does anyone know of or if there even is a formula to figure out tire width based upon vehicle weight/weight distribution/or any other method to figure out what the correct tire width would be on a street/racecar?
and im saying tires not wheels.
for example. 2400 lb 600whp mid engine/ rwd street car is running 335s on the rears and is not cornering like it could/should. i personally think 296/305 would be PLENTY if the rubber compound was the correct one for this application and capable of laying down 600wheel in a 2400lb. monster.
yea. but doesnt that leave something to be desired in the contact patch/ inertial tendencies of the vehicle?
wider isnt always necessarily better. like on my car for instance(speed3) 245s the whole way around isnt going to handle as good as 245 up front and 225 in rear
Well I was suggested to throw in my two cents, so here it goes. To answer the original question, yes there are formulas out there that would lead you to optimal tire size and compound. HOWEVER, you aren’t going to get far at all unless you have slip angle and carcas spring data from the tire manufacturer for their available tire sizes. Now that you have that you can figure out how you need to load the tires and what you need to do to the contact patch to get the most out of it. And that seems to be how the engineers that get paid lots and lots of money do it. There are a lot of books out there on the subject.
Meanwhile back in reality, its all about how big of a tire you can run versus how much rolling resistance you can tolerate. I’ve seen an RX8 with a stock engine and 255s on a road course that couldn’t break 100mph on a 4500ft straightaway with a 3rd gear entry. We all had a good laugh, but that would have made a good autoX setup for that car. Then I also see turbo Porsche 911s running 305s on the front and if I didn’t know better I’d tell you they were running right rears off pavement sprint cars on the back. But with what I assume is 900hp and at least 750ftlb to drag all that rolling resistance and aero drag from the massive wings around Mid Ohio in the low 1:20s.
There’s my thoughts, whatever they are worth. Hope that helps.
I guess the last bit of your question is confusing and/or contradictory… you’re talking about a very specific setup and figuring out the calculated “best tire width”, but then you call it a “street/racecar”. Which leads me to believe you are planning on having one set of tires used for street, and for the track? That makes no sense, you’d save yourself a ton of time and money buying regular street tires and then buying whatever size slicks, its going to be faster than huge street tires.
Now if that is not really what your question is, and this is a hypothetical, then carry on. Otherwise this just seems pretty stupid (no offense)
