In last month's article, we explained the physics behind weight transfer. That is, we explained why braking shifts weight to the front of the car, accelerating shifts weight to the rear, and cornering shifts weight to the outside of a curve.
Weight transfer is a side-effect of the tires keeping the car from flipping over during maneuvers.
We found out that a one braking maneuver in our 3200 pound example car causes 640 pounds to transfer from the rear tires to the front tires. The explanations were given directly in terms of Newton's fundamental laws of Nature. This month, we investigate what causes tires to stay stuck and what causes them to break away and slide. We will find out that you can make a tire slide either by pushing too hard on it or by causing weight to transfer off the tire by your control inputs of throttle, brakes, and steering. Conversely, you can cause a sliding tire to stick again by pushing less hard on it or by tranferring weight to it.