Ballast

[Stangman]

I know we like to get our cars as lite as possible within reason. I’m using my car as an example, the front of my car is a good 450 lbs heavier than the back. To even the car out to 50/50 adding let’s say 3 or 400 lbs of ballast seem like a lot of weight to add. You would think that would slow the car down. If anyone could explain or give me there ballast setups.

Jay my fat fingers hit wrong section could you put this in the technical section

[390rpm]

I'm pretty sure ballasts are used in racecars where there is a weight requirement. The car is built to be lighter than the requirement and ballasts are used to meet the weight requirement. The locations of the weights are strategically selected to increase the normal force on the tires to alter handling characteristics by increasing traction. Cornering can cause body roll that shifts weight, thus decreasing normal force and traction (coefficient of friction) on the light side while increasing it on the heavy side. Uniform circular motion requires that all forces are proportional to maintain uniform circular motion, if those requirements aren't met the car will veer off the path toward the center of the circle, or be pulled off its arch toward it. Adding weight alone will slow the car. I would think that if there wasn't any weight requirements more attention would be directed toward improving weight transfer. I'm not a road racer or anything, so I could be dead wrong. If I wanted better balance for cornering I would look into decreasing body roll, shifting the engine farther back, lighter parts, independent rear suspension, etcetera. Hopefully I didn't butcher it too badly. It's been a while since I studied physics.

[KMcCullah]

I wouldn't add that kind of weight to reach a 50/50 weight bias. It's just not that big of a deal for a street/strip car. Different story for a dedicated bracket racer. Suffling weight from front to rear makes more sense to me. Battery to the trunk etc.

[cjshaker]

That would be like losing 30-40 horsepower, and probably slow you down at least a couple of tenths. I'd say it'd be near impossible to gain that back in 60' times, IF it even helped there. Unless you are going road racing, all it'll do is hurt you.

[Falcon67]

With an iron 351C in the nose, the Falcon is about 1750 front, 1300 rear without driver.  Never been an issue.  Get a couple inches of air on passes. 

[frnkeore]

For a drag race car, it will hurt you, to add any weight, IF your getting the wheels up, at launch. If there up, you have transferred everything you can, to the rear. Mounting thing high can help that.

For road racing, it will usually only help, if you need to add weight, to make a minimum weight. It can help corner exit but, will hurt acceleration.

For a road race car, the prime area to work on is front to rear balance (including suspension mods) and lowering the CG, as much as possible. Moving components to the rear (balance out the driver weight will help) and mounting them as low as possible, is the way to go.

You need wheel scales to be successful, now a days in RR.