"Needs more tire."
It's a common critique of nearly every road going performance car taken to an HPDE/track day.
Tires and brakes are typically the first items on the track preparation checklist. Track day enthusiasts almost invariably, and regardless of platform, look to squeeze wider and more aggressive rubber into the wheel wells.
Reason? Simple: The performance benefit of endowing a chassis with a greater tire footprint is often tremendous.
Take for example our E90 BMW M3. In stock form that vehicle wears a 245 mm front street performance tire. Substituting in 30 mm wider 275 track tires fundamentally changes the Bimmer's handling balance and substantially increases grip on track everywhere -- under braking, on turn in, etc. With a street performance car, such a tire upgrade alone can net seconds around a typical road course.
And it's not just idiots with modified M3s that believe in the power of wider rubber. In 2014 Chevy launched the track-focused Camaro Z/28 with a host of performance upgrades over the SS model, including a front tire upgrade from 245 to 305 mm Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires (a 60 mm increase in width).
For 2017 Formula 1 is set to implement a similarly drastic tire upgrade. The front tires will grow from (coincidentally) 245 mm to 305 mm, while the rears will expand 80 mm in width up to 405 mm.
The fatter tires will be the foundation for an F1 chassis that is wider overall and more low-slung.
It's a common critique of nearly every road going performance car taken to an HPDE/track day.
Tires and brakes are typically the first items on the track preparation checklist. Track day enthusiasts almost invariably, and regardless of platform, look to squeeze wider and more aggressive rubber into the wheel wells.
Reason? Simple: The performance benefit of endowing a chassis with a greater tire footprint is often tremendous.
Take for example our E90 BMW M3. In stock form that vehicle wears a 245 mm front street performance tire. Substituting in 30 mm wider 275 track tires fundamentally changes the Bimmer's handling balance and substantially increases grip on track everywhere -- under braking, on turn in, etc. With a street performance car, such a tire upgrade alone can net seconds around a typical road course.
And it's not just idiots with modified M3s that believe in the power of wider rubber. In 2014 Chevy launched the track-focused Camaro Z/28 with a host of performance upgrades over the SS model, including a front tire upgrade from 245 to 305 mm Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires (a 60 mm increase in width).
For 2017 Formula 1 is set to implement a similarly drastic tire upgrade. The front tires will grow from (coincidentally) 245 mm to 305 mm, while the rears will expand 80 mm in width up to 405 mm.
The fatter tires will be the foundation for an F1 chassis that is wider overall and more low-slung.
If standard tire performance math applies here, the traction advantages for the 2017 F1 cars should be immense.
A 30 mm tire width increase on a nearly 2 ton sedan is a dramatic. A 60 mm increase at the front, and 80 mm increase at the rear on a 1,500 lb. F1 car with state-of-the-art aero designed around that wider tire footprint?
Lap records shall fall, and necks will be stretched.
A 30 mm tire width increase on a nearly 2 ton sedan is a dramatic. A 60 mm increase at the front, and 80 mm increase at the rear on a 1,500 lb. F1 car with state-of-the-art aero designed around that wider tire footprint?
Lap records shall fall, and necks will be stretched.
