Piemaster
Guru
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Wouldn't disagree with the bits above, but what about the 'dry roads' bit? How relevant is tread depth then? Surely less or no tread ie. 'slicks' increases the amount of rubber in contact with the road, although it will only be a small amount and I wouldn't like to guess how much as a percentage increase vs. the generally quoted 'palm size' contact area. Or is it more of a weakening of the structure of the tyre supporting the tread area?Its not a selling tactic. Been proven time and again. Performance drops off a cliff on the graph at this point, on wet or dry roads.
Tread moves a fixed volume of water away from the road surface for a particular set speed. That volume of water you need to shift doesn't change, but as the volume of tyre tread reduces, so there is less volume of tread to shift the same volume if water. Water is incompressible so once the volume of tread reduces beyond the volume of water, then that water has nowhere to go and your tyre starts to ride on a cushion of water. Most of the time you won't even be aware this is happening, but it most assuredly is.
The mechanics behind the operation of tyre tread are quite simple. There is a vast reservoir of independent testing out there, including MIRA, TRL, NTSB, French MTE, German TuV, and dozens of others, and they all say the same. None of these organisations sell tyres or have any financial axe to grind
I'll be fine anyway. The soft top car never goes out the garage when its wet.