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what you are missing is that the shape of the footprint is very important for the performance you are considering. If the performance we are discussing is longitudinal traction, then the width of your contact patch is not as important as its length. (The opposite is true for cornering, hence Ken's point about wider tires). What you saw was the width of the footprint as you couldn't have seen its length unless you would lift the car right up. When studying the stress in the contact patch, its the front of the footprint which transmits most of the forces during acceleration and the rear during braking.A very big factor that Ken omitted to mention is that the tire's construction (belt angles, cords size,...) is also very important as it actually dictates the shape of the footprint under load at a given inflation pressure.
what you are missing is that the shape of the footprint is very important for the performance you are considering. If the performance we are discussing is longitudinal traction, then the width of your contact patch is not as important as its length. (The opposite is true for cornering, hence Ken's point about wider tires). What you saw was the width of the footprint as you couldn't have seen its length unless you would lift the car right up. When studying the stress in the contact patch, its the front of the footprint which transmits most of the forces during acceleration and the rear during braking.
A very big factor that Ken omitted to mention is that the tire's construction (belt angles, cords size,...) is also very important as it actually dictates the shape of the footprint under load at a given inflation pressure.
