DPOV -
I'm very sorry to hear abot your friend
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I agree with you (and I'm sure all of us will) that a lot of accidents out there happen because people don't maintain their vehicles a they should.
A friend of my sister died just a few months ago when someone decided that applying the parking brake isn't necessary, the car rolled down hill and killed her. Stupid negligence (sp?).
I do however feel that the car's tires, being your only connection with the ground, should not be the right place to reduce the car's fiction from the reasons I listed earlier.
We may agree to disagree on it.
Diesel John -
I'm all up for tinkering with cars in order to improve them and didn't miss the part that says "modder" in the site's name
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There are many ways to improve FE.
Some can be applied to every car in any situation, some can be applied in some situations and some should be applied unless they are in fully controlled enviorment IMHO, which public roads wouldn't qualify as.
Take P&G driving for example, it may work well for someone that drives in a small town area or a place the roads aren't filled with millions of cars, but I have no doubt that you'll be a victim of road rage in no time if you try it here in Los angeles
...
A lot of you mentioned hydroplaning being a problem of wide tires, all of which is true, but I doubt you find hydroplaning a major problem in most of cars that see that folks here drive, as the average tire size on a Metro is about the size of a roll of electrical tape.
I personally never found hydroplaning to be a problem on any tire sized 205 and under as long as it has good tread depth.
Moti