Quote:
Originally Posted by Expert@ApexRaceParts
Generally speaking, the consensus of many racers is that in order to extract the most performance out of a given compound and to maximize the tires contact patch, you’ll want to use a wheel width...
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The contact patch has literally nothing to do with the width of the wheel or the size of the tire. It's simply a product of the weight of the vehicle and the air pressure in the tire.
Put another way, fitted to the same car, and inflated to the same psi, a 245 on a 9" wheel and a 305 on an 11" wheel will have the exact same contact patch area, they will just be different shapes.
And going even further, all these guys fitting 285's and 295's thinking they will get better acceleration are absolutely confused. All they are getting is a different handling car, and any increased acceleration grip is down to new tires vs the old, or a stickier compound.
Strictly speaking, for acceleration you want a long contact patch front to back (take a look at what happens to the tire of a Top Fuel dragster for confirmation), and for handling you want a wide contact patch side to side (re: F1 or any other handling motorsport, especially auto-x).