andrew lohaus

understanding this **** is why im studying to become a mechanical engineer. oh yah, and to afford an fd. it does make sense tho because a bigger piece of tape grips better than a small one. its not realy a static coeficient of friction issue. alot more complicated. if it was that simple no car would be able to pull 1g without downforce and there are cars that manage 1g without generating downforce.

Wankels-Revenge

Are you talking about lateral g's or straight acceleration? And g's really are a matter of acceleration, where downforce is more affected by sheer velocity. Theoretically u can generate a lot of g's without having a high velocity merely by accelerating very very very fast...this of course requires an assload of torque and grip

And yes it is a coefficient of friction issue. The reason they use the types of materials they do for tires is to maximize the coefficient of friction while also maximizing the wear-resistant characteristics. Simply exposing a larger area of this material at any given time will increase the net frictional force provided by the wheel. Hence wider tires in dry conditions results in better grip.

High performance tires aren't so much "sticky" as they are "soft". This softness allows the tires to fill in more grooves and imperfections found on the roads and race tracks, which produces more grip.

Oh and sorry for the geek-filled posts i've been putting up lately

edit: btw, i'm a mechanical engineering student and trust me, its no picnic

andrew lohaus

WARNING: GEEKED-OUT POST BELOW

im not trying to nyt-pick here but the staic coeficint of friction represents only the ratio of lateral to downward forces before the tire starts to slip, thus static. obviously the tire slips at the limits of traction so it becomes more complicated. sliding friction, rolling friction, addhesion ect. Static coeficients of friction are theoreticaly never supposed to exceed 1.00 which means you can excert no more lateral force on an object than the force that object pushes down with. in other words according to static friciton you cant drive on a wall (i know, duh!) but for instance drag cars launch with as many as 5g's of acceleration before aerodynamic downforce becomes a factor, which is kinda like driving strite up a wall when looking at it in terms of static friction. its still friction at work, just not static friction in the classical sense.

Raymr

Thanks all. At this point I'm going with the Dunlop SP Sport 5000 205/60-15 from tirerack.com. My biggest worry is sliding my baby into a curb somewhere, and I think these will improve things, according to what I've read.