Do our cars need corner balancing

[ruturaj001]

Was just going over different threads and came across corner balancing, watched how it's done (LF + RR ~= RF + LR), and then watched savagegesse video (screenshot below).

1. Looking at that we don't need to corner balance the car, right?

2. What if one installs coilovers and drop the car by say 20mm or someone else by 2"?

[autoracer86]

Need is a strong word. I would say generally getting a street car/hpde car corner balanced is overkill but it definitely can’t hurt.

I myself Will be getting it done for my street car though lol. Mostly cause I want that extra attention to detail that happens during a corner balance. Along with ride heights set for balance on a level surface. Also good to know the weight of your car.

Keep in mind you need adjustable endlinks to get the car corner balanced.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by autoracer86

Need is a strong word. I would say generally getting a street car/hpde car corner balanced is overkill but it definitely can’t hurt.

I myself Will be getting it done for my street car though lol. Mostly cause I want that extra attention to detail that happens during a corner balance. Along with ride heights set for balance on a level surface. Also good to know the weight of your car.

Keep in mind you need adjustable endlinks to get the car corner balanced.

Again, *need* is a strong word here as well! I've never had to make any adjustments to get corner weights within ~0.5% on my cars that have had adjustable coilovers, and I wouldn't be too worried if they were 48%/52% unless I got detectable understeer in one direction and oversteer in the other.

Also, if you're always at the same track, same direction, most likely 50/50 is *not* "ideal". I wouldn't bother adjusting unless I had a specific handling balance gripe at a critical corner, and then you also have to know how changing corner weights will affect that. Maybe the car wants *more* asymmetrical cross-weight!

[autoracer86]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Again, *need* is a strong word here as well! I've never had to make any adjustments to get corner weights within ~0.5% on my cars that have had adjustable coilovers, and I wouldn't be too worried if they were 48%/52% unless I got detectable understeer in one direction and oversteer in the other.

Also, if you're always at the same track, same direction, most likely 50/50 is *not* "ideal". I wouldn't bother adjusting unless I had a specific handling balance gripe at a critical corner, and then you also have to know how changing corner weights will affect that. Maybe the car wants *more* asymmetrical cross-weight!

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should or that it’s correct.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by autoracer86

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should or that it’s correct.

True, but also true that there's no sense chasing tenths of a percent corner-balance if you don't already have a good idea what you want to change and in which direction. Particularly when a lot of shops don't *really* know how to both give you the cross-weights you want while also giving you the ride heights you want and end up spending hours to not accomplish much, while charging $$$...

Just looking at notes now, the shop that installed my coilovers gave me desired 330mm front/335mm rear ride heights with +/-0.05% crossweights, I do hope they just got lucky and didn't spend two hours getting there! Was still +/-0.07% when I weighed it last track event with +40 lb. more ballast, but again I think that's probably a *lot* closer to zero than I "need", and more likely for that track (Palmer CW) ideal is not at zero anyway...

Track layouts are asymmetrical, most likely "ideal" corner weights will be as well. Within say 1-2% I say don't worry about it unless there are specific handling balance issues.

[RedReplicant]

If the car is doing weird stuff it is worth tossing it on the scales to have a look. This was my car when I bought it:



38% cross, it would tripod in left corners.

Brought it back and it worked a lot better ... for a heavy pig

[ruturaj001]

I think the topic went in completely different direction. My question was, the car already looks (without drivers weight) corner balanced. While 1st gen looked different on scale.

[ruturaj001]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

If the car is doing weird stuff it is worth tossing it on the scales to have a look. This was my car when I bought it:



38% cross, it would tripod in left corners.

Brought it back and it worked a lot better ... for a heavy pig

Was it on coil overs? That looks pretty bad and worse than factory weight posted by savagegesse for first gen.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by ruturaj001

Was it on coil overs? That looks pretty bad and worse than factory weight posted by savagegesse for first gen.

Yeah, that is how it got out of wack. You can't corner balance without coilovers (reasonably, let's not talk about moving stuff around in the car).

Also, that is with me in the car (185lb), a Harrop SC setup, ton of mods, etc. I posted it as an idea of what can go wrong.

If SavageGeese isn't with a driver in the car then the listed numbers aren't really based in reality with respect to corner weight since cross changes once you get into the car. It does show a good static distribution and f/r bias for as point of comparison, which is their intent (I assume).

[ZDan]

OMG I've never seen anything like 38%/62%! Something is f'd bad or somebody f'd up bad. Dayum! So ya had a li'l understeer on lefties and oversteer on righties, didja?

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by ZDan

OMG I've never seen anything like 38%/62%! Something is f'd bad or somebody f'd up bad. Dayum! So ya had a li'l understeer on lefties and oversteer on righties, didja?

It was a teeter totter for sure

[WNDSRFR]

Originally Posted by ruturaj001

Was it on coil overs? That looks pretty bad and worse than factory weight posted by savagegesse for first gen.

LF is 400lbs+ more than RF?

Damn man, you need to go on a diet.

[ruturaj001]

Originally Posted by WNDSRFR

LF is 400lbs+ more than RF?

Damn man, you need to go on a diet.

Not my car.

[marco_mc22]

The stiffer you go…the more is needed IMO.