[Miata] Disadvantages of wider tires

[Robert Argento]

I do not want to profess to be any expert on this.  To the contrary, I do
not know jack about this.  But I do have some questions that some of you
might be able to answer....

Why wider tires?  The car has a certain weight and this presses down on 4
points (yepp! The tires!)
It would seem that the geometrical FORM of the areas where each tire meets
the road would be different  with different tire widths - but the AREA would
probably be the same. Traction in breaking or in steering would be a direct
fucntion of this combined area. 

How would this effect my driving?  Kat Bryce has come with one observation
which seems quite valid. In another case I would GUESS that underinflated
tires MIGHT increase area against the road surface which MIGHT increase
traction for quick starts (if we had the horsepower) but would probably ruin
steering. (And those of us that underinflate probably do it because of
laziness rather than on purpose)

All very theoretical. I have absolutly no experience. But again, the naïve
question - "Why would you want wider tires".  Hey! If it is a valid answer,
I am all for them. Maybe they are just sexier!

Robban in Sweden 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: miata-admin@realbig.com 
> [mailto:miata-admin@realbig.com] On Behalf Of Tom Blough
> Sent: den 16 januari 2004 07:51
> To: miata@realbig.com
> Subject: [Miata] Disadvantages of wider tires
> 
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> What are the disadvantages of moving from 195/50/15 to 
> 205/50/15 tires?
> 
> TIA,
> 
> 
> Tom Blough &
> "Molly"  Red '99 LP
> Avon, CT
> 
> "Driver does not carry cash - He's married"
> FYI, Racecar spelled backwards is racecaR
> 
> 
>  
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