A number of like-minded autocrossers were discussing corner balancing and front to back weight ratios after a local BMW event (none, except for me, were MINI drivers) and I had no idea what is the ideal weight ration for a MCS 2011.


I know a number of you have had your cars corner balanced. Can you share your numbers with us? Can anyone recommend someone in the Boston area to get this done? What improvement did you notice?


Thanks in advance!


-Jeff

 

We haven't gotten ours corner balanced yet. It took us a year to figure out alignment/ride heights we're happy with. It did get put on scales recently but they weren't leveled so corner weights weren't accurate. Corner balancing is next on the list. Just haven't had the time to head to a friend's house with scales and a lift to mess with it. Typically all a corner balance is going to do is make your left and right turns behave more consistently. I'm not sure you'll notice a huge difference but the difference is there.

 

Getting the cross weights even is all you can hope to accomplish. front/rear weight is a problem which we just have to accept. at a high level of competition, the difference will be noticeable. for an average, out to have some fun, guy, not so much. probably more improvement to be made in the driver, for most of us.

 

Very true. At this point, my car is way better than I am!

 

Your cross-weight should be 50% regardless of the car. Keep in mind that's with you in it and full tank of gas. If you don't have a boatload of experience on the Auto-X course or track, don't worry about it now. It's when you really have a feel for your car and need that extra bit of handling edge to gain those couple tenths that you need it.

 

I got Tristan corner weighted, more for interest than anything, he is our autocross car though. The results were (without driver):

LF 762 759 RF
LR 439 467 RR
That's 49.4% cross

With a driver, the cross does't actually change.

Is there anything you can do to adjust this if you're in stock class?

 

Thanks for the numbers!

Suspension-wise, I don't believe there is (but others here know way more than I do). Coilovers are the adjustment mechanism and they will put you in STX.

 

Nope nothing you can do in stock class to shift weight around except a lightweight catback exhaust.