Daox -
Illuminating article, but I suggest taking more than one opinion.
I would be looking in the direction of those who try to get every last bit of performance out of their tires.
Racers and autocrossers will always raise the tire pressure beyond the manufacturer's recommendation, but there is definitely an upper limit.
Before someone jumps and says someting to the tune of "but that's with race tires..", this is true also for classes that are required to run street tires.
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Originally Posted by trebuchet03
Not the width - that's not how modern tires work (just making sure that's clear)  |
I was talking about folks who are changing their tires into narrower ones.
Sorry if it wasn't clear.
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Originally Posted by trebuchet03
Please also be aware that tire mfr's DO think tires are a place to improve on - as do auto mfr's that want these tires on their cars....
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Yes, I'm aware of that.
I'm also fully aware of what horrible POS the Goodyear integrity charcoal donuts that came with my wife's 05 Prius and how much better the car handled when we put some good quality Bridgestones on it.
The decrease in gas mileage was minimal, the improvement in every dynamic aspect of the car was phenomenal.
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Originally Posted by trebuchet03
I've also never read in any defensive driving manual (nor heard in any course) of "accelerate and steer" - I've only heard "brake and steer."
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Of course you didn't, and your chances to see it in the future are getting smaller by the day.
Modern day cars are made for driving idiots who are clueless about driving physics.
Everything in this current generation of cars is engineered to save the life of the talentless moron that's driving it.
For god sake, there are cars out there that will activate the brakes on their own accord if the engineer that designed the system think that you went too hot into some corner
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Some drivers, myself included, who have developed their car control skills by taking performance driving courses and lapping racetracks in a variety of cars for some thousands of miles (I logged well over 10K track miles), know that there situations where applying the throttle will do much better than applying the brakes.
I saw many accidents that could have been prevented altogether had the driver sent his foot to the pedal on the right.
Moti