PSTNLSS

iTrader: (3)

How about a 13b on each rear wheel. How badass would that be?

renesisgenesis

Ya that would be awesome. You could have a computer control the power available to each wheel depending on cornering characteristics calculated out.

myriadshalaks

iTrader: (1)

that's because you belong in a vw cabriolet.

BlueEyes

speaking of VW cabrios, I saw one of these on the road the other day. Never ever remember seeing one before and I guess they have been out for a while. I think they're pretty queer and obviously they don't sell well and that's the end of my tangent

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

because of statements like this.

ask yourself this... if a 45/55 weight distribution were so beneficial why do sports car companies try so hard to make it as close to 50/50 as possible? in fact, why has porsche gone through such great lengths to try to even out the weight distribution in the engine-hanging-out-the-*** porsche carrera?

question to ask yourself. what weight distribution do race teams strive for?
another question to ask yourself. do you know more than professional race teams?

BlueEyes

Race teams don't strive for 50/50 weight distribution. In fact, any race team worth a damn adjust weight distribution depending on the track. High powered rear drive race cars benefit from rear biased weight distribution to put power down out of corners.

And anyhow, 50/50 weight distribution is just a stupid marketing gimmick.

8 Maniac

iTrader: (1)

wouldn't that rear design catch wayyyy too much wind?

DarkLord7854

My mom has one.. it has a turbo.. it sucks, its slow, sluggish, heavy. I hate it. Plus it smells like rank McDonalds in it. Seats feel cheap as hell and aren't comfortable at all.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

decnalab 05/05 ydaerla sti

YaXMaNGTO

Ah. The reason the rotary so cool is because the smaller packaging means you can position the engine lower and farther back in the chassis. To build a mid engine rotary would mean youre not exploiting some of it's fundamental advantages.

If you going to go mid or rear engine, just use a boxer or some other transversely mounted piston engine...

renesisgenesis

Ya that is a good point. I was surprised to see that actually the entire engine block of the 8 is at least a few inches behind the front axle line, and it's so impressive considering it still seats 4 and has a nice length nose; not too long at all.

renesisgenesis

Well, I would agree that porsche tries to move the weight forward, because it is far too rearward, probably more than 60 percent rear, so of course they would also strive to go closer toward 45-55...and also so I guess we agree on that which makes it odd that you are using it against me....hmmm


but anyway, here is an article from car and driver including tid bits from some tech nut who wrote a book on Ferrari F1 technology. http://www.caranddriver.com/features...evealed_column


If you don't wish to read it you can take my word for it:
It includes info explaining how the team's cars for a modern F1 are so light that they have a lot of ballast to work with before each race. Sounds like typically the weight is added with a bias in the front, resulting in an overall ratio of about 44/56, F/R. But it does explain that often ballast is set to give a more rearward ballast for tracks with slow speed corners.

JinDesu

iTrader: (2)

F1 cars have a ton of power going to their rear wheels, though.

Lighter cars with less power make much better effect out of a 50/50 or near (51/49 standing) since they aren't going to wheel spin under acceleration. If, however, the 16x engine was put into the 8, I'd say your idea to shift some of the weight towards the rear wheels would be better.

DubbsLuvs8s

iTrader: (1)

If you take too much weight off the front, you'll end up with understeer, especially when it starts to get wet. I wouldn't go too much further back without very significant upgrades and changes to the suspension, which might throw off the beauty we already have. My two cents.

ATL-GP

Damn...that would be cool...I like that!!...(the blue "targa" RX-8 shown above)