Hi' all :greetings-wavingblue: Yes RCZ-Performance when I said about tyre design I was referring to tread pattern as some of the premium brand manufacturers such as Vredestein state that their tread pattern has been designed by exterior car designers such as Giugiaro.
With regard to many tread patterns nowadays the "in vogue" design appears to be with large water clearing channels running around the tyre circumference whereas a few years ago arrowhead design tread patterns on performance tyres were the in thing.
The larger the cut outs in a tyre tread design the less rubber is in contact with the road so less grip is to be had but the greater the tyres ability to cut through water. The less cutouts in a tyre tread design the greater the rubber contact patch on the road so the greater grip in the dry, but in the wet the tyre would be more susceptible to aqua plaining as the tyre would sit/float on the water as opposed to the water being squeezed into the large cutouts and being cleared in the large water clearing channels running around the tyre.
An F1 car runs a slick tyre in the dry as such a tyre places the most amount of rubber (contact patch) on the road so it grips better but should there be water on the track they then run intermediate or wet tyres which have large water clearing channels running around the tyre to prevent loss of grip by aquaplaning when the tyre loses its ability to cut through the water underneath it.
Also the more rubber in contact with the road the more the drag which in turn increases the cars fuel consumption.
To help get around the conflicts of maximum rubber contact patch of a tyre (grip) and the cutouts in the tread pattern (water clearing ability) manufacturers use different rubber compounds Soft and Hard to assist in the tyre rubber's ability to grip the road surface. Compounds such as silica is used in the tyre's rubber composition to give either a softer grippier rubber or a harder more resilient longer lasting rubber and these different compounds can be used in different areas of the tyre. The centre part of the tyre having the harder rubber compound and a softer grippier rubber compound is used specifically on the tyres outer edge to provide extra cornering grip as its the outside edge of the tyre that takes the load of the vehicle when cornering.
The MPSS is one of the latter types of tyre known as a "dual compound" tyre, whereas the Conti 3's I believe have a hard uniform rubber compound across the whole tyre, hence the tyres mileage longevity at the expense of its cornering grip ability when being pushed harder than in what is considered to be normal driving.
With regard to handling I agree that its at the extremes of handling that differences become most noticeable. The fact that our Z's wear tyres identical to those fitted on hyper sports cars often putting out nearly twice the horsepower means that for most drivers (OO58RON & myself) it's not the tyres grip limits that are reached its ours the drivers ability to control the power being transmitted through the tyres that is in fact reached. The STIG demonstrates this, when a racing driver is sat in the driving seat of our cars and we'll soon see how hard it can be pushed and still be under control even on its standard Conti 3's !
When riding my motorbike (Triumph Daytona 675) on a blat with mates I think that Im pushing the tyre but when I attend a British Superstock race where there's the same bike running on the same Pirelli Diablo Super Corsa's I soon realise that I was never really anywhere near the tyres performance limits as I watch them corner and accelerate. It is my own abilities that are being reached not my bike or it's tyres !!
.the big blue (..im NO expert and would never claim to be, an anorak YES ! Its good to exchange thoughts and opinions which encourages debate and if anyone chooses to read this waffle I hope it doesn't send you into a coma and that its slightly interesting/ informative :sleeping-yellow: . ,,,Waffle on like this and i'll remain on the back benches I know!!) :beer:
