Quote:
Originally Posted by Qbranch
Obviously more contact area increases traction, or else race cars would have little skinny tires, not big fat wide tires.
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At their operating temperature, race car tires are actually
sticky, so they get traction related to contact area, regardless of the weight. They're also made of soft and relatively weak rubber, so they need to be wide in order to spread out the force and keep from tearing under acceleration.
Dragster tires are extremely wide because
dynamic friction does depend on contact area, and they want to maximize the acceleration even when the tires slip.