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Discussion and questions related to the course Practical Corner Weighting
I have Caterham 7 which I'm preparing for time attack. No minimal weight regulations, so I have open hands.
Currently, left side of the car is 17kg lighter (48.3%). Cross ballance is perfectly 50/50. Total weight is 539kg. All measures are with the driver.
My question is, should I add weights to get left-right 50/50 as well considering car is powered by bike engine and it has only 130Nm of torque?
Thank you!
Lighter weight is always the winner. Can you move a weight (like battery, fuel tank or dry sump tank) to offset the driver weight? When dialing in corner weights on a lightweight car that is not symmetrical (ie, two-seater sports cars), I find it helpful to usually shoot for equal corner weights (+/- 5lbs/2.5kg) on the front, and live with the slight cross-weight difference.
Only on a few specific tracks do I deliberately dial in a change in cross weight (you can modify the cross weight to cause oversteer in one direction, and understeer in the other direction). For example, if the low-speed turns are all right handers, and the high-speed turns are left handers, then having a heavy right-front / left-rear will be helpful to help the car turn in the tight stuff.
As David said, plus most race circuits are clockwise, so a slight right side bias will give better corner grip.
I already moved everything to the left side. I even moved all wiring too. As Gord said, tracks where I run are clockwise, but I'm afraid the car won't brake evenly. That's why I asked.