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09-26-2015 #11
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- Aug 2010
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The current trend is big tires. But, if the wheel/tire combo interferes with the suspension/chassis, in such a way that it limits the degrees of steering available than the big tire may not be a win. You need to have 28* of steering, or more.
One of my thought trends lately is all about tire size vs. weight. If you have great suspension, and you can keep the tires planted through the corner, your thoughts soon move to the size of the contact patch. The tires contact patch is all you've got to transfer the forces to the ground. Those forces are, Torque (engine HP & gearing) Braking, and Lateral acceleration (cornering forces, in 'G'). Thinking about them separately to make it clearer, you may think like this: Adding Torque helps in acceleration,- and we are accelerating the mass (weight) of the car, but only if the tires can plant it. Big ABS brakes will help braking, again, we are slowing down the total mass of the car, but only as fast as the tires can hold. And Lateral G, which at some point in the formula, when you balance suspension and aero, comes down to contact patch grip vs. mass. The constants in all three concepts are tire contact patch, and mass. And while everyone is trying to stuff bigger tires under the car and build more HP and buy monster brakes, mass is not talked about much. - food for thought.
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