One of the first automobiles to hit the American market with front wheel drive was the Ford Fiesta. It was actually imported from the UK and reworked to meet American safety and pollution standards. I ordered a shop manual for it and it came from England. If you don't recall, the Ford Fiesta was a subcompact, meaning it was the smallest street legal car you could buy at the time. I believe the tires were 12" - or whatever the smallest rim size possible was at the time. So, I had this very light weight car with tiny tires while I lived inside the city limits of Chicago. I don't know what brand the tires were, but I'm thinking Firestone. I know I didn't like them at the time.
It was 1967 and the largest snowfall ever recorded for Chicago hit while I was at work. This was the storm that shut down the entire city of Chicago for the first time in its history. They let us out about an hour early due to the snow and when I got to where my car was parked, the depth of the snow was up to the level of the hood. I had to borrow a snow shovel to dig out or walk more than 8 miles in a blizzard to get home. The parking lot was not plowed but it was cleared enough for me to drive this bug, with front wheel drive, out of the lot leaving all those rear wheel drive cars standing in the lot for several days. No, it wasn't easy for me to get out, but the fact of the matter is my front wheel drive was among the only ones that did get home that day. It was nearly a 4 hour trip to go the 8 miles, but it was the trip of a lifetime. I'll never forget it.
I can't argue the benefits or faults of the tires on the Fiesta, but you will have a hard time convincing me that front wheel drive is inferior to rear wheels.
Soft rubber and nitrogen at the race track makes for optimal racing tires. Then again, what is the life expectancy of racing tires? Is it even 1000 miles? LOL
And I quote from the ultimate source
Internets wrote:Heat causes the molecules to move faster, (heat energy is converted to kinetic energy ) which means that the volume of a gas increases more than the volume of a solid or liquid. However, gases that are contained in a fixed volume cannot expand - and so increases in temperature result in increases in pressure.
My point here is that the humidity in the air is insignificant when it comes to it's effect on increasing tire pressure.
And, something I was not sure about:
Internets wrote:Gas pressure is due to the molecules colliding with the walls of the container. ... An increase in temperature increases the speed in which the gas molecules move. All gases at a given temperature have the same average kinetic energy.
Apparently all gas expands at the same rate. Doesn't matter if it's nitrogen or oxygen or Xenon.
In principle I would agree that hard rubber will slide over asphalt before soft rubber does the same. It has to do with that coefficient of friction I referred to earlier. Your experiment may not have been scientifically accurate, but it does confirm the laws of physics associated with friction. Physics and science aside, you take your life into your own hands when you drive down the road in an automobile. It makes a hella lot of sense to drive a vehicle in which you feel safe and comfortable no matter what the justification for your feelings. People warned me about the light weight and small size of the Fiesta. They said it was unsafe. Well, I'm here to tell you that I never had a crash in it nor do I recall ever losing control. I can't say the same for the larger cars I've owned.