Originally Posted by
Matt49
Assuming cars of equal total weight, a car taking off in a straight line with 60% static rear will always have more available forward traction than one with 50% static rear. That being said, we aren't taking off in a straight line. The problem that people get themselves into when going excessive with rear weight is that the car gets very hard to turn (tight) getting into the corner. This forces the driver to either slide the car with excessive steering of use the gas pedal to spin the tires to make it turn. In either case, all available traction in the rear tires is used up and no traction is left available for forward bite. The classic "tight in, loose off" handling that so many drivers diagnose as just "loose" because that is where everybody is leaving them in the dust (literally). I think this is what Anonymous24 is trying to explain.And yes, CoF goes out the window in most dirt applications. In fact, it goes out the window in most pavement applications also. Basic CoF formulas doesn't really apply to materials like rubber as it has a tendency to conform to the surface area and not follow the "rules" of CoF formulas where surface area isn't part of the basic equation.