370z MEATY TIRE THREAD

[VinceThe1]

Originally Posted by jofro6

push, like is there too much grip that it over powers the fronts more than normal with the comparative front to rear surface area of tire. I am probably not explaining it right, but Rust in the last post seams to understand what im talking about a bit

But see, there is two things, that a wider tire doesn't really give you a lot more surface area because what it gains in width it looses in length (contact patch).

Also, a larger contact patch does not immediately translate into more grip, because yes, you have more compound on the road to grip, but because the weight is distributed, it gips less per square inch, if you know what I mean.

Easy example, a with a tire that has 4 square inches of ground contact and that is loaded with 1000lbs of the car's weight, you would have 250lbs for every square inch of the contact patch, and the more weight you have on a point, the more grip you will have.

Let's say you install a tire with twice the contact area, at 8 square inches, with the same 1000lbs of car weight. Now, each square inch only has 125lbs to carry, so less weight per square inch = less grip...however, because there is more surface area, it compensates for that difference, in physics, in a perfect world, it amounts to the the exact same grip either way.

The reason I use wide tires is because I like the look, and because there is less stress on the wider tire, so it should last longer.