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Old July 16th 2014, 15:20
spannermanager spannermanager is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: London and kent.
Posts: 185
There is case for more rubber on the road, or footprint as it's called, were bigger is better and can offer more grip over a smaller footprint, but,,, there becomes a point where a much smaller tyre working at the proper temperature will be quicker by a significant margin,, the key with a Beetle is getting temperature into the tyre, any temperature is hard won as the tyre loads are comparatively low, brake caliper sizing is also key to core tyre temperature, my race car starts to lose grip as the fuel load, weight, comes off the front axle and tyre temperature drops, I run a soft compound on the right front and even that struggles on right hand tracks, most are. One advantage of wider tyres is a softer compound can be used and it needs less pressure to support itself, given it still needs a correct 'come in' pressure, if it's cold all the time, it's too big, no question.
Various cheats can be used on the front to generate temperature in cold weather, more camber and caster, the two are closely linked, more pressure to load given parts of the tyre, up on the crown for example, or on either shoulder, and then the toe settings.
It's harder to use extreme settings for longer dry Tarmac races, but it's common on shorter events, and you can ignore all this for road cars...
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