You guys can't compare tires by laying them on their side and looking at them.
You need to look at the tread width specification.
Mounting the tire on different wheels doesn't change that specification!
However, a wheel that is too narrow (or too wide!) will change the effectiveness of the contact patch....
...which is why the tire manufacturers give a recommended range of wheel widths. If you go outside those recommendations, you are straying from optimal, whether you're stuffing a 285 tire on a 8" wheel for autocrossing, or you are this dude... (the wheel rim was sticking out about a half inch from the bead of the tire - I don't even know how the tires held air.)
