that garrett guy is nuts, but he's right



mike

 

here's a working link to the hot rod article here



mike

 

wow great responses thxs guys!

 

im lost...... maybe i should take physics again

 

I loved smashing this misguiding piece of info in physics class earlier this year.

 

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.



It's annoying when people throw out a bit of knowledge they just learned in school and try to explain stuff with that. But most of that stuff should remain in the classrooms.

 

There is this one guy that I remember, that read a few books on suspension and knew some physics. He though he'd apply that to his street car. I don't know if he ever did any of the stuff he said he was going to do. But his thing was, if it worked on this sort of car (think F1) then why couldn't it work on his car (think POS). Unfortunately, everybody that replied to him did not have the doctorate in physics that he needed in order to believe anything anybody wrote. In spite of all the real world advice he got, it didn't seem to sink into his head that maybe he should follow some sound advice instead of chasing general theories about how suspension works.

 

One concept which helps here is to think of the number of pounds per square inch of contact patch. A narrow tire has a small contact patch, but the psi is pretty high. Put really wide tires on the same car and you have a bigger contact patch, but the car weighs the same, so your psi is much lower. Remember this has nothing to do with tire inflation pressure, which is a different thing altogther. As with all things, there is a point of diminishing returns. Wider is better to a point.

 

This is all straight line talk right? We're not talking about ever having to turn? Because someone started talking about street tires.