how many G60 owners do you know that haven't uprated their suspension?
I know one who's putting their suspension back up right about now.
Really, one whole person?
Ride height is important to centre of gravity isn't it? I was moreso suggesting that the standard suspension leads itself to comfort (and consequent lean) as much as performance.
You REALLY need to do some reading. Centre of gravity isn't the issue here.
Wow resorting to caps lock now to get your point across. The cog obviously needs to be kept as low as possible. It is the theoretical point that the car will balance from if it were suspended in free air. From a handling point-of-view it is one of the most important variables to consider.
high powered car will, with matching chassis and tyres, have more traction with wider tyres.
Matching chassis and tyres? How are you 'matching' them? You need to read the link above (among a long list of other material). Your statement is balls in some situations and a Golf2 on uber-wide wheels is one of those.
With the same suspension set up, ARBs etc and brand of performance tyres. My opinion is 'balls'? I'm disappointed that you have to take what was an interesting chat to such a basic level. You going to start name calling next?
This thread started off with a basic question that I answered. Yes there will be downsides to someone running wider wheels than standard but if that is the look they want then who are you to judge? Nigh on everyone on this forum has lowered their vehicle from standard...are you going to criticise them for that because there are just as many negatives involved in daily driving.
From the link provided earlier...
So why do wider tyres perform better when cornering? Well apart from the softer rubber compound giving better mechanical keying and a higher coefficient of friction, they have lower profile sidewalls. This makes them more resistant to deforming under lateral load, resulting in a more predictable and stable contact patch. In other words, you can get to a higher lateral load before reaching the peak slip angle.
So do wider tyres give better grip?
If the contact patch remains the same size and the coefficient of friction and frictional force remain the same, then surely there is no difference in performance between narrow and wide tyres? Well there is but it has a lot to do with heat transfer. With a narrow tyre, the contact patch takes up more of the circumference of the tyre so for any given rotation, the sidewall has to compress more to get the contact patch on to the road. Deforming the tyre creates heat. With a longer contact patch and more sidewall deformation, the tyre spends proportionately less time cooling off than a wider tyre which has a shorter contact patch and less sidewall deformation. Why does this matter? Well because the narrower tyre has less capacity for cooling off, it needs to be made of a harder rubber compound in order to better resist heating in the first place. The harder compound has less mechanical keying and a lower coefficient of friction. The wider tyres are typically made of softer compounds with greater mechanical keying and a higher coefficient of friction. And voila - wider tyres = better grip. But not for the reasons we all thought.
