|
"wider tire will not put any more rubber on the ground because as long as the car's weight remains the same the same amount of tire will be in contact with the road. For example (totally made up numbers, here), if a 7-inch wide tire puts a 7x2" patch on the ground, then an 8-inch tire will put an 8x1.75" patch on the ground... no more rubber than before.
I know my examples are super-basic. But I'm sure I've said enough to clarify my question. "
A pratical example of what Ramega was getting at. This is where things get fun. Wider tires will have a differnt sidewall profile that a narrower tire. Now the dynamics of the slip angle on a wider tire will be differnt then the dynamics of a narrower one.
Remember that tires are done as a ratio of width to height so sidewall then would become a factor in this debate. Just as some ammount of body roll helps our car on the skid pad, so does the flex of the tire's sidewall. The smaller the sidewall the less area there is to flex, that is a given. But the thing that is over looked is the fact that the fast way through a corner is by using the correct slip angle. This is discribed as a felling of a very small mount of push in the car. It actually is a veriance between the tires direction and the acutal direction of the car. This differnce is in one part by skid and another part by the flex within the tire. With a thinner side wall you have a smaller performance envolope for the tire to operate in. This will make it signicatly harder to control the slip angle while also making the car more subseptibale to "coming around on you".
So after all this is said and done I would assume you are thinking, there is a performance envolope to tires. There is a point of deminishing returns..... Wider = more unsprung weight an a smaller AND lighter contact patch. Also since you have more tire mass with less friction it requires more time to heat up the tire and longer to cool off. Remember, tires need to be warm to get traction. Then again, we can't run a 13X5 on cars.... that just wouldn't work.
The debate goes on.......
__________________
The local track whore
|