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How well the car handles really comes down to how well the car grips the road. How well it grips is a function of the tires and roads frictional coefficients. In a General Physics class, youll learn that contact area (tire width) is IRRELEVANT to the level of friction that is realized. But in higher level classes, you actually learn that this isnt really true. Its ignored in lower level classes because its only a 2nd order effect, meaning there are lots of other factors that make a more noticeable difference. But your friend is right about one thing: As you widen the tire, you disperse the same amount of weight over a larger area, meaning each "unit" of area has less gravity acting on it and is less "stuck" to the ground. This is, however, offset by the fact that you have more frictional area to be acted on by gravity. In the end though, this is actually the reason this phenomonon isnt studied in low level classes: The wider tire outweighs the thinner one frictionally, but not by huge amount... Hope that helps =)
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