Best location for ballast

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BillyShope
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Best location for ballast

Postby BillyShope » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:23 am

In another forum, a poster wanted to know whether some ballast weight would do more good (dragracing application) in the rear bumper or above the axle. I thought this was a good question and worked out a graphical solution for him. I figure this question either has been...or will be...brought up in other forums, so, rather than send someone on a search for my post, I thought I'd just repeat it here:

There is a graphical means for evaluating different positions for ballast.

Draw a horizontal line and locate a point on that line. That will be the rear tire patch in side view. The front of the car will be to the right. Construct a line which extends upward and to the left from the point. This line will have an angle, from the horizontal, having a tangent equal to the acceleration, in G's, that you expect during launch. With good tires, that could be, say, 2.5 G's, meaning that the angle would be 68.2 degrees from the horizontal.

Now, locate, to an appropriate scale, the two location points you're considering for ballast. Suppose point "A" is the bumper location and point "B" is the location above the axle. Construct a line that passes through point "A" and is perpendicular to the first line. Construct a similar line through point "B." Each of these last two lines will intersect the first line. The intersection which is furthest from the tire patch...along that 68.2 degree line...passes through the point ("A" or "B") at which you want to locate your ballast.

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