Quote: Originally posted by Civic_on_tha_DL Rob, I have read that many race car builders have been trying to get weight off the front wheels, aiming for that 50/50 weight distribution. Have been doing some reading of my own and have been wondering if perhaps a better solution would be to stay with the inherently unbalanced 60/40, and compensate with a stiff rear end (to counter the natural push) and wider tires up front than in the rear (to counter push and help put the power down). The reason is, in a front wheel drive car, wouldn't you want some more weight on the driven wheels to help get the power down out of the corners? I guess it would be countered by a loss of efficiency during braking, and it would probably only make a big difference in a high powered FF. Anybody know what the FF BTCC cars run for weight distribution and tire choice? Alot of them run 19's-18's... but I know for a fact that weight distrubtion is 50/50..... you guys really have to drive a race car to understand why it is best to have 50/50. I've been driving 50cc and 125cc go-karts since I was 11years old to present date, and weight dist' is THE most important factor when setting up a chaissis, then tires, then gearing, then air pressure. Aahhhhh, I love internet racers. I think your over rating a 50/50 wieght distribution. While yes I completely agree that knowing how much wieght is over each tire so that you can properly calculate the contact patch. it is also important in racing to have the lightest car possible. if you properly balance the car with spring rates and tire pressures then you'll have a properly handling car. see when a car is corner wieghted you can't shift wieght from the left to the right side of the car (or the other way around) but you can get both the right and left sides of the car to have the same percentage ration from front to back. a good site to check out on corner wieght is: http://www.ground-control.com/gctalk4.htm but this is just my 2 cents on the topic ... you will never get a honda to balance 50/50

Interesting... but karts are all rear wheel drive, right? How does that apply to front engine front wheel drive cars?

I think a lot of people were used to setting up rwd cars and just took the same tricks and moved them over to fwd cars without thinking about it...

[ edit: removed snarky Aahhhh comment ]

Yes, kart's ARE rear wheel drive, with a solid axel. But the 50/50 rule still applies. Do me a favour, and go to one of those rental kart tracks; not the indoor ones. Go to a real outdoor track, and see what I'm sayin. Or even better, go do the Bridgestone driving school at mosport... then you will know what I'm talking about.

Having a 50/50 weight balnce is very import. i.e: Braking, accelerating, and cornering. It's almost impossible to beileve that you would want a car that is 60/40.... I can only see that coming in handy for dragging. Did you know that all BMW's, (well almost all), and ALL Ferrari's, McLarens, and even the majority of high end Mercedes vehichles are are 50/50 wieght balanced? Are you gonna tell me that this is wrong, even though these companies having been doing for over 40-50years?

I say we arrange a 401 mini karting indy event, to sharpen up our driving skills, and really learn how to drive!