help ourselves, we're always testing more tires out on the track. It's a good thing too, because with so many different categories and so many different features to evaluate, there aren't many places you're going to find this type of in-depth analysis. It's not a stretch to say with each tire test we do, you're going to learn something new - and maybe even find your next set of tires.
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