'23 vs. '17 PP at the track

[ZDan]

Was super-surprised at 51.5/48.5 weight distribution of the new car with ballast! This is with a '17 spare tire installed in the well, with 120 lb. of steelshot weight bags in and around spare (4x10 lb. + 4x20 lb.). Full tank minus 6 laps, 155 lb. driver. 3110 lb., min competition weight is 3107 lb. I'm not a stickler for corner weights but 49.3/50.7, I'll take it! Shoutout to Wile Motorsports in Walpole MA for RCE SS-2 coilovers (with 7F/9R spring rates, thanks to @NoHaveMSG for the 9k springs!) install, I didn't ask for corner balancing and not sure how much they did but they nailed it while giving my desired 330mm front 335mm rear ride heights.

The old '17 PP with decent amount of weight taken off the nose [ACE header (-10-15 lb?), <5 lb. Shorai battery (-25 lb), emptied washer fluid reservoir (-7 lb), Girodisc rotors (-12 lb)], and 40 lb. ballast in the spare tire was 2907 lb. at 53.5/46.5. Not as terrible as stock 55/45, but not great either... That car leaned *heavily* on the front tires. This was on 4.4F/5.3R Swift SpecR springs and Bilstein B8s, with Eibach swaybars, front set soft rear set stiff. Overall handling was decent, but midcorner understeer was *murder* on some of the super-long 180* corners at Palmer!

With the new car I'm 200 lb. heavier, and on skinnier 225 tires. The added weight and reduced grip is way more obvious in the corners than I'd expected. The good news is the new car is +5mph on the old one at the two tracks I've run both on, that is *huge*.

Lap times at Thompson CT and Palmer clockwise (aka Remlap) MA are right on 1s quicker Partly due to being so much faster on the straights, but also due to better handling balance. New car is *way* more neutral. I can point the car a lot better with throttle-lift mid-corner. The outside rear is *definitely* doing more work in the corners, and outside front is less overloaded. Some of this may be due to better weight distribution, some due to having more track-appropriate spring/damper rates, thanks RCE You guys should offer 7k/9k as an alternative to 7k/7k, it WORKS!