ive only got as far as question one. will watch the rest later.

yes lead ballast will give you better cornering grip. end of. but there will be a point when there will be too much for the tyres. so the must be an optimum weight given for a certain tyre to give best grip.

anyone who has done a track day with a passanger then without will notice the car is more slidey on corners but will get there quicker with the latter.


question one was only about cornering grip. whether it justifies the car being so heavy is another thing.

 

Very heavy does equal grip, but then it needs more grip and will be very heavy on consumables. And it's the consumables point that I have an issue with. That nurburgring record took an entire tank of fuel. 3 laps out of a set of tyres, 5 laps out of the brakes.

Reduce weight and you can reduce the amount of engineering you need everywhere else.

 

See what Moggy put

Yes, more weight = more grip.

However, you need more grip to get that more weight round the corner

Physics > GTR

 

Is the weight/grip equation proportional though, or does having more weight give more grip than is needed? - I hope that makes sense.

I think the most salient point in the whole thing was that the car has been designed for every day use, by novice drivers, on all sorts of road surfaces in all types of conditions.

Reminds me a bit of the old "it's far harder to design a family hatchback than it is to design a supercar, as the hatch has to be able to do so much more" argument.

 

I'd disagree that physics > GTR

The GTR actually shows what you CAN do with physics.

But it'll cost you in the end, even if the purchase price isn't as much as it could be.

Someone should do a cost per lap comparison of the GTR versus stuff like the 911 Turbo.

 

Mark I know we have discussed this before, but I just cannot believe the 3 laps out of the tyres and 5 from the brakes. Stuff like the new M3 weigh the same, and don't come close to that wear rate.

I also know of people regulalry tracking them and not using any consumables so far.

I don't disagree that it will be hard on consumables given it's weight and grip, but nowhere near that bad.

Nissan have also just officially announced you can turn the VDC off if you like, and the tranny temp can go to 120 without a change.

 

Mark, It's less for a normal person but I know someone who was involved in demo laps for customers on the ring and they were astonished by the consumables.

Clearly they're the extreme case, but there's no getting away from the fact that heavy car equals lots of consumables.

I actually agree, from an engineering standpoint, the videos. As in, it's plausible, even if it's not probable.

But I'd rather engineer an ugly wing and save 500kg.

BUT, a 1700kg car, gets 1700kg of downforce at less than 70mph...

 

I like mine and the weight is not an issue.

Consumables are consumed, but it's worth it

 

Well, you'd have to consume a great deal before the £40k+ (+options) purchase price differential is breached.

 

No, it doesn't.

A 1700kg car has 1700kg of mass.

Mass ISN'T downforce.

Downforce is exactly that - a force which solely acts downwards. It adds no mass, therefore dramatically increases cornering forces because the tyres still are only required to haul the orginal mass about the lateral change of direction

Simply adding more weight will yield and increased grip level from the contact patch.

However, because mass is substance, the increased grip is needed in order to get the increased mass to change the direction.

Just think of the Feather vs Hammer experiment on the moon.

Feather has less mass than a Hammer so the gravitational FORCE would be much greater on the hammer than the feather.

Yet they both fall at the same rate.

Purely because the hammer NEEDS more force to move its greater mass.

No the solution to getting more grip without weight or downforce is to simply use a softer compund tyre.