November 1, 2007 - Cornerweight time.
This wasn't a very serious cornerweight session, as I'll be taking the suspension apart before too long. I mostly wanted to make sure there weren't any really major problems, and to set the ride height.
The car's fairly tall, as fast Miatas go. It's about 13.5" front and rear, although I need to recheck that after driving it home tonight.
The real question is - what does it weigh? A quick disclaimer first, I always weigh cars with a full tank of gas. Not in this case, because I forgot to fill up on the way in to the shop this morning. The car is showing 3/4" on the gauge. I'll fill it up on the way home and then add the weight of the fuel so I can get a good, comparable number.
Anyhow, with the 3/4 tank, the car came in at 2080 lbs. Not bad! It's nose-heavy, with 53.1% of the weight on the front wheels. That's okay, I'll have more weight in the trunk during the race and the occupant weight lands more on the rear than the front. I'm pretty happy with that. My target weight was 2070 lbs wet, and I'm pretty darn close.
update: it took almost exactly 4 gallons to fill the tank. At 6 lbs/gallon, that means the car is just a hair over 2100 lbs with a full tank. The final choice of sway bars will affect this, as will the installation of the rally computer - but it's a good start.
tags: ergonomics, exhaust, alignment, engine |
THE DIARY