Best Tire and Rim combo for street/track?
08-19-2005, 09:16 AM
#16
Race Director
Originally Posted by ninefiveone
True, the work needed to change a tire/wheel's rotational speed from 0-60 is the same as 60-120.
What's different is how much work that is in relation to everything else that's going on. 0-60 (particularly from a dead stop) you're not fighting air resistance or the rest of the drivetrain (tranny, axles, etc) as much. 60-120 air resistance, drivetrain losses, etc all add up to much more and are a lot more impacful than the rotational mass of the wheels/tires.
A wider tire does create more drag but compared to what you can loose in cornering speed it's not consequential. Loosing 1-2mph of top end for the one spot on the track where you might see 140 for 1-5 seconds is a whole lot less than loosing 3-5mph in every corner (which also costs you in top speed on the next straight).
An overly heavy tire/wheel combo will also be harder on the brakes, true. And I never said it doesn't have impact on the track. My point is that it matters less.
If I had a dime for every person on this and every other board rationalized their super heavy wheel and tire combo as being ok because "it's for the street..." It's on the street where you suffer the most with a heavy wheel and tire combo. You suffer at the track as well but if I had two sets of rims, one heavy and one light, and I was forced to use only one set at the street and one at the track...
...the light rims would go on the street.
What's different is how much work that is in relation to everything else that's going on. 0-60 (particularly from a dead stop) you're not fighting air resistance or the rest of the drivetrain (tranny, axles, etc) as much. 60-120 air resistance, drivetrain losses, etc all add up to much more and are a lot more impacful than the rotational mass of the wheels/tires.
A wider tire does create more drag but compared to what you can loose in cornering speed it's not consequential. Loosing 1-2mph of top end for the one spot on the track where you might see 140 for 1-5 seconds is a whole lot less than loosing 3-5mph in every corner (which also costs you in top speed on the next straight).
An overly heavy tire/wheel combo will also be harder on the brakes, true. And I never said it doesn't have impact on the track. My point is that it matters less.
If I had a dime for every person on this and every other board rationalized their super heavy wheel and tire combo as being ok because "it's for the street..." It's on the street where you suffer the most with a heavy wheel and tire combo. You suffer at the track as well but if I had two sets of rims, one heavy and one light, and I was forced to use only one set at the street and one at the track...
...the light rims would go on the street.
