himself

Assuming the alignment and ride height is spot on - generally, and specific to a car running stiffer springs that stock - just how important is a corner balance? Will setting the ride height get the corner balance "close" or have you seen a substantial variance? My car: 996 GT3; stock Bilsteins revalved to match 700#/900# springs; ride height 115 mm F and 128 mm R.

And, how many folks out there simply forego the corner balance? I haven't had one done EVER - although my last corner weights were close to equal L/R and ~40F/~60R without any other balancing.

I'm just a bit nervous that a more stiffly sprung car will behave poorly without a corner balance. And you know I want to win my DE.

-td

Matt Romanowski

How important is it for a table or chair to have four legs that are equal length? If you like sitting at wobbly tables, then it's not important.

Astroman

Unless you've moved a bunch of weight around/added ballast/significantly changed factory ride heights etc, it probably isn't a huge deal. Like you pointed out, Porsche has already corner balanced your car.

mark kibort

You end up, in effect putting more weight in certain corners, so this will change the weight transfer unevenly from corner to corner, front to back. in extreme cases, it could be a matter of slamming on the brakes and one tire locks up while the other ( on the fronts or rears) , with more weight, doesnt. that, in its essensce is what corner balance does. of course, relative to that, in cornering, the same kind of things happen to make turning one direction, different than the other. certainly that can, often times, be driven around, but you have to know your set up. So, to start, the main thing is to have the cross weights be equal, this way the weight transfer issues are mostly solved. front to rear weight is kind of a given, unless you move things around in an on the car.

for DEing, its kind of a waste. I mean, get it close, but in the end, you are running with full tanks, empty tanks, passengers, no passengers, some stuff removed, etc, and that can change the set up dramatically, but keep in mind, most race cars set up around that reality too. so, its not as important to be dead nuts on due to the fact that the gas tank in a race car changes the rear weights from 8lbs to over 100lbs. sometimes teams tune for this , so that when the car is empty , it is set up near perfect, sacraficing its setup at the start of a race.

again, in DE land, Its not so critical. find some scales at the track, see what your set up looks like and you might just turn an adjuster on one corner to relieve its weigh or add some knowing after that, it should be close enough. get your ride height where you want it first, and then do this. If you want, go back and see what it did. and adjust from there.

Potomac-Greg

I think it's important to note that corner imbalance is a bigger problem as spring rates go up. A truly stock car can have a 1/4" differential and with 200# springs, that's 50 lbs of cross weight. But if you have 800# springs, that 1/4" becomes a 200# cross weight.

And with infinite spring rates, then you are like a chair with a short leg.

Circuit Motorsports

As spring rates go up it's more noticeable but I think that most people won't notice that difference. Where it gets more critical is in the lighter cars like formula and such where the percentages are so much bigger.

924RACR

How critical is winning, to you?

For DE - well, sorry, but I still think it's important, at least getting it in the ballpark. That's 'cause you're trying to learn how to drive the car... which is a lot easier when the car's consistent and predictable...

Circuit Motorsports

So the first time I put the Van Diemen on the platforms, the weights were off by 60 pounds in the back and maybe 40 in the front, the toe was in on one side, out on the other, it was a disaster. But it was the most forgiving open wheel car I've ever driven to this day. Once it was all straight and balanced it was a LOT more fun though.

Veloce Raptor

TD, it's important, especially the way you have the car set up & the way you drive.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

multi21

If you're going to put it on the track, corner balance it regardless if its a DE, TT or race.

M758

If you have the alignment sound and he ride heights even you are probalby quite close. You will be giving up something, but for a DE you would probably not drive hard enough to notice. If it is off the wil probably not brake straight and feel different in left turns vs right.


So you can take it as is and run it, but if you have and wierd handling issues or tire wear the lack of conrer balance could be a reason.

kurt M

I will have to disagree. Weight placement and corner balance are not the same. Porsche made the car but someone else came along and turned nuits and bolts. Once you change susp settings everything needs to be checked. As said the tighter the car is sprung the more it is required.

very true and a bad corner balance is more noticeable during transitions.

Potomac-Greg

I never had my 944 corner balanced so I'll never know what I was missing. When I did coilover adjustments, I just made careful measurements between the lower spring perch on the coilover body and the control arm. That just eliminates one variable. If there was any corner jacking it was because a spring was off or the car was twisted.

Astroman

TD, before you pay someone $500 to corner balance your car, put it on the scales with you in the front seat and a half tank of gas and post the corner weights. I'll be curious.

JClark

If this is the going rate, you might as well spend it twice and buy a set of scales. Cornering is a 1 hr job on a race car.