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Norbie
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Brisbane
Registered:
May 2002

Re: why do worn tyres have no grip and slicks have lots?

Thu, 25 March 2004 06:46

lang wrote on Thu, 25 March 2004 15:16

that still dosent explain why the worn down tyres i have have less grip than the ones with lots of tread left when they are all the same age....

It's not so much the age of the tyre, it's the heat cycling the rubber is subjected to during normal use. If tyre A has more wear than tyre B and both are the same age, it's clear that tyre A has had a harder life, ie more frequent and/or more extreme heat cycling. This is what causes the rubber to "go off" and lose its grip.

lang wrote on Thu, 25 March 2004 15:16

and isnt a worn tyre with less gaps in the tread equivalent to a tyre that is wider?

Not sure what you mean by that...

draven wrote on Thu, 25 March 2004 11:53

if that's true, why do v8 supercars/f1 cars bother with uberwide rubber?

I never said wider tyres weren't beneficial, I just said they don't give you a larger contact patch! There are other factors to consider, and it pretty much comes down to compound again.

A wider tyre has a shorter contact patch, which means any given point on the tyre will be in contact with the road for a shorter period of time. It also means the overall area of the tyre's contact surface is larger. What this means is you can run a softer compound without overstressing the tyre, ie overheating the rubber to the point where localised melting occurs. Melted rubber = skids = lack of traction and accelerated wear.

Of course this is oversimplifying things a great deal; tyre design and construction is an extremely complicated business these days.

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