Why do racecars have no tread?
In: Engineering
Race cars use tires without tread because smooth tires provide better traction in dry conditions. Everything in a race car is designed to provide the fastest possible lap time at the end of the day. If you remove tread off the tire, that can add milliseconds to the lap time, which can add up over the course of the race, and as you’re racing other people.
Of course, there are tires with tread, such as tires made for racing in wet condition or tires for rallycross. The reason the wet tires have tread is to displace water away from the tires to keep the tires on the ground. If we raced with smooth tires in the rain, the car would hydroplane (when a thin layer of water separates the cars tires from the road below them), causing it to spin.
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