The Wheel & Tyre Bible – Fat or thin?
The question of contact patches and grip.
If there’s one question guaranteed to promote argument and counter argument, it’s this : do wide tyres give me better grip?
Fat tyres look good. In fact they look stonkingly good.
In the dry they are mercilessly full of grip.
In the wet, you might want to make sure your insurance is paid up, especially if you’re in a rear-wheel-drive car.
Contrary to what you might think (and to what I used to think), bigger contact patch does not necessarily mean increased grip.
Better yet, fatter tyres do not mean bigger contact patch.
Confused?
Check it out_Pressure=weight/area.
That’s about as simple a physics equation as you can get. For the general case of most car tyres travelling on a road, it works pretty well.
Let me explain.
Let’s say you’ve got some regular tyres, as supplied with your car.