what's the faster wagon?

[Peter K L Milnes]

They also have wings at front and rear to exert a downforce well in excess
of the car's weight. An F1 car could be driven upside down on the ceiling of
a tunnel with the downforce produced by the wings keeping it on the ceiling.
How's that for physics?

Cheers, Peter.

 

[~^ beancounter ~^]

They also have wings at front and rear to exert a downforce well in
excess
of the car's weight. An F1 car could be driven upside down on the
ceiling of
a tunnel with the downforce produced by the wings keeping it on the
ceiling.
How's that for physics?

yep...watch what happens when one looses a wing at
200+...not a pretty sight....

 

[James Sweet]

If you have a big fat tire you can make it out of a really soft sticky
rubber and not have it shred to pieces when you apply 1200 HP to it.

 

[Stephen Henning]

There must be more to it than just a wet surface. Think of a Formula 1
or Cart/Indy race car - they must have those big fat rear tyres for
something, and it's certainly not aerodynamics. If it wasn't for the
rules limiting tyre width, the designers would have them even wider.
Wear rates are improved, but I don't think that is the primary reason.

That is exactly my point. When you use soft surfaces like tires, then
the whole coefficient of friction argument falls apart. Tires get some
of their traction by actually sticking to the pavement and hence get
worn down in use. On wet pavement, a whole new set of variables come
into play and and tread pattern actually becomes a variable.

 

[Stephen Henning]

how much of an effect does tire pressure have?....

It changes the size of the foot print and can make the tire act like an
undampened spring and become unstable like a car with weak shocks.

 

[Stephen Henning]

A larger contact patch does in fact yield greater
friction, otherwise there would be no reason to worry about limiting
weight transfer during cornering and braking.

Only with soft tires, not with hard wooden blocks. This is a physics
101 experiment.