Front/rear weight distribution

Joso · Post by **Joso** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:43 pm

Have searched through google but found nothing.

Does anybody know what is the front/rear weight distribution of a 2000 lanos hatchback?

Thanks

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:19 am

65/35 (roughly)

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:07 am

oh... is that bad?? i mean is the optimum weight distrobution 50/50 for a car like a lanos or what?

MMamdouh

lanos2001 · Post by **lanos2001** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:37 am

any car you would like to have 50/50. i believe the lanos is about average for cars.

nick

Joso · Post by **Joso** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:35 am

Guessed it was going to be bad in a hatchback.

At least the car is light enough for not having to worry too much about that.

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 4:38 pm

i can think of very few cars that are weighted 50/50

but yeah, the lanos is pretty bad for being so light-weight yet having a huge lump of an engine compared to the rest of the the weight. that's my biggest concern about a 2L or 2.2L swap is the weight distro would be TERRIBLE. the sedan changes that about 5% adding weight to the back. the numbers aren't perfect, but they are close enough (distro on my sedan was like 62.692% in the front

).

moving your battery from the front to the back makes a WORLD of difference. so does adding subs

Joso · Post by **Joso** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:42 pm

If you really want to race a lanos you can get rid of a lot of front weight, but that would also mean losing things like air con, some electric devices, isolation, etc. Also a good amount of money would be needed (CF). Anyway, my plans are only to make it as sportier as I can without going nuts so I will live with that weight distro. Before, I have to get used to the inexistance of ABS wich can be worse at the begining. I'll change suspension to bilstein asap.

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:53 pm

Audacityracing wrote: moving your battery from the front to the back makes a WORLD of difference. so does adding subs

really?? is it really worth the effort?

MMamdouh

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:57 pm

moving the battery is definitely worth the effort. there is a how-to i can supply you with if interested

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:04 pm

http://homemadeturbo.com/tech_projects/ ... elocation/

there ya go

Joso · Post by **Joso** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:06 pm

Lets say a normal car battery weights 20 kg. It is located a little further from front suspension compared to the center. If you put it in the trunk, at the same distance from center of the rear suspension, you will move a little more than a 2% of weight to the rear wich makes a total move of 4% aprox.

EDIT: Doh! bloody audacityracing, you are too fast writing

But you have the advantaje of being using your own languaje

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:09 pm

you can't assume the center of gravity on the car to be directly center. considering that the cg is about where the drivers knee joint is means that moving the battery to teh back makes for a WAY bigger difference than that.

Joso · Post by **Joso** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:22 pm

I may be wrong but my calculations were:

Lets say the car weights 1000 kg. (I think it's 1070 actually but 1000 will do a good aproximation)

Front suspension suports 650 kg (65%)
Rear susp. 350 kg (35%)

You get rid of 20kg front a little fordward than front suspension what would do more than 2% but I'm just getting an aprox.
You put it just in the same line than rear suspension, so you add a 2% of total weight back.

This does a final weight distribution of 63/37 if (let me repeat) im not mistaken.

I would say the biggest error should be at the front aproximation because battery is further than the suspension front struts.

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:23 pm

Would having the battery in the trunk make it any harder for the alternator to charge the battery? In other words, would this be a bad idea for me since im running a high wattage system on the streets?

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:27 pm

i really don't think that it would adversely effect the system as long as you used high grade and a good sized wire. i mean, lots of BMW's come with the battery in the trunk from the factory... and with all the powerd accessories on them, they don't have problems, so i think you would be ok