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Originally Posted by FRiSson
Simple. The car is designed with as much weight towards the center as possible.
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Unfortunately, they missed the center by a bit... 55/45 weight distribution isn't so hot for getting around in the white stuff in a rwd car.
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That means that the car is designed to essentially pivot around its center. If you place weight towards the ends of the car, you disrupt that carefully engineered principal. You will then create forces that will tend to swing the car away from its center axis, much like placing a weight on the edge of a spinning top will cause it to swing off-axis.
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Nah, it's no big deal. Think of it this way, the car *was* designed/engineered to work just fine with 4 humans in the 2+2 seats and all their stuff loaded up in the trunk, upwards of 1000 lb. on top of vehicle weight. It is no big deal at all to put 50-100 lb. of kitty litter in the trunk to aid a bit in traction and to have an emergency supply of "traction compound" for when/if you do get stuck.
It is not going to ruin the car's handling by any stretch of the imagination. That's exactly how I got around in the snowy months in my 240SX, which weighed the same and had the same weight distribution. No problemo...
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The idea of putting weight in the trunk comes from your grandfather's day when Detroit cars were too light over the rear axle. Those cars were much larger and differently constructed than the FR-Z.
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But they suffered the same basic problem: only ~45% of vehicle weight over the drive wheels. TBH even 100 lb. in the trunk only increases weight on the drive wheels of even a lightweight(ish) car like the FR-S/BRZ by 4%, but every little bit helps, *and* you have a trunk full of traction compound when needed
