Question: smaller front vs rear tires?, what's the rationale? Options

[nine14cats]

Here's a question that for no particular reason I ask...other than I want to know! I'm sure this board has plenty of suspension guru's... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Question: What is the reason for a smaller size front tire/wheel than the rear? Particularly on race cars? On my street 911, or even race 911's, it's usually real big meats in the back and much smaller in the front, even with fiberglass fenders that can house larger tires up front. On my race only 911, I run the same size slicks all the way around, as do many 914's.

Most track cars seem to run bigger tires in the back, front engine, mid-engine, or rear engine.

Why?

I look forward to the education! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Thanks,

Bill P.

P.S. We were sitting around last night wrenching on the race car and this came up....nobody had a decent answer... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[SirAndy]

cause you have rear wheel drive.

well, on the 911 and 914 anyways. the more meat in the back, the better the chance of getting all that HP on the road instead of into smoke from spinning tires ...

Andy