3 ms·

Is the static friction what is going on with wheels? Why do race cars (dragster, F1, etc) have wide, smooth (un-knobby) tires if it's so disadvantageous (no gai

• dredmorbius 5y ago
  For your standard street-car tyres ... mostly, modulo variations in surface, rain, snow, mud, etc. On reasonably fresh dry clean tarmac though, yes. For racing tyres ... you're getting into a differet set of circumstances and uncomfortably far from my knowledge and experience, though my understanding is that the rubbers are specifically engineered to be sticky, more so at high temperatures (hence why drag racers spin out, it warms the tyres). That's no longer the domain of static friction. There's also the matter of thermal management, where tyres at high speeds generate a lot of heat. How much size affects and/or is determined by this, I don't know. I am aware that street-tyre speed ratings are based on thermal properties, however. Knobby tyres are most effective on non-uniform surfaces: dirt/rock and mod most notably.
• adrianN 5y ago
  It is my understanding that race cars have wide tyres to shed more heat. Tyres melting is a problem at F1 speeds.
• saberdancer 5y ago
  Softer tires give more grip but are less resistant to shearing forces. Having a wider tire helps with that.
• jacquesm 5y ago
  When you're outputting on the order of 350 kiloWatt per wheel you want to have enough contact area not to spin through, the same goes for taking fast corners, where that width translates into grip.