Just got my car Corner weighted this past weekend w/ my coil overs. Man what a difference it made!!! I feel like my car is getting about 2x the traction.

I got a perfect 50% cross weight - perfect 50% left/right, yet was at 55% front to rear. This is due to my removing the spare tire and my TT installation.

Next, I am going to do an alignment then, I am going to take tire temps this weekend at the track to further improve the handling of the car. (If you don't know what this is - learn! This is your best tool to improve your handling!!)

If you have not had your car corner weighted, do it!! Even if you don't have coil overs, it will tell you where you need to move weight around in the car. And make sure YOU are in the car when they do it.

 

I plan in getting this done real soon too. If my friend can get his scales working! If you wouldn't mind, how much did it cost you?

 

Very interested, need more details and how is this done, how do they move the weights around to get 50/50 front to back and side to side.

 

I am going to corner balance mine next week! I bought my own scales too so I can do it whenever I change something. Also remember to disconnect the sway bars when you corner balance.

 

my front tires got much hotter than my rear tires at auto-x this past Sunday. I have understeer in my car now after doing my modifications. I installed GF-210 springs, 350evo front camber arms, and Stillen rear camber and toe adjustables. I then had Nissan do an entire alignment to factory specs, except I reduced the rear camber to about -1.2 range.

Between all this, now my rear end is so well planted it helps traction both straight line and cornering... to the point I understeer. I orderd the 350evo rear sway kit today and I will try the medium setting to try and help weight transfer. This should hopefully help balance out my handling to remove/decrease the understeer. Great slalom car now though....

 

I have had my car corner balanced a couple of times since putting on my coilovers. To my amazement the car was spot on with no adjusments needed both times!
To save yourselves some time and $$ on the scales, put your spring perches at the same height on the left and right sides of the car and keep the factory rake before bringing it in. Only minimal adjustments should be needed after this.
Your results may vary of course.

 

Good point! But, taking this thought further, check to see that when re-attaching the sway bar links that you don't pre-load the chassis. I have adjustable links waiting to go on.

I'm trying to figure out what the optimum fuel tank level is when corner weighting. I go through almost a full tank at most track events I run. I'm thinking close to 1/2 tank.

spcemn_spiff, to get 50/50 F/R you would need to raise the front about a foot! I'd be more concerned with getting the X weights equal. Now if Nissan had made a TRUE front mid engined Z, we would already be there!

 

Yep, cross weight is 1000000X more important that front/rear weight distribution, unless you don't plan on turning your car. With track racing, a little more in the front is good for braking anyways.

 

Mine was Free - a professional driver lives near me that has been racing in a very well know circuit for about 15 years and won last year in that event (not mentioning his name on purpose). He really got to liking my car and we started talking. He has been a wealth of information on how to make my car go faster.

And yes - cross weights are the most important thing. The only time that the rear weight should be a concern is if you drag race. Yet, anyone can drive fast straight - turning is where the real g's are at!!!

As far as moving weight around - you will have to figure that out. Most people move the battery or lighten something up to get the weight right. I went the overcoil route which is the best.

 

First make sure your suspension is not in a bind. Sway bars can throw off changes, so disconnecting them is a good idea.
Then take 4 digital scales and put them under the car on a level surface. Then you get in the car and they record the weight on each tire (corner weight).
Then in my case - we adjusted the coilover to get the desired weights. Now since I AutoX, first I wanted a perfect 50% for cross weights, then around 50% for left and right, and front and back being my least concern - 50% would have been great, but not there.
Now I if you don't have coilover, you can use the information on where you need to add/decrease weight. This may be as easy as removing a floor mat, or as hard as moving the battery. A new Z should come with a perfect 50% cross weight, but I never checked mine when it was stock?

 

With coilovers, how do you achieve a 50-50 cross weight ? By adjusting the settings ?

Thanks.

 

how much did that cost you to corner weight it?
thx

 

You adjust the ride height/spring pre-tension.

 

Thanks for your response.

So by spring pre-tension .. I assume you mean the adjustment that come with adjustable shocks .. like Ohlins or Tein -- as opposed to the S-tune that has no ability to adjust -- correct ?

Thanks.

 

Yes, I actually have the Tein Flex. Tein's work great, the only downside is how coarse the treads are can make getting the perfect 50% pretty painfull. Yet, for the money Tein's are great.
If you are a serious racer than I would be looking for a different overcoil.

 

Depending on the coilover, some will allow to move the spring perch up or down while maintaining the overall length of your spring unchanged.

Others will lower the car by compressing the spring (preloading them). That later technique is not very good since it actually reduce the overall travel available for the suspension. Then again, how often to you get airborne with your car?

 

Here is how I did it on this customers car...........................

http://forums.freshalloy.com/ubbthre...b=5&o=&fpart=1

 

MoodDude / Kolia ... Thank you very much for your feedback.

WA2GOOD .... WOW !! Thank you for the very interesting and info-pic loaded link !

.

 

I did some research on corner weighting for you. The "recommanded" fuel load to use would be half of the fuel you will use during the event/race.

So if you never let the tank go lower than 1/4 while racing, fill it up to 5/8 for corner weighting.

It makes sense. Got that from the Hands-On Race Car Engineer books.

Aah and don't forget to roll the car fore and aft after each adjustement, to make the car settles.

 

Thanks Kolia. I guessed 1/2 tank, but thinking about it, my car does odd things if I track it on less than 1/4 tank. I think it's because of our "humped" tank allowing fuel to stay on the side where the fuel pump isn't. It's odd, because after a short period of time, sitting in the paddock, the fuel gauge magically raises to 1/4 full!

So, 5/8 tank it is!