16 inch wheels?

[improvedae86]

saitrix Wrote:

matt mead Wrote:

NoHachi Wrote:

matt mead Wrote:thats not lose of power, thats change in gearing... gearing maybe worse but cornor speed should increase dramticily when compared to 15s... resulting in faster lap times

I'm not seeing the self evident increase in cornering speeds..why? Lower sidewalls are not necessarily better when using (semi) slicks. I would be more carefull about making blanket statements like these.

larger contact patch

All well and good having a larger contact patch but by doing that you are reducing the kg/m^3 of them too. So if you use the exact same tyres but in the two sizes then the larger tyre will have a smaller grip per m^3 of the contact patch.

In the dry it might be favourable to use the wider tyres, but you have to weigh up where you are spreading the cars weight too much on the tyres. Not quite as simple as larger contact patch = more grip. Especially in the wet I would say you would be much better to run thinner tyres, also in the snow you will gain an even bigger benefit.

I personally would use a high grip, but not too wide, probably roughly stock. Real shame tyre companies do not release the coefficient of friction for their tyres, otherwise you could work all this out easily beforehand.

Larger contact patch can also not apply to wets if there channels are wider than a standard road tyre the area is the same . Compounds of wet tyres also = more grip in wet conditions.

But so much of all this is dependant on the vehicle.

Weight of the vehicle on the tyres or loading comes down to all the suspension geometry so will never be just a set rule of loading. There is never going to be a perfect road surface or perfect geometry for that road. Especially with the old dated mac strut or live axle . And what would the loading of a thin tyre be ? it can only generate low amounts of mechanical grip so its loading is less than a larger tyre with bigger contact area to a point.

Contact or friction area being larger will regardless of vehicle for sure have a limit that beyond has negative effects. But how many light modern cars have 16" 17" 7'or 8' wide tyres factory now ? is it really to big for a ae86.

Lots of tyre companys release all the information on the coefficient of friction , pressure , temp etc . I have Toyos R888's and they gave me all the information when purchasing them . If you really needing information on the tyre that badly there are lots of companys that do testing , mostly the best are in france.

I think for snow or mud nobody is going to need the increase in width but wouldn't a bigger diameter still equal more drive and braking traction ?