I was doing some reading last night, and read a passage that said corner weight adjustment is one of the most helpful but overlooked technical aspects of setting up a track car. Is this a true statement? What benefits does it have for a FWD car?

 

Yes it's helpful. You can't really get a 50-50 weight distribution, but you can shoot for a cross-weight of 50% (weight of right-front + left-rear = weight of left-front + right-rear).

I did corner weighting once on my old SE-R. It had a cross-weight of around 47% when it was initially put on the scales. After fiddling with the ride height, it went to 49.9%, and it gave a noticeable improvement in handling. Not "Holy **** it's a Ferrari!!" but a subtle difference.

Edit: This page has some good info on corner weighting.


[Modified by slowSER, 8:45 AM 12/19/2001]

 

more how to's and info
http://www.ground-control.com/index.html
http://www.grmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html

Cool spead sheet so you don't have to mess with the calculator
http://www.924.org/Downloads/Downloads.htm


[Modified by Crazydave, 4:23 PM 12/19/2001]


[Modified by Crazydave, 4:24 PM 12/19/2001]

 

you can also set up your car for a particular track, ie left handers so that your lap times are faster.

next best thing is braking. equal loading on teh wheels so that the front brakes do the same amount of work left to right and the same for the rear.

yes, it is a very good thing to do, especially when you install coilovers.

 

My cross wieght is 49% and change and because of that I can do things on the track that 911s wouldn't dream of.

 

If you have access to scales and if you have already got your cross weight balanced about right, here's another small tip. Set up your coil overs so that your front right is about 20 lbs heavier than your left front. This can vary on track, but since 99% of tracks are run clockwise, you'll always have more right turns than left handers. The heavier right front will help out to balance things out. Also, for FWD cars don't bother trying to match up the rear weights so that they are equal. Basic rule is to just get the fronts to what you want to and have the cross weights close to equal (the closer the better). If you got all this, the rears can be off by as much as around 60 lbs or so and it is still ok.

 

...and then Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner happen, the driver gains 15 lbs and everything's all f'ed up.

 

Hehehe...
just make sure to take a dump and a **** before racing

 

http://www.longacreracing.com/articl...at.asp?CATID=1

I don't know if you've seen this before, but it's some good info. It's biased towards a stock-car racing type track vehicle, or something possibly with stagger, but has some good info none-the-less. Most of the info is based off pyrometer readings. I'm still saving up for my tire pyrometer.