18" Wheels On F1 Car

[BlioKart]

Lotus F1 tested 18" wheels for Pirelli. SEX ON WHEELS

Although I keep hearing this song running in my head.

 

[goofyone]

It's about time they get off the 13 inch rubber. It will be interesting to see as this will change the gearing and aerodynamics dramatically as compared to the existing tires.

 

[Johnny Acree]

The big change will be brakes. That's why they have had 13" wheels for so long.

 

[karl]

Pandering to fashion...

 

[2.ooohhh]

Pandering to fashion...

New Porsche's, Ferrari's, and the like aren't running 18"-21" wheels "just for fashion". The lower profile stiffer sidewalls aid in high speed stability and road feel, while the added space within the wheels often has the largest ceramic brakes they can possibly shove in there installed for good reason, slowing a street car down from around 200mph produces a LOT of heat. I can only imagine what advances a modern F1 car could make with their nearly limitless budgets given more space for larger brakes and better airflow.

 

[karl]

Just the aero on an f1 car gives you a g of braking lifting off the gas. I am not fit enough to tolerate the g's an f1 car can produce on braking, 99% of the big wheel thing is fashion. Yes there is a grain of fact in everything you say. Pandering to fashion.

 

[Snick]

New Porsche's, Ferrari's, and the like aren't running 18"-21" wheels "just for fashion". The lower profile stiffer sidewalls aid in high speed stability and stiff, bad road feel, not to mention they decrease fuel economy and hurt turn in, while the added space within the wheels often has the largest ceramic brakes they can possibly shove in there installed for good reason for a racer that has zero applicability for you because your're not a racer or Walter Mitty, slowing a street car down from around 200mph produces a LOT of heat--which again has zero application in the real world that you and I inhabit, except for the feverish dreams of sweaty teenage boys. I can only imagine what advances a modern F1 car could make with their nearly limitless budgets given more space for larger brakes and better airflow.--because I am a sweaty teenage boy inside/QUOTE]

^^Fixed that for you.

 

[2.ooohhh]

While I understand that a good 80%-90% of the owners of modern high performance cars with big brakes and sticky tires wrapped around large wheels generally park and stare at the cars while drinking coffee and consider it a thrilling saturday morning, I can assure you that I do not fall into that group.

I can also assure you that no one buys a supercar and wishes it got better fuel mileage, and the ride is actually quite compliant since the entire suspension was engineered to damp the light forged aluminum/magnesium alloys.(Much better than many "modified" cars I've driven where large wheels were an afterthought thrown on by the owner.)

Just the aero on an f1 car gives you a g of braking lifting off the gas. I am not fit enough to tolerate the g's an f1 car can produce on braking, 99% of the big wheel thing is fashion. Yes there is a grain of fact in everything you say. Pandering to fashion.

There is a lot of difference in a genuine supercar coming with large but light forged wheels and ceramic brakes, and the majority of other cars in which "brembo" calipers are like the car guys prada logo. I understand that many manufacturers are just cashing in on the desire to look fast.(though it makes for great donor vehicles for projects in the junkyard!) The SRT8 jeep cherokees come to mind wanting to tout a 160mph top speed(on an suv?) but that's not really a great chassis(it weighs 4k pounds!) for that kind of speed where as an f430 has no problem comfortably hitting 160mph+ on the straits lap after lap at road Atlanta.

As for the G forces they can get pretty extreme in the corners with r comps on, I've seen more than my fair share of passengers lose their lunch when riding with instructors, in fact I had to stop to let the passenger in the first picture out after a few warm up laps, but I was probably driving a little harder than normal on an unfamiliar course since we had just flown to vegas to pick up the car that morning and decided to hit the track with the local PCA guys who all wanted to see what the car could do.

 

[Johnny Acree]

OK, I understand now. I just read this, http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/09/sport/motorsport/f1-tires-story/
I feel better now.