Mike A.

Don't forget center of gravity and chassis wheel base. These along with rate of deceleration/acceleration are the ONLY things that will determine the amount of longitudinal load transfer. Lateral load transfer (when cornering) is ONLY determined by CG height, track width of the chassis, and cornering force. What you want to do is lower the CG as much as possible (example: lower the car, put battery on floor, get Lexan windows, etc.), increase the wheel base (good luck), and increase track width (use wheel spacers?). But, you do not want to decrease your rate of deceleration/acceleration or your cornering forces if you want good lap times. These are the only things that will change the total amount of load transferred due to deceleration, acceleration, or cornering.
However, you can adjust the car to accomodate load changes by controlling how much the suspension moves during changes in loading and how quickly the load gets to the tire contact patch. Adjusting brake bias and bolting on all the goodies descibed above will do this.
And of course there's the entire subject of down force which is used to create additional grip.

ninefiveone

I agree with Jerry on the need to tune the driver first. Additionally, the ultimate handling car for one person is something different for another. This goes hand in hand with tuning the driver as you'll find that you'll want to setup the car differently than someone else.

Look at any racing series. If the ultimate handling car was the same, everyone would have the same settings for a given car. But on teams with 2 drivers, each car is setup slightly different according to the style/needs of the driver.

tecart

my car has the m030 option and its ride height has never been changed, its an 86' 944 turbo, if i get 17 inch wheels and big reds will lowering my car in the rear or front with the stiffer 250 pound springs and the lowering bolt in the rear possible make my wheels rub the fenders at all or is this not a worry? im concerned that lowering the car about 2 inches then bigger wheels might cause rubbing or should i just get springs that dont lower ride height and leave the bolt alone to be sure i get no rubbing? id like to lower it 2 inches and put on 17 inch 540 hre rims with big reds thats my plan, thanks for any insight

David Salama

You are all forgetting one very important component of the ultimate handling car. You need a limited slip differential. I have an excellent handling 951 (see below) and have tracked my car on many occassions (currently instructing for PCA). I am not able to get good corner speed on many tight corners because I have an open differential. I just ordered a 50 % lockup clutch type LSD from Guard Transmission (Thanks Paul) I can't wait to get it installed and tell you how much better my car handles, and how many seconds I take off my lap times.

Silverbullet951

Hey thanks for all of the replies. I was just curious if you guys could give a comparison. let's say, in a 90 degree turn, how fast can you go? or in a sharp curve.. whatever...

Silverbullet951

Hey thanks for all of the replies. I was just curious if you guys could give a comparison. let's say, in a 90 degree turn, how fast can you go? or in a sharp curve.. whatever...