Quote:
Originally Posted by D88
I'm glad to see this was brought up. The added weight will help with hill starts and generally getting started on ice but if the back end slides out, the added momentum from the weight gain will encourage the car to continue spinning right around. So there's something to be gained and lost here by adding weight.
|
It's more than just that. I posted this yesterday - it's one page back in this thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesman
If that bag o' sand is placed well behind the rear axle, the floor pan acts as a lever to shift the weight bias rearward by far more than 50 lbs. This lightens steering, reduces front grip, and increases off-throttle oversteer - so it can lead to a snap spin when backing off the throttle in a slippery turn or when even a little sideways. A bag of sand is most useful to spread on ice for traction, if you get stuck - and you want to carry it as far forward in the trunk as you can to minimize the downside.
|
When you change one thing, you change everything. And the weight distribution isn't the only factor of importance. Moving weight around changes the vehicle's polar moment of inertia, which is the primary change when a spinning ice skater pulls in his or her arms to turn faster. If you put more mass at the very back, you increase momentum in the direction the rear end is sliding (i.e. the backwards dart example). But if you increase the relative mass between the axles, the effect on PMI does the same thing it does to a skater - you spin faster in the same place.