Love this video...BMW Perfect Balance. Perfect Performance.

[stefan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't MOST cars do this? Granted, the balance point might just be very close to off-center, but to the average eye, they wouldn't notice that the center point of balance, was in fact, the center? Right?

Still, great ad!

[EmmDrei]

Originally Posted by stefan

Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't MOST cars do this? Granted, the balance point might just be very close to off-center, but to the average eye, they wouldn't notice that the center point of balance, was in fact, the center? Right?

Nope, you're wrong. Most FWD cars are nose heavy. Especially if gearbox and engine sit on or in front of the front axle. Ideally a car would have a weight balance of approx. 45%/55%. Most stock BMWs are close to 50/50. A heavy rear (such as in i.e. a 911) is not ideal and a heavy nose (the weight bias in some FWD cars can come close to 70/30) isn't either. Do such a balancing trick i.e. in a FWD Golf and you'll see with the naked eye, that the picture will be different. Granted, that the 1M in the video probably had a couple of tires in the boot.

[ozinaldo]

Originally Posted by EmmDrei

Nope, you're wrong. Most FWD cars are nose heavy. Especially if gearbox and engine sit on or in front of the front axle. Ideally a car would have a weight balance of approx. 45%/55%. Most stock BMWs are close to 50/50. A heavy rear (such as in i.e. a 911) is not ideal and a heavy nose (the weight bias in some FWD cars can come close to 70/30) isn't either. Do such a balancing trick i.e. in a FWD Golf and you'll see with the naked eye, that the picture will be different. Granted, that the 1M in the video probably had a couple of tires in the boot.

The weight distribution of 1M is 51.5 front to 48.5 rear if I remember correctly, plus there is the driver and you are probably right that there might be something(s) in the trunk

[Sonnig]

Brilliant

[stefan]

Originally Posted by EmmDrei

Nope, you're wrong. Most FWD cars are nose heavy. Especially if gearbox and engine sit on or in front of the front axle. Ideally a car would have a weight balance of approx. 45%/55%. Most stock BMWs are close to 50/50. A heavy rear (such as in i.e. a 911) is not ideal and a heavy nose (the weight bias in some FWD cars can come close to 70/30) isn't either. Do such a balancing trick i.e. in a FWD Golf and you'll see with the naked eye, that the picture will be different. Granted, that the 1M in the video probably had a couple of tires in the boot.

Right, but couldn't the (nose or rear) heavy cars just move forward or backward to compensate? What I mean is the true "center balance" point from a visual perspective is probably very hard to detect. Like even on that 1M, we can't be sure that the center point of mass is immediately above the fulcrum. Maybe I'm physics-challenged.

[datbimmerdoe]

:slowclap:

[Turbomatic]

Cool ad. Mazda did this before in a photo with the Miata. Very few cars out there could pull this off.

[yamazaho]

Nice stuff....!!!

[Marioalex24]

Originally Posted by Papethova

Ive done that at a BMW event in an X5

So it did balance out?

[M5007]

Nice vid

[Papethova]

Originally Posted by Marioalex24

So it did balance out?

Perfectly, but I cant comment if anything was added in the trunk or anywhere else to help it out. All day long various X5s were driven onto the see saw and they all balanced out.

[Chaddy808]

Hahaha I love this video!!

[671rover]

Originally Posted by Turbomatic

Cool ad. Mazda did this before in a photo with the Miata. Very few cars out there could pull this off.

Land Rover had this as a challenge task for one of their camel trophy events about 20 years ago. A Land Rover discovery was used. You might be able to find it on YouTube.

[Black Flagged]

nice, its a perfect balance......

[v1k0d3n]

Originally Posted by achien

Still looks like the front end is heavier.

The driver position had to be slightly behind the mid-point for the car to maintain balance.

When we did a weight test at Ohlins the front was actually heavier (and this was w/o driver too, which make it even a little bit more unbalanced) the distribution was about 53/47 front/back w/o driver. Still a good balance distribution, but not exactly perfect.

[discoboy1]

Originally Posted by v1k0d3n

When we did a weight test at Ohlins the front was actually heavier (and this was w/o driver too, which make it even a little bit more unbalanced) the distribution was about 53/47 front/back w/o driver. Still a good balance distribution, but not exactly perfect.

When doing a weight distribution test, should the gas tank be full or empty?

[achien]

full-tank.

to be specific, proper weight distributions should not only include front/back, but also between left/right, and cross-weight distribution of the car.

Originally Posted by discoboy1

When doing a weight distribution test, should the gas tank be full or empty?

[Mr_M]

Originally Posted by EmmDrei

Nope, you're wrong. Most FWD cars are nose heavy. Especially if gearbox and engine sit on or in front of the front axle. Ideally a car would have a weight balance of approx. 45%/55%. Most stock BMWs are close to 50/50. A heavy rear (such as in i.e. a 911) is not ideal and a heavy nose (the weight bias in some FWD cars can come close to 70/30) isn't either. Do such a balancing trick i.e. in a FWD Golf and you'll see with the naked eye, that the picture will be different. Granted, that the 1M in the video probably had a couple of tires in the boot.

By this guideline then a CF hood is an improvement and a CF trunk not so much.

[v1k0d3n]

Originally Posted by achien

full-tank.

to be specific, proper weight distributions should not only include front/back, but also between left/right, and cross-weight distribution of the car.

Absolutely. When I go back to Ohlins (in about 2-3 weeks) for fitment of the new 1M kit, I will have them do a complete front/back side/side weight comparison and post it up. Keep up with my Ohlins development thread for further details (if you're interested in this sort of stuff). I'll update in about 5-10 minutes since I just got off the phone with them.

[EmmDrei]

Originally Posted by Mr_M

By this guideline then a CF hood is an improvement and a CF trunk not so much.

A carbon hood or trunk lid won't make much of a difference as far as weight distribution is concerned. Simply put the weight being saved into perspective as to the total weight of the vehicle and you will see, that you are looking at fractions of percent.

Btw: it is not only a question of front and back and left and right and cross, but the weight should ideally be concentrated between the axles. You could effectively change the weight bias by adding ballast weight i.e. under the rear bumper. You could, but it would be a very bad idea as far as the cars handling is concerned.

[Dan Parker]

Good for a laugh (I hope)
See post #8

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2822267

[ozinaldo]

Originally Posted by Dan Parker

Good for a laugh (I hope)
See post #8

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2822267

How did you even catch this thread?