- 624
- Australia
Adding ballast weight generally slows your speed / lap times, so there's not as much discussion on it in the forum.
However if you have to add ballast, you might as well try to use the positioning available to you to improve the handling.
Until recently I'd assumed that adding ballast weight over the front wheels of a car was a way to give the front tyres more traction, and consequently make the rear lighter and more likely to break traction,
which should therfore reduce understeer.
I have done this many times when chasing A-spec points, as using a harder grade front tyre compared to the rear gives you more points, but you inevitably have to battle understeer when you do it.
I'm now doing the Hyundai Coupe FX manufacturer races and have been looking at some of the posts related to that race, some suggest having the ballast over the front and some suggest having it over the rear, which caused me to reconsider my initial assumption.
So I went to the 400m test track with a FWD Yaris, a RWD Lexus IS200 and a MR Lotus Elise 190. Sure enough (after adding 200kg's of ballast) moving the balance over driving wheels helped traction and allowed me to record quicker times for all the cars, as I expected.
But on the track it proved to be a different story;
I drove the Lotus Elise 190 first, due to its low weight, I hoped the changes would be easiest to notice. They certainly were; with ballast settings of 200,50 the car oversteers everywhere, and had very little stability. When I changed that to 200,-50 it made a big difference, the car handling was way more neutral. So that was a pretty big indicator that maybe rear weight balance is the best way to cure understeer.
The other cars were less conclusive. With the weight over the nose, it felt like it helped get the nose into the corner, but you'd get more understeer once on the power again, and the times with each setting (for both the Lexus & The Yaris) were pretty even as well. So the weight balance seems to works a little like the LSD, front weight balance gives you better drive, but rear weight balance allows the car to turn more easily.
These results show that rear weight balance reduces understeer, but I'm still trying to completely understand the theory as to why this is, if other members have any input on the topic I'd appreciate hearing it.
Apologies for lengthy post.
However if you have to add ballast, you might as well try to use the positioning available to you to improve the handling.
Until recently I'd assumed that adding ballast weight over the front wheels of a car was a way to give the front tyres more traction, and consequently make the rear lighter and more likely to break traction,
which should therfore reduce understeer.
I have done this many times when chasing A-spec points, as using a harder grade front tyre compared to the rear gives you more points, but you inevitably have to battle understeer when you do it.
I'm now doing the Hyundai Coupe FX manufacturer races and have been looking at some of the posts related to that race, some suggest having the ballast over the front and some suggest having it over the rear, which caused me to reconsider my initial assumption.
So I went to the 400m test track with a FWD Yaris, a RWD Lexus IS200 and a MR Lotus Elise 190. Sure enough (after adding 200kg's of ballast) moving the balance over driving wheels helped traction and allowed me to record quicker times for all the cars, as I expected.
But on the track it proved to be a different story;
I drove the Lotus Elise 190 first, due to its low weight, I hoped the changes would be easiest to notice. They certainly were; with ballast settings of 200,50 the car oversteers everywhere, and had very little stability. When I changed that to 200,-50 it made a big difference, the car handling was way more neutral. So that was a pretty big indicator that maybe rear weight balance is the best way to cure understeer.
The other cars were less conclusive. With the weight over the nose, it felt like it helped get the nose into the corner, but you'd get more understeer once on the power again, and the times with each setting (for both the Lexus & The Yaris) were pretty even as well. So the weight balance seems to works a little like the LSD, front weight balance gives you better drive, but rear weight balance allows the car to turn more easily.
These results show that rear weight balance reduces understeer, but I'm still trying to completely understand the theory as to why this is, if other members have any input on the topic I'd appreciate hearing it.
Apologies for lengthy post.
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