I tried ballast at the tail last night and found something interesting.
Original f/r distribution is 42:58.
40 kg at the tail makes it 41:59;
70 kg ------------------> 40:60. (all under weight reduction stage 3)
In fact it needs slightly less than those weight to reach those numbers of distribution, I just round them up.
Drive it without ballast first, it's the feel I've been used to. With 40 kg, I'm surprised the tail IS more stable. It seems the additional grip by the more contact pressure on the ground somehow overwhelms the lateral inertia it adds.
Out of a bend, I can use more throttle earlier with more confidence. The rear end stay more planted when accelerating out of a corner. And it also stays stable in the process of braking. Switched back to no ballast, it feels somewhat floated by comparison.
Increased to 70 kg, the effect (of the tail being pushed down to the ground) is more pronounced -- it puts the power down even better through mid to high speed corners. But it comes with side effects, too. Turn-in of slower corner becomes worse -- front end loses its bite. And, if being pushed too hard, it's harder to save (or can't be saved) when it finally lets go. Also, it still doesn't like curb. Simply put, I feel the limit is raised, with a steeper cliff beyond that. (or other factors need more optimizations for this...)
In the process of these trials -- just like other experiences in tuning -- I feel my driving adapts to the newer setting and would try harder to get the best out of it. So my observations might be somewhat subjective. Plus the testing is too short and the comparison is not thorough enough. At this stage, I feel the optimal ballast (for me) would be somewhere between the 2 numbers above. Oh well, I'm not the precise type of driver anyway.
[URL='https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/members/yannagas.210015/']yannagas, jtoribio94[/URL], thanks a lot for your valuable sharing, or I'd never try such a method myself. I'll try this on other cars, too.
Oh, sorry if I turn this into a tuning thread.
. At 1:02.730
some other minor changes 1:02.440. your tune
great stuff.
