What is the ideal weight distribution for a Mini with coil-overs?

 

Sid,
Don't know that it's ideal, but this is how I was running my Mini last year.

 

That's great information...Thanks Greg I'm curious...how did they adjust your struts? With the wheels off and sitting on blocks ontop of the scale or how did they get to the adjusters in the front? And I assume you were sitting in the car?

 

but more leveling the suspension... We're stuck with the fact that the engine is right over the front wheels, and pretty much nothing is over the rears. No ralistic amount of corner balancing will ever shift that.

BTW, those numbers look good!

Matt

 

I'm glad to see you chime in Matt So a 66/33 is more or less good balance for the Mini then?

BTW...did you get my PM about the TB results?

 

and most of the easy lightening items don't take weight off the front...

Like removing the rear seats and going to a race battery. Closer to 50/50 would be better, but there's just no way to do it with our cars (without major surgery).

Matt

 

I'm looking forward to Greg's weight balance after his "major" surgery

 

Wheels are left on. Rear coilovers can be adjusted from laying on your back. Fronts can be adjusted by just jacking the front of the car and reaching in the wheel well over the top of the tire. The coilover locking rings are above the tire.
It can take hours, but I was incredibly lucky as my car was almost 100% dialed in so it only took about one hour to fine tune it.
I think shops charge about $300 to do this job. I did it myself and I treated myself to some Mint Milanos ...

 

 

I sat in the car while 3 guys did a lot of work for a few hours.... no idea what they did....other than I saw the tools they did it with and how they affix to the coilover.......but I could not rmember how they adjusted the front

Greg, what is your estimate for weight distribution?

 

I'm not sure at all what will happen when I put the racecar on the scales, but I'm doing as much as I can to get some weight in the back, including myself. I might assume that it will still be about a 60-40.

 

When do you think you will roll it out and start to test it at the track......do you have a projected date?

sorry to HJ the thread

 

I really thought that it would be this month, but now I just hope it's by August.

 

OUCH.....but it will be a hell of an August

 

Supposedly the whole concept behind corner weighting is to have that car balanced diagonaly, which it looks like it nearly was ...
No amount of suspension work could shitf any usefull amount of weight to the back from the front ,( changing the center of gravity ) otherwise you would be driving in the Wheely position - front wheels in the air !

 

Greg has a special feature built in his spreadsheet and as soon as the the total weight comes down below 2,000 lbs, a smilie authomatically appears with a beer in hand.

 

Ah ah Ahhhh .... you said below 2200....!
Come come on now Alain, .... don't take away my drive here .

 

This reminds me of my friend who races "historic fomula 1" 600 whp @ 1100 lb. Is that possible

 

I don't think I really buy this for a FWD car. I think that for overall performance, you need weight on the drive wheels. A FWD with close to 50/50 might corner really nice, but it would likely just burn it's tires trying to accelerate out of the corner. Since weight is transferred OFF of the drive wheels when a FWD accelerates (exactly the opposite of what you'd like to happen), I think you want more static weight up front than 50% if you're going for anything more than a skidpad number.

But that's just me thinkin' again

 

...some alignment shops place the scales on the alignment machine so all can be done at one time - access is very easy.

 

especially with weight transfer going to the rear on acceleration...

Matt

 

and it does go pretty fast.... For me, I think the whole ride height adjustment, 4 wheel alignment and cornerbalance was under 2 hours... The guy had this really slick creeper that had him reclined at about 45 degress...

Was cool to watch...

Matt

 

At the Concours de Elegance this year, they had a few of those unlimited racers of the 70/80's. Power to weight ratio was somewhere in the 1.2:1 range

 

OK, I guess that's what happens when I type before 6:00 a.m. .... 2,200 it is. But get that thing done soon so I don't have to send you a frozen case of Canada's finest. Don't ever let your drive get away.

 

Okay, where do you live? Where is this guy?