Found some interesting pages from a racing tire book. I have not had time to read the whole thing.
From excerpt#1
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Adhesion is a property of rubber that causes it to stick to other materials, as we see with adhesive tape. Adhesion is generally thought to be the result of momentary molecular bonding between the two surfaces. If bond strength is the same at all the bond sites the force that resists sliding is proportional to the total of all the minute areas of contact. If the two surfaces were perfectly smooth the true area of contact would be the same as the observed area of contact, but this is not the case. Real surfaces are actually very rough on the molecular scale and contact is limited to the highest protuberances on each of the two surfaces. The true area of contact depends on the surface profiles, properties of the materials, and the contact pressure.
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Tire Technology, excerpt from The Racing & High-Performance Tire
From excerpt #2
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At higher slip angles portions of the tire patch are sliding, and you get less increase in lateral force with an increase of slip angle. This is called the transition region. As the curve tops out, more of the contact patch is sliding and the tire produces less lateral force. After the peak of the curve, lateral force can fall off 30% within a few degrees of extra slip angle. At these high slip angles most of the contact patch is sliding, producing a lot of heat and wear.
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Tire Technology, excerpt no. 2 from The Racing & High-Performance Tire
Tire Technology, excerpt no. 3 from The Racing & High-Performance Tire
The following is a inference not a statement of fact.
What I took from this is that given a particular tire, if a higher inflation pressure shortens the contact patch,(I believe it does) it will reduce the proportion of slip to contact, increasing traction in cornering. The smaller patch will have a higher PSI, which would compensate for the lower square inch contact patch. The actual contact area may be roughly the same in both instances.
Good little primer on tires. The book would be a good one to have as a reference.
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