And coming next week:
Will the Camaro be a better sports car with more power?
And the week after that:
Will the Camaro be a better sports car with wider tires?
And after that:
Will the Camaro be a better sports car with a more responsive suspension?
And after that:
Will the Camaro be a better sports car with more of its weight towards the rear?
There are plenty of ways that the Camaro could be improved upon, if thats the only thing you're considering. But when you're juggling 100 parameters to make a even the simplest of decisions making one area better can easily hurt something else that you're trying to do (like keep cost low)
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldfriend
I would see that this way , get a bag of 50 lb and put that on the back of a athlete lets say a sprinter , then clock him from standstill to 50 yards , and till he stops , do the same test without weigh and see what happen , it's called inertia and moment , in another words it takes more effort to start moving and more time to slow it down [ just before turns] it means brakes will have to be applied early on on a heavier car .My 2 cents .
|
Ok ... now, take a ~5'10, 150 lb runner and give
him 50 lbs of extra muscle mass rather than dead weight and see how he runs. He's gunna be faster.
Its not just pure mass that affects things. Where it is, and what its doing there play an even bigger role than its mere existence. I'm getting kinda tired of people thinking of the weight on the Camaro as 'flab'. Sure, its heavy. But I think of it more as being heavy like an NFL linebacker rather than an armchair quarterback. It not there due to laziness ... it serves a purpose.
The Camaro is heavy due to a number of things. First, its a very stiff chassis. This helps with not only safety (remember that the Camaro aced the 2012 NHTSA safety tests) but it also improves the handling. When the body doesn't flex, the suspension can work better. To pull that mass out you have to either A) switch to more expensive materials B) reduce the strength C) make the car much smaller. Personally, I don't think any of those options are all that great.
There's also the independent rear suspension. Improving handling ability, ride quality, and weight distribution (and possibly centre of gravity ... not sure on that one though). Yes, it adds 150 lbs but it helps more than it hurts.