Collapsible spare repositioning
 

Hello All,
My goal is to push weight to the center of the front tires and
reposition the battery front center for combined centralization.
By reusing existing hardware to clamp wheel in place, (plenty space under
sway bar) would this reflect detectable body roll? Thanks Roger WPB,Fl.

Frankly, unless your first inital is M and they call you Schummi, I doubt you would be able to tell the difference by these heroics.

Instead, spend you money on a quality alignmnert and corner balance (lower the car if needed). Any decent 911 race shop can do this for you and you will feel the difference.

If you add your location to tyour profile, many here would be able to point you to a shop that can help you out.

Thanks for your tech input Harry. My numbness excludes being the chinster.
Roger

Roger, why not move the battery into the smuggler's box? I have noticed that moving the battery to the smuggler's box is popular. To people who've done that, how much of a difference does that make?

Keep in mind you will have to move to a much smaller battery to do this. And you are moving weight from the left front to the middle right side of the car. So a corner balance will probably be required. Like was previously stated, who really notices such a change?

Repositioning weight in the trunk
 

Couple of questions:

Is the goal better weight to the front wheels of the car?

The stock 40/60 (front/back/) will not see a lot of difference moving the spare tire back a foot or so and the battery from drivers side to the center of the car. Get you car on the four corner weight scales and see the difference (both with the driver and without the driver) and evaluate if there is a adequate weight movement. (Review both the front axle to rear axle weights but more importantly the diagonal weight of
front left/rr to fr/rl). Is it a 1-2% or a 10-15% weight shift difference?

Check those weights with a full tank of gas to empty tank of gas comparison? Gas is about 6 1/3 lbs per gallon @ 14 gal.

Do you intent to improve the center of gravity by moving the spare up to the cross panel between the front tires? Or moving the battery from the lowest possible location to a higher surface?

The temporary handling fix for the 1965-68 cars was the pair of 25lb weights in the front bumper and as far to the side, as close to the front and as low as possible. This was continued with the next series of cars with the dual batteries pushed out into the fender wells, also as low as possible (in addition to the lengthening of the rear wheel base).

Weight, lower in the car, has always been a good thing. That doesn't leave a lot of options.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Fleming, that does help. I have to wonder though, if old tire technology had as much effect on the weight positioning in the past. What is the weight bias of the new 997 and where are the battery, spare, jack and other items located? I know on my previous Boxster (albeit a mid-engine car) the battery was high and in the center between the strut arches.

So I have to wonder what all of the current suspension technology and tires do to this equation in car equipped with modern upgrades and lightened rear ends (removed A/C, heater motor, lighter rear bumper, fiberglass bonnet, etc)

Just ideas bouncing around my head.. :)

Cheers,

- CraigD

Thanks folks for all your condiderations and collective technical prowness.
This helped sort things out. Now my 1977 911S 2.7 needs to know what model Oddessy
is required to twist her crank? Roger

Roger,

Didn't mean to ring your bell.

In theory, the move is beneficial but in the real world, I truly doubt you will see much of a change. Hence my suggestion to apply your funds to those actions that will provide you with a detectable change.

If you want to proceed, there are lots of threads on the Odyessy battery and the move to the Smugglers box. I believe several vendors offer a kit to help make the move as well.

I have always felt that moving the Batt to the "box" is a huge mistake.
One little thing will not make a difference...but lots of little things will