16 inch wheels?

[saitrix]

matt mead Wrote:

NoHachi Wrote:

matt mead Wrote:thats not lose of power, thats change in gearing... gearing maybe worse but cornor speed should increase dramticily when compared to 15s... resulting in faster lap times

I'm not seeing the self evident increase in cornering speeds..why? Lower sidewalls are not necessarily better when using (semi) slicks. I would be more carefull about making blanket statements like these.

larger contact patch

All well and good having a larger contact patch but by doing that you are reducing the kg/m^3 of them too. So if you use the exact same tyres but in the two sizes then the larger tyre will have a smaller grip per m^3 of the contact patch.

In the dry it might be favourable to use the wider tyres, but you have to weigh up where you are spreading the cars weight too much on the tyres. Not quite as simple as larger contact patch = more grip. Especially in the wet I would say you would be much better to run thinner tyres, also in the snow you will gain an even bigger benefit.

I personally would use a high grip, but not too wide, probably roughly stock. Real shame tyre companies do not release the coefficient of friction for their tyres, otherwise you could work all this out easily beforehand.