It’s all about weight transfer.
A Lotus Elise wears 175 tires front, yet it will turn in and corner faster than almost anything else because it’s curb weight is below 900kg. So tire width doesn’t tell you a lot about a cars’ handling. Many powerful sportscars with RWD will need wide tires to put the power to the ground. The i8 has AWD so it doesn’t need that obviously.
On any open road across country the i8’s grip levels are very high. It takes a slow, deep corner and an extremely aggressive entry to get the tires squealing. Put some higher tire pressure into the rear and the car will oversteer. To me handling is all about balance, feel but less about sheer grip. You need grip and downforce on the track. But there you use semi-slicks and a whole new world applies, anyway. On the street it’s entirely different story. To me the i8 is a welcome exception to the ultra high grip levels of some other supercars which are IMPOSSIBLE to explore on the open road. Pushing a Porsche GT3 10/10s outside a race track is idiotic and dangerous.
A Lotus Elise wears 175 tires front, yet it will turn in and corner faster than almost anything else because it’s curb weight is below 900kg. So tire width doesn’t tell you a lot about a cars’ handling. Many powerful sportscars with RWD will need wide tires to put the power to the ground. The i8 has AWD so it doesn’t need that obviously.
On any open road across country the i8’s grip levels are very high. It takes a slow, deep corner and an extremely aggressive entry to get the tires squealing. Put some higher tire pressure into the rear and the car will oversteer. To me handling is all about balance, feel but less about sheer grip. You need grip and downforce on the track. But there you use semi-slicks and a whole new world applies, anyway. On the street it’s entirely different story. To me the i8 is a welcome exception to the ultra high grip levels of some other supercars which are IMPOSSIBLE to explore on the open road. Pushing a Porsche GT3 10/10s outside a race track is idiotic and dangerous.
