Ciro Pabón wrote:I believe stl0 is right. The tyre also "cushions" the forward torque on the car, serving as some kind of "second clutch".
This "clutch" avoids to "bog down" the engine (that is, the rpm go down) when the tyres receive the initial "shock": you might go out of your ideal torque band.
On the other hand you don't want tyrewalls so flexible that they warp "too much", because they cause "tyre shake" (I think that's the english name): you get heavy oscillations after the initial "twisting".
Tyreshake can be so bad that objects fixed in the cockpit might become loose and even drivers have to use teeth protectors (mouthguards).
The tyres twist like, well... like rubber.
The tires are there to absorb the very high torque, in the high thousands of pounds. I've heard the Top Fuel and Funny Cars make 7-8,000 HP and at least that in torque, don't know if it's true but I've heard well over 10,000 foot pounds. The tires deform to give the maximum contact patch, and they don't get the clutch fully locked until after 300 feet into a run, sometimes farther depending on track temp and oildowns etc. The clutch in those cars slip for most of the run. Tire shake is very very bad. Eric Medlin was killed by tire shake that the team he drove for, John Force Racing, had NEVER seen it that bad. It literally shook him so hard it killed him.