"Perfect weight distribution" is not universal. In a sedan, it's probably going to be close to 50/50, but you'll never see an F1 car...the pinnacle of handling...anywhere near 50/50. Most racecars' perfect distribution is a solid rearward bias.
Weight distribution, PMI, and CG placement are just 3 of 5,000 ways in which the concept of weight and it's location in the car effect its handling.
Smackie - why would a perfect balance be rear-oriented? I know Porsche is doing something right, but doesn't that effect the way the car transitions? That is to say, aren't mid-engine cars more light and 'flickable'?
I always thought the optimal balance in a track car would be mid-engine, rear drive with the motor set real low in the chassis.
Rearward bias gives you a "tighter" car and lets you put the power down better, all else held constant.
Generally, all street cars handle like shit. Even the good ones. Every time I hope out of the kart and into the M3 (which is probably one of the top 5 best handling street cars I've ever been in), it feels like I'm trying to guide the USS Nimitz. Even something as shoddy by racecar standards as a Spec Racer Ford or Renault felt ten times better than the Comp Coupe.
Light, long wheelbase, wide chassis with the weight low and between the spindles is the key to street cars. Oh, and big ass tires.
Rearward bias gives you a "tighter" car and lets you put the power down better, all else held constant.
Generally, all street cars handle like shit. Even the good ones. Every time I hope out of the kart and into the M3 (which is probably one of the top 5 best handling street cars I've ever been in), it feels like I'm trying to guide the USS Nimitz. Even something as shoddy by racecar standards as a Spec Racer Ford or Renault felt ten times better than the Comp Coupe.
Light, long wheelbase, wide chassis with the weight low and between the spindles is the key to street cars. Oh, and big ass tires.
Interesting take on the ///M car and I know what you mean about the kart drivability - my pedestrian A4 quattro felt like a barge after driving karts for a few hours.
Your recipe for street cars immediately brought to my mind the S7 - I don't know why but that's what popped in my head when I read that. I know the longer the wheelbase is, the more 'stable' the car, but doesn't that hinder ultimate response? (An Elise is super-short, but changes directions really well while a Viper needs to take more of a set before it turns in) I know the two nature of these cars is very different, but what makes those Spec/Formula cars different then the Comp Coupe which is long/wide/steamroller tired. Is it chassis rigidity?
Also, have you ever driven a Ferrari? (I know Mumford had a 550 - how does it compare to the Viper out on the track?) When you say handle like shit I think of lots of push into and out of corners - is that what you are referring to?
Toby, you are a badass if you are getting into aero grip on a street car!
I was going to say that unless you're scraping one of Tony's discarded gyros off of the street, you're not going to be able to set a car up low enough to have active aero on a road car; the splitter has to be super low to get a vaccuum and even on a 360 which has tunnels are you getting anything under 80 mph.
Driven plenty of Ferraris including P-Diddy's Maranello. That was the greatest street car ever, it was pretty easy to hustle around the track without getting all bent out of shape, but...like all other street cars...it wasn't a racecar. Street cars are just too tall and too heavy to be handle great. They can handle great relative to each other, but in the whole scheme of things, they suck.
The Comp Coupe grips great, stops great, and goes great...for a production car. In fact, I don't think there are many other production-based racers out there that can hold its jock....especially for $135K. But it's still 3100lbs. You can only do so much in fighting physics.
A street car will always be a street car. You can drop weight out of it, you can put slicks on it, you can add aero...but it was never designed to be a racecar. Nothing was more telling than hopping out of the Comp Coupe with Mumford and then jumping into a Radical SR3 with a driver of less repute. The Radical could hand the Comp Coupe it's ass and I began thinking, "It would be good night now if Paul ever got one of these!" Paul figured that out to and was scheduled to receive his soon. Most of the fast OTC and Viper Days drivers have followed suit and started looking at Radicals. Why? They are real racecars and the Viper feels like you're drunk and fucking a fat chick on a jungle gym.
