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Just reading through this post I need to correct two things. These are not anecdotal evidence or some lost study, this is from personal experience and knowledge as a racer (sports-car, not drag or circle).
Never EVER EVER EVER inflate your tires to the maximum sidewall pressure when they are cold. In any emergency when your tires experience ANY additional stress you will blow out a sidewall. If you get pushed off the shoulder of the highway, hit a hard pothole while turning, slide sideways into a ditch, whatever. That can lead to flipping your car as the rim digs sideways into the dirt. BAD idea.
Contact patch is absolutely determined by vehicle weight and tire psi. To the poster suggesting otherwise, do the following test: let all the air out of tires and watch how the tire goes FLAT (ie, flattens out on your driveway). psi is pounds per square inch. That is to say, every square inch of contact patch will hold 1 pound of car per PSI of tire pressure. Cut your psi in half and you will double your contact patch. This is not PERFECT, however as there are sidewall stiffness and tread stiffness to factor in.
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