Corner weighting?

[Paul Hawker]

I was just talking with ViperTech Mike Carrasco in Temecula. He mentioned they have just purchased scales for corner balancing.

Is this an important item for setting up street Vipers, or something that only benefits track setups.

I am considering upgrading my KW Variant shocks to the new Motion Control Suspension shocks. What would be the advantage of having corner weighting done at that time?

Last time there was corner weighting available in the San Diego area it was with Dave Cawthorne (RIP). He was a strong believer in that technology, but I never fully understood the reason it was so important.

 

[ROCKET62]

Good question - inquiring minds want to know. Marc Jorgenson / Woodhouse have always been proponents of this - and i would consider it if they werent 5 hours away. I've always considered this a serious tracker mod - and it would have to also help with aggressive street driving. I would also be interesting to see how close to being corner balanced a stock Viper is from the factory.

 

[bluesrt]

corner weight, = more tire patch on the pavement= better control/handleing

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

Since this is primarily done for racing, many cars cannot make the 50 percent left-side weight percentage due to driver offset of his fat butt. LOL
You want the driver seated in the car when setting it up so you get equall weight on the LF and the RR corners. It's ok to shift things around in a race car but a nice car you drive on weekends, car shows etc. makes it nearly impossible to acheive a completely equal balance. The only way to change the static weight distribution percentages is to physically move weight around in the car... Still worth getting as close as you can though.

Vipers are different in my opinion because they have that "viper torque" to pull them out of corners... so maybe instead of the standard (add the LF weight to the LR weight and dividing the sum by the total weight and then add the LR and the RR weight together and divide the sum by the total weight) maybe it's a bit different percentage wise since the more power a car has, the more that weight over the drive wheels helps you accelerate out of corners.

Now my head hurts!

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

When a car is properly corner weighted acceleration AND braking are much better and the ability to turn both directions with equal balance is nice even on the street. The tail will stay behind you better also when you do get wheel spin. As stated above the only way to do it is with the drivers weight in the car. We also set the ride height and alignment up with the driver in the car.

 

[Frank Parise]

Hi Paul, it's been a long time! I think all above comments are correct in theory.

IMO, corner weighting is an unnecessary refinement for street driving.

When you corner weight your race car you do it custom tailored to the specific track with proper alignment for the track and proper fuel load and tire pressures at race temperature, etc. You ballast the car inside with weights to simulate driver, ice chest for cool suit, etc. to simulate actual race weight. You may have it set up to perform really well on the most important section of the track while at the same time making compromises everywhere else as necessary.

If you're installing new shocks which allow you to adjust ride heights, I would get corner weights as close as possible but focus far more on proper alignment.

BTW, without moving weight around inside the car, you have no chance of getting same weight on each corner. Best you can do is match the total weight of the LF and RR to the total weight of the RF and LR. You can never change the total left side weight, or the front side weight or the rear weight or the right side weight by merely adjusting ride heights.

Also remember as soon as you change ride height on any corner, you have changed the weight on all four corners and the alignment as well.
This is one of the biggest PITA procedures you will ever go through....

CIAO

 

[bluesrt]

so the moral of the story here is folks, learn how do drive the wheels off your viper in a smooth manner, then maybe get into the trick ricky stuff.. cause the tricky ricky stuff aint majic... remember this, a good driver can do laps around you in the same car with no tweeking

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Definitely for the track. Not necessary for the street. I've made my mods one at a time over the years. I was amazed at how much better braking and handling were after scaling it. Do it right and it is incredible.

 

[HyperViper]

Why are you ditching the KWs for the MCS shocks? Is Mike doing the install?

 

[Tail lights]

Really? Your going to put moton's on, And you're considering not scaling your car?

 

[GTS Dean]

If you can get all the corners weighing within 50# on a driver ballasted street car, you'll be doing pretty well.