As noted above, it's to mitigate the natural tendency for a rear-heavy car to oversteer. It's about managing front vs rear slip angles while cornering, basically giving up front grip that you can't use anyway (because the rear would have already oversteered you into a spin).The front tires are tiny compared to the backs. 235 front but 305 in the rear. Why?
same exact problem with the VW Beetle.1960s Porsches were notorious for getting owners out past their skill level under drop-throttle while cornering
I was talking to a guy with an 80s porsche 9 series. Had four numbers stsrting with 9 and I don't remember. 150hp.As noted above, it's to mitigate the natural tendency for a rear-heavy car to oversteer. It's about managing front vs rear slip angles while cornering, basically giving up front grip that you can't use anyway (because the rear would have already oversteered you into a spin).
1960s Porsches were notorious for getting owners out past their skill level under drop-throttle while cornering, back when they were running on same-size tires all around. They've been working at tuning that rather evil tendency out ever since.
Norm
The only Porsche in the 80's with 150hp would've been a 944, a front-engine coupe. It will handle very differently than a 911, as it had nearly perfect front/rear balance.I was talking to a guy with an 80s porsche 9 series. Had four numbers stsrting with 9 and I don't remember. 150hp.
Anyways, he told me that it suffers from snap oversteer. I hear a lot about it but Throttle House said it's overexaggersted which I am inclined to believe.
Back to the Porsche. Why? Shouldn't a front engine RWD have plenty of grip?
Tire sizing really needs to be substantially tied to the car's front-rear weight distribution, so a 40-ish/60-ish Porsche needs to start out with its front tires having less load capacity at a decent inflation pressure than the rear tires. Given that wheel diameters and tire ODs rarely vary by more than an inch, that pretty much forces the front tires to be narrower than the rear tires.Back to the Porsche. Why? Shouldn't a front engine RWD have plenty of grip?
LOLsame exact problem with the VW Beetle.