Beetle weight

[lazylongboarder]

Does anyone know the weight of their beetle? I'm getting some bilsteins valved to my specs but the body is off and every thing is not put together, but I need the coilovers to get the car to be a roller. Cornerweights or front and rear weight distribution info would also help.
Please discribe mods and model.
Anything would help.

[G-force]

Weight of your bug depends on the model. A bottom of the range 1200cc with swing-axles was lightest at under 800kg. But 1303S was the heaviest at around 900Kg. So generally they got heavier every year, and the better equiped cars weighed more.

All bugs have a weight distribution of around 42/58 [but exact figure depends on model too, and the amount of gas in the tank ] - 42/58 is pretty much the ideal, hence the Beetle's great cornering ability.

[Bruce2]

Originally Posted by G-force

- 42/58 is pretty much the ideal, hence the Beetle's great cornering ability.

That's laughable. 50/50 is the ideal. Neither tail heavy, nor front heavy. Porsche achieved the perfect 50/50 with the 944 by placing the transmission at the rear and the engine at the front.

Beetles don't corner great. That's why you don't see them dominating any race series.

[G-force]

It's not laughable at all,
the Maclaren and the Porche GT1 sports race cars both had a weight distribution of 40/60.
http://sportscars.virtualave.net/mclarenf1.html

It may be interesting to find the front/rear weight distrib for the Ferrari Enzo
- the fastest cornering street legal car that money can buy at the moment.
I don't know it actually, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's just around 40/60, just like our humble Beetle.

[oicdn]

Originally Posted by G-force

It's not laughable at all,
the Maclaren and the Porche GT1 sports race cars both had a weight distribution of 40/60.
http://sportscars.virtualave.net/mclarenf1.html

It may be interesting to find the front/rear weight distrib for the Ferrari Enzo
- the fastest cornering street legal car that money can buy at the moment.
I don't know it actually, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's just around 40/60, just like our humble Beetle.

I read somewhere it was 41/59...and it had me scratching my head cause of what was stated....as Miata's DOMINATE the AutoX events...until I read up about it and surprisingly 40/60 is ideal. Something about acceleration and the power planted on the ground vice steering ability as it's already lessened even with a FWD car as the weight shifts back....something like that....sounds kooky to me, but all the high end sports cars have 40/60 weight distro...so it can't be THAT wrong...

[G-force]

Yep, a rear weight bias does help a car to get turned in to the corner - Because your front outside wheel doesn't get so much weight over it as any other type of car would. Fact is that all tyres grip better in corners if they don't have excessive weight over them. The rear weight bias on a Bug keeps weight fairly evenly distributed on deceleration, - and on turn-in to the corner.

And like you said, a rear weight bias also helps a high powered sports car to grip on corner exit - this is a rear engined Porsche forte,- corner exit (same as a drag car does really, it can put the power down without any rear wheel-spin)

The Mazda Miata (Mazda MX5 here in europe) is very good on corners & can pull around .95G in a corner, which is excellent for a front engined car. And it's similar to a 911 or 914 in that respect. But a VW Bug with similar wheels and tyres can also pull around .95G...

In fact a VW Bug with around 100bhp is pretty evenly matched with the Mazda Miata on autocrosses with plenty of turns. And the VW Bug will have a noticeable advantage over the Mazda