If you could chat with a tire engineer....

What do tires want?

How do you choose a tire size, given a relatively free hand and a notion of car size, weight, power? What other variables would a pro-grade tire person want to know?

What of the notion of running bias plys on cars that don't have and can't obtain decent camber curves? Or just bias plys for the joy of larger slip angles at saner speeds?

What really constitutes a heat cycle? (I'm DDing some 200TW tires because we don't drive a ton, and I'm laboring under the possible misapprehension that cruising to the grocery store or an hour on the highway doesn't really ever get the tire into the ranges where it's fully at working temperature, or suffering the degradation that comes from a cycle.)

What real impact does contact patch shape have on longitudinal vs lateral grip, if any?

I tend to overinflate rears on a FWD car when I'm trying to throw away grip and maintain consistency. Any reason I should consider underinflating?

I only recently got hit on the head with the observation that steering torque falls off before actual cornering force, and these are distinct things... How else do I learn to listen to tires when driving? Some are noisy, some quiet, some have crisper or mushier feel...

What real meaning can we take from type designations like "Ultra High Performance Summer" and "Grand Touring All Season" which get bandied about like they represent some specific set of qualities?

Sorry. I got going.

In reply to Ransom :

Excellent list of topics!

Every car manufacturer lists the proper (street) tire pressure for the stock tire size  on the door jamb decal. 

If I go up Plus 1” or Plus 2” on my wheel size, what becomes the comparable tire pressure for the street? Is it the same?

I have asked this question several times, including once when I asked the tire engineer in charge of a major brand’s racing department, and I’ve never gotten a clear answer beyond “experiment with various pressures until you find what works”. There has got to be a more scientific answer than that. 

I would like to ask for tires that are less grippy than they could be, but are ultra predictable and last a long time in performance driving. Also tires that behave like old bias ply tires and like a lot of slip angle.