balding tyre handling

[Anonymous]

I can not understand why you have less grip in the dry if the tyres are badly worn, surely if there is more rubber in contact with the road, there is better grip, just like f1 cars. obviously the wet is totaly different. but can anyone explain it please??

[kanujunkie]

i 'm crap on that sort of thing, but i thought you were right

slicks in dry = more grip

[Anonymous]

Why do you think it's not the case?

[Anonymous]

When road tyres get bald there's only a thin layer of rubber left, the thinner the layer of rubber on the tyre, the less grip. Racing slicks are the same only they have no tread, the more the tyre wears down, the less grip it provides... or something along those lnes anyway  s:) s:)

[SteveJ]

When road tyres get bald there's only a thin layer of rubber left, the thinner the layer of rubber on the tyre, the less grip. Racing slicks are the same only they have no tread, the more the tyre wears down, the less grip it provides... or something along those lnes anyway  s:) s:)

Road tyres and racing slicks are completely different beasts.

Bald road tyres on a dry clean road (provided they are not down to the carcass) WILL give more grip.

Racing slicks rely on the rubber being thicker to generate more heat internally producing more grip. Hence when F1 tyres wear down so that the grooves are no longer visible they start getting handling problems as the tyre is cooling down quicker than heat is being generated.

[edit] Whatever the outcome of this discussion, bald tyres are illegal on UK roads  s:evil: :evil: s:evil:  [/edit]

[juansolo]

Slicks are constructed completely differently to any road tyre, including the sports tyres like Yoko A048Rs and what have you.  The difference in grip even between 48s and proper slicks is phenomenal (though when they're cold they're like driving on ice comparitory to when they're up to temperature).  As I've always said, the biggest performance increase you can make to any car is the tyres.  If your car can handle it...

Bald tyres should in theory give more grip for a short while than treaded tyres as the contact surface area is greater and there are no tread blocks to squirm.  However it is possible for tyres to go off long before you run out of tread when they've had too many heat cycles.   In these cases they'll harden to the point that you're car becomes an understeery mess regardless of tread.  I'm thinking particularly of A539s, though it takes regular track use to cycle them to this extreme.