Does anyone know were i can find the weight distribution of the C55 & the C32??


tia

 

ussually that can be found on the door.

 

Be more specific in your definition...? % front to rear, or actual corner weights?

 

Here are crossweights on our C32, after coilover and sway bar adjustments 02' C32:

LF RF
1045 982

LR RR
892 825

Total weight with 200 lb. driver, 1/2 fuel and no floor mats = 3744 lbs.

 

Here are the corner weights on my car:

Without driver, including spare and jack tray;

LF=962 RF=997
LR=844 RR=841

Crossweights = 1841/1803
Total weight = 3644

With driver (190lbs), including spare and jack tray;

LF=1039 RF=1011
LR=906 RR=878

Crossweights = 1917/1917
Total weight = 3834

Front to rear weight bias is 53.5% front, 46.5 rear.

I did not write down the corner weights prior to adjustment but they read a differential of 80 lbs stock.

Vadim, it is interesting to see the additional weight reduction on your car and weight bias to the front. There is a 90lbs total difference between the two cars minus 10lbs for a driver, for a total difference of 80lbs. I will therefore assume that you have corner balanced your car and run it at the track without the spare wheel/tire/tray/carpet as well as running a lightweight battery, all of which would explain the weight difference.

On both of our cars, it would be very helpful to relocate the battery to the right rear trunk compartment to transfer its weight over that corner which would help corner weights tremendously. Have you explored re-routing the battery cables to this location? I am sure it can be done.

Also given your front bias increase of 24lbs and 30lbs over my car, I will guess that your ride heights are set at about 13.25" for both the front and rear as measured from the fender lip to the center of the wheel hub. My car sits at 13.5" front and 13.0" rear.

Thanks for sharing stats.

 

Thats what i wanted to know! Thanks!

C

 

vadim,

does the headers and exhaust combo shave any weight off the car?

How about odps?

That may explain any further weight loss.


I plan to cornerweight my car within the next few weeks.

smgc32,

How do you determine what is the optimum ride height bias between front and rear given the corner weights? Does the spring rate matter in this equation? care to help me determine my optimum ride height once I get the weights?

Thanks,

Prasith

 

You can cross corner weight you car at any ride height, front and rear since you are actually balancing the weights diagonally. Too much front rake will lighten the rear of the car and make it more unstable than it already is, especially if you plan on installing your RS suspension. The bushings a very soft in the rear and under heavy braking, the rear end of the car is very sloppy. A bushing upgrade is in order if you track this car.

My ride height was a compromise. At 13.0" in the front, I ran into clearance problems on the street. I am now at about 13.50"-13.625" in the front which just clears a concrete parking bumper, sometimes! It also offers a 1.5" reduction in ride height from the stock height. In the rear I was running 12.50", without any rubbing issues, but raised it up another .50" when I raised the front. This leaves me at about 13.0" in the rear, which is a .50" reduction from stock.

The factory ride heights are typically 15.0" front, and 13.5" rear.
My ride heights are now; front 13.5", and rear 13.0". 15.0" - 13.5" = 1.5" reduction. 13.5" - 13.0" = .50" reduction. 1.5" - .50" = 1.0" rake bias. Some after market springs reduce the front to 13.5" and leave the rear at 13.5". Therefore their rake bias is 1.5". Some kits lower the front to 13.5" and the rear to 12.5" producing a rake bias of .50". If there was a kit (maybe the H&R cup kit or another H&R spring) that set the front to 13.5" and lowered the rear to 12.0", then the rake bias would be 0.0" and equal to the factory rake bias, only producing a beneficial lowering of the center of gravity of the car and not providing any bias front or rear.

You will get many opinions on what is best for any particular car and it will be trial and error until you find your perfect set up. You will also notice that depending on how well the car was set up from the factory, you may have ride heights that vary more than .25" on each side due to the corner weighting of the car, and without occupants, the car may sit and look unlevel. You also have to decide whether or not you want to corner balance the car with you inside or not, and whether you wish to remove the spare tire for this process. It is done in all ways depending on your driving intensions. Good luck.

