While I believe that improved contact patch is the primary reason for running camber, it has been suggested somewhere (can't remember where I first read this) that camber also creates force more efficiently than a slip angle. Meaning, for the same force, camber will cause less heat and wear.Tim.Wright wrote:This is what I meant when I was talking about tread elements in the contact patch changing trajectory. Tread elements on a free rolling vertical tyre describe a circle constrained to a plane. When you add camber, this theory says that the tread elements are deflected out of the plane when it contacts the ground.
And it makes sense: if you look at how tread elements deflect from slip angle, the deflection linearly increases until it exceeds the grip limit and slides back. But with camber, they deflect in a curve (as demonstrated in your diagram), returning naturally without any need to slide.