Howdy all!

I've read a lot of threads where people have brought up the issue of weight and distribution of weight in the car and how that affects performance.

So what is the ideal weight distribution of the 2G TL, and how would one go about guaging it to see if it's all good? For my next car I'm thinking about putting a second battery in the trunk along with a decent sized sub and possibly putting dynamats (or equivelant products) all throughout the vehicle to reduce noise and rattle. I know that'll all add a significant amount of weight to the vehicle (especially the rear) and will reduce fuel efficiency.

I've heard of some solutions to reducing the overall weight of the car like getting an aluminum radiator, lighter rims, carbon fiber hood... that sort of stuff... but if you were to make the front of the car lighter with mods like the rad and CF hood, and make the rear heavier with the aforementioned mods, how would that affect not only the ride but fuel efficiency?


Thanks for any input!

 

Ideal weight distribution is 50/50 which the TL will almost never achieve. The fact that it's FWD causes the majority of the weight to be in the front (engine tranny).

Other than making this car RWD, which is virtually impossible without $$$$$, love your car for what it is, a sport sedan that gets decent gas mileage and can manuever pretty well.

 

Sweet, so dumping all that crap I mentioned into the car (mostly in the rear) shouldn't really make all THAT much of a difference?

Just a rough guesstimate, but battery + sub + amp + dynamat on the trunk alone would probably be what... 150 or so pounds?

 

Well removing weight will certainly help but I just don't understand people removing seats, insulation, etc. on a car like this. I mean come one, it's not a track car.

 

Yeah, I definately have no interest in stripped out things to make the car less luxurious. I was just a bit worried that adding a couple hundred pounds of around the car might severely impact fuel efficiency in the long run.

What's your opinion on mods like the aluminum radiator though? If balance is important and more weight is being added to the rear, it might be good to reduce the weight to the front a little. From the claims I've seen the aluminum rad is supposed to be far superior to the stock one... but I don't know how much difference it makes in the real world, or even what the weight difference really is...

 

ahemmmmmm

 

well look at it like this, if you put all that stuff in, it'll be like always having a passenger in the back seat

 

Yep, that's exactly how I'm looking at it... all the mods put together would basically equal 1 very heavy person or 2 lighter people in the car. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience on how that affects fuel efficiency. I've never really bothered to try and guage it myself because it's usually just me in the car

 

i knew youd pop in on this one.

let me rephrase it. unless your car is a track car; there is no need for massive weight reduction.