Tire rack test: effect of wheel width on lap times

[Obioban]

I've ran NT01s and Toyo RRs for the last 11 years for those reasons. I love the challenge of setting lap times comparable to others with grippier tires.

NT01s are my go to.

[George Hill]

I enjoyed this video, interesting data and I'm glad someone is doing it. BUT, this looks like it is a relatively slow track, more like autocross stuff. What happens when you run these combos on big fast sweepers (the carousel at CoTA) or something like the esses (3,4,5 & ultimately 6) at CoTA. I'm not a tire expert or track setup engineer but when we start to really stretch these tires we start to loose the corner between the tread and sidewall. What affect does this have when on these different tire combinations?

I wish I still had the pic but when we were drag racing we compared a 275 on a 10" wheel vs a 12" and you'd swear it was 2 different tires, the 12" wheeled tire just looked so much wider.

Not gonna lie-- I've long since not selected my track tires by lap time. I select them by price, life span, not overheating, and ease of fitment.

I ran RS4s for exactly this reason, cheap, consistent and last a long time.

[bigjae46]

I enjoyed this video, interesting data and I'm glad someone is doing it. BUT, this looks like it is a relatively slow track, more like autocross stuff. What happens when you run these combos on big fast sweepers (the carousel at CoTA) or something like the esses (3,4,5 & ultimately 6) at CoTA. I'm not a tire expert or track setup engineer but when we start to really stretch these tires we start to loose the corner between the tread and sidewall. What affect does this have when on these different tire combinations?

I wish I still had the pic but when we were drag racing we compared a 275 on a 10" wheel vs a 12" and you'd swear it was 2 different tires, the 12" wheeled tire just looked so much wider.



I ran RS4s for exactly this reason, cheap, consistent and last a long time.

I'd guess the biggest issue would be overheating the tire on higher speed tracks.