[RX135]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I got my wheels changed on the day of delivery. They only did balancing after changing the wheels/tyres and not alignment. They said alignment is not necessary since it is new car.

Did they charge you for wheel balancing? How much?

[RX135]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

What r you talking about????

He is talking about Indica Petrol doing 175 (Mentioned in earlier posts).

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by RX135

Did they charge you for wheel balancing? How much?

Don't remember, think it was 200. This was not the Maruti dealer. This was the accessories dealer (iceman's friend).

[gkrishn]

When i tried 100 at inner ring road for the first time in my car, i felt this lightness. But nowadays even at 140 i dont feel this. So, it could be as what RX told.

[Mpower]

Hey SS, I said it was funny because auto engineers are struggling so hard to reduce weight and use stuff like Aluminium and Magnesuim alloys for many of the parts and here you are, throwing more weight into the car.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Recently I have started pushing my new Baleno to higher speeds. Two weeks back On the Hassan-Bangalore highway I started flooring it and was quite disappointed when the car started feel light (levitation?) at mere 130KMPH, +.

How many people in the car? Try the gunny bag trick

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Hey SS, I said it was funny because auto engineers are struggling so hard to reduce weight and use stuff like Aluminium and Magnesuim alloys for many of the parts and here you are, throwing more weight into the car.

How many people in the car? Try the gunny bag trick

Why do you find the gunny bag trick funny? It is very common in USA to have weighted bags/boxes on the back of pickup trucks when they are not loaded. When somebody buys a pickup truck, first thing they do is put some heavy boxes on the back.

Regarding my car levitation, I had my wife and 4 year old son in the car. There were couple of bags in the boot too.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Hey SS, I said it was funny because auto engineers are struggling so hard to reduce weight and use stuff like Aluminium and Magnesuim alloys for many of the parts and here you are, throwing more weight into the car.
)

when you are alone and want to throw thw car around corners,the gunny bag is the only downforce you can have ,also no one will dare sit with you once they see you doing those slow in fast outs.

[Revvhead]

Man i hate any extra weight in my car,
whenever i have more thanb two people in it, i can feel the diff in acceleration, speeds and handling.

I get your point about the extra weight, but two bags of sand and cement seems a bit excessive in terms of weight.

Doesnt the extra weight make you face any snap steer?

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Why do you find the gunny bag trick funny? It is very common in USA to have weighted bags/boxes on the back of pickup trucks when they are not loaded. When somebody buys a pickup truck, first thing they do is put some heavy boxes on the back.

Not everywhere in the states. They do throw a couple of sandbags in the back but that only in the snow belt states of the midwest and the east coast..........and its only in the winter. The reason for that is to get some traction to the rear wheels....or else they keep spinning when you get on the gas.....and that's because an empty pickup has like a 80-20 weight distribution.
My friend has a Firebird V8 RWD and also uses sandbags in the winter to get additional traction.

But, here SS is doing it for high speed stability and cornering grip in a FWD Zen....and that's something I havent heard about.

[Shan2nu]

The problem with sand/cement bags is that unlike downforce, it's dead weight added to the car. Downforce only helps push the car down and varies itself as the speed increases and decreases but, a heavy bag means that you're stuck with it no matter what and it does add to the lateral weight exerted on the tyres.

It does help in giving the car a balanced weight distribution but, that's only limited to the corners. More weight means that your exit and straight line speed suffers.

I usually change the tyre pressure to combat understeer and it's worked for me.

Shan2nu

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by Mpower

But, here SS is doing it for high speed stability and cornering grip in a FWD Zen....and that's something I havent heard about.

the reason i do that is because ,whenever i used to do 100+ with no one aboard,the ride used to be bumpy and the car use dto bounce around on the turns.

but when i had someone on board in the rear,the pik up ised to suffer ,but with weight the car feels more planted on the road,

also,i had raised my ride height as my wider 165 tires used to touch the body in the rear .and this raised height helps in further messing up the grip on turns .

so to compensate for this raised height i have been using these gunny bags when ther is no one around,and it has really helped me. enjoy my drives.
but u can feel the downside of using extra weight on uphill roads.

[highwayblaze]

Spoilers will increase downforce at rear, so I was wondering if bumper skirts would help increase downforce on the steered wheels?

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

enjoy my drives.
but u can feel the downside of using extra weight on uphill roads.

Not to mention the lower FE.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Not to mention the lower FE.

hehe ,
who cares abt FE when u have about 250 kms of winding roads and when the revvs have to stay above 3000 rpm in any gear.so never get a chance to go above 3rd or 4th gear.its only slow in fast out without brakes

[Revvhead]

Actually a half decent front air dam should help a lot as this would help reduce flow under the car and remove the light feel.
i would love to have one myself, but am basically worried about reducing the whole ride height and having to drive with extra caution so as not to mess it up