CG Height--Important Too???

[jack]

Just read the weight thread and everyone seemed to have intresting and valid points. I was just interested in what people thought about the importance of lowering their car's center of gravity. Of course, everyone tries to achive the lowest CG possible, but which is better--a heavy car with a low CG, or a light car with the CG neglected? for WWU's formula effort this year, of course we are striving for the lightest weight allowed by our design, but we are also adding several pounds in achieving lower CG. F1 seems to put the importance of a low CG fairly high on their list, but i dont know if F1 racing really has anything to do with the dynamics of an FSAE car.

jack @ WWU

[jack]

Just read the weight thread and everyone seemed to have intresting and valid points. I was just interested in what people thought about the importance of lowering their car's center of gravity. Of course, everyone tries to achive the lowest CG possible, but which is better--a heavy car with a low CG, or a light car with the CG neglected? for WWU's formula effort this year, of course we are striving for the lightest weight allowed by our design, but we are also adding several pounds in achieving lower CG. F1 seems to put the importance of a low CG fairly high on their list, but i dont know if F1 racing really has anything to do with the dynamics of an FSAE car.

jack @ WWU

[J-P Granger]

What about getting the absolute answer to that question... What if someone was to make a "Completely" parametric assembly of a car, and write some algorythm to optimize for lap times. I wouldn't do it... I think I'd rather go with gutt feeling and understanding of vehicule dynamics before doing this...

Crazy idea. But very challenging and interesting I think...

J-P Granger
MRT

[Jeff Curtis]

It's been done already by at least two teams (but probally more) that I know of. Leads and Cornell.

Jeff

[Travis Garrison]

Just a quick clarification...we aren't ballasting, our dry sump system has added some weight to the motor...

Travis Garrison

[jack]

...and one of the purposes of the dry sump is to lower the CG of the powerplant