Quote:
Originally Posted by footie
T-Bone,
What I have tried to say to you on numerous occasions was that the tyres on their own will never make a car perform amazingly unless the chassis is setup to get the most out of what's on offer from the tyres. Each manufacture even BMW's M-Division choose a setup which is a compromise in dynamics to aid other things like comfort, safety, road conditions etc, etc. The standard spec tyres is what they design the chassis around, meaning on these tyres it has it's best balance, probably feel through the steering, compliment the suspension (the tyre is designed to give in the side wall as part of the suspension of the car), all the things that make is the car it is. When you change the tyres without altering anything else you change the dynamics of the car and not necessarily for the better. The side wall may be stiffer which not only changes the steering feel, turn-in and the complacence in the suspension but changes the whole character of the car and with it the confidence to push the same.
This does not mean that the tyres aren't aiding the cornering ability of the car but changing the levels of grip and what happens under cornering load, breaching it's limits and how the car brakes, most importantly under non-racetrack conditions.
Now look at the lap times between both courses Hockenheim and Nordschleife, the M6 fitted with Corsas with 2.1s quicker than the M5 fitted with Conti Sport Contact around Hockenheim but the Nordschleife a track which is over 4 and a half times longer can only improve it's time of the M5 by a further 2 seconds. Does this not strike you a little strange when you consider that the M6 is roughly 0.8s quicker in the acceleration from 60mph to 130mph of which in the course pf a lap the M6 will have done this on at least 6-7 times, it also can out brake the M5 which again it will do numerous times more. Combined all of these things together with the long straights and short ones, the numerous braking points and in theory the M6 should be ahead WAAAYYYY more than it is.
The reason why this isn't the case on the ring is that the tyres can't perform in the same way as they do on the Hockenheim circuit because unlike it which is a perfectly smooth surface made from a form of tarmac which is totally different to that of the ring and any normal road you will ever drive on, the ring has a bumpy and rough in places surface which unless the car is setup for the tyres correctly will never perform the way they should.
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What is not penetrating your skull is that these times on the M6 are confusing because they don't line with the typical time benefits you would get with R compound tires. I cannot explain why it behaved that way....
I can guarantee you that R compounds make more difference than any other suspension mod.