i am wondering y more weight in the back promotes less understeer. more weight in the back should give the rear more traction hence their explanation of increased acceleration. but understeer is when the front loses traction before the back and for oversteer vice versa, so then how does that work??

 

Ferrari's test data doesn't explicitly imply less understeer -- they tested to determine steering input for a given g-load. Their testing showed that a rear-bias resulted in less steering input to achieve the same g-force. Less steering input = less chance for understeer and less tire wear.

 

Yeah, but how about handling at the limit? What is the chance of understeer or oversteer?

 

As I said above, that has more to do with suspension geometry/tuning than relatively small variances in weight distribution.

Given the Ferrari 612s "GT car" role, I would guess that the chassis is still set up with a bit of understeer for safety.

 

Humm...

 

POM, go out and try it for yourself. Add some ballast to the rear of your car. Put a bag of concrete in your hatch. See how it feels during cornering. Pictures are better than words, videos are better than pictures, and real-world experience is better than both.

I personally think the factory weight balance is pretty good, rather than spend a lot of time or effort on re-distributing the weight balance, I would work on lightening the car, starting from the outermost points (bumpers) and working inwards. The main problem is that if you change the weight balance significantly, you should also be adjusting your suspension & alignment settings to match.

-s-

 

Thank you, scotty I'll find something to put in the back. Maybe a case of Heineken??

 

Just to complicate things further, the car's polar moment of inertia plays a large role in determining the "feel" of the car. Consider a car with 1000 lbs bumpers at each end, and 50/50 weight distribution. It will feel much different than another car that weighs the same, is also 50/50, but has all the mass concentrated near the center of the car. The heavy bumper car has a high polar moment of inertia and will resists changes in direction much more than the car with its mass concentrated near the CG.

-Max

 

Yep, Max. You did what you wanted