 

smg,

I was gonna send you a pm but i found this thread so I will ask my questions here.

I am going to get my carlsson's installed next week and I am gearing up for a two day open track session (4 hrs each day - i am very excited).

I unfortunately will not be able to cornerweight my car beforehand and wanted to gain a better understanding of how front and rear ride heights affect the handling of the car.

I would guess that you want the front pretty low as that is where most of the weight is. With the front being lower would I have to tweak my castor settings? Since the weight transfer would be different than the stock do the factory castor settings still apply? How do you think that will affect the contact patch on braking?

If you have a few moments could you go over how ride height and the rake bias affects the handling of this car.

I am currently planning to try your settings out as they are not too low for the street and I will see how they do on the track.

Also do you know how to change the height? Can it be done by putting the car up on jack stands?

I also want to experiment with the settings for the Carlsson on my track session.

I would think that if the rear is stiffer it would oversteer more but you seem to indicate otherwise on the other board and was wondering why.

Thanks a bunch,

Prasith

 

Sounds like your going to a good event with 4 hours of track time per day. If you drive very hard, your tires are not going to last into the second day and probably be toast after 8 hours, unless you drive conservatively or drive to conserve your tires. 4 hours is equal to about 8-10 driving sessions of 25-30 minutes each. I find it unlikely that the schedule will run smooth enough to get this much time in unless the track is hot at 8:00am and closes after 6:00pm with no lunch break and at least two run groups. If you can get that much time in, feel very lucky and compliment the event's organizers.

Don't worry about the corner weights for now. Concentrate on your driving technique. The cross weights will be very similar to stock after installing the RS's.

Lowering the front another .50" does not affect the front to rear balance as much as you would think. Don't worry about ride height for now. Many suggestions have been offered previously as to ride height preferrences. Choose one and see how you like it. Most will run the front between 13-13.5" and the rear between 12.25-13.5". Caster is not adjustable on the car.

I guess you are serious about not knowing how to adjust ride height on a coilover system. Log on to Bilstein or H&R web site and view their pictures. Have you not seen the Carlsson pics? It is very easy to adjust and is self explanitory in the manual.

You will have to play with the valving adjustments and find "your" preferrence at the track and at the street. They are very easy to adjust without lifting the car.

Increasing the rear stiffness will increase oversteer tendencies in general. I don't remember what reference you are refering to on the other board. Tire pressures and widths were discusses extensively.

 

Thats a good point about the tires. I thought about the pads etc but I never thought about tires.

I am taking my victoracers and I also have my HRE's with new Toyos to fall upon.

I am going to start with 13.5 fr and 13.0 rr

I looked through both the sites and could not find anything on adjusting the ride height. I have always let other people work on my cars so I don't know much about doing stuff to them. I guess I picked a great car to get started huh?? Do you have any links that you can point me to? I love to read so please pm a few links when you get a chance.

The carlsson manual is with the dealer but I wish I had taken a photocopy now that I think about it.

I was referring to c32life where you wrote up an excellent article on the Carlsson. you said that the car feels better when it is slightly higher (stiffer) up front you thought something like 6/7 for street. I think you said 4/5 for track.

I am going to start with 7/7 and then go from there.

Thanks for the help.

Prasith

 

I was referring to street settings. The Carlsson is much stiffer all around than the stock suspension. Anything stiffer than 7 in the rear around town is a bit agressive. The RENNTech springs in particular get rid of even the stock springs tendency to bounce around. Even the H&R springs on Zeppelin's car are smoother than stock. Both of these spring upgrades make a better street ride for comfort. In order to tune down the rear and keep the coffee in the cup, making them softer helps on street comfort.

Have you looked at the RS? The strut housing is threaded and the spring perches spin up and down to adjust ride height. There is an independant rear spring stalk that has adjustable collars as well. Wrenches are included with the kit to facilitate adjustment.

I hope you like the Carlssons. Most prefer the H&R and KW's since they have removed all the guess work for you and set them to where most will be happy. In addition, they are more streetable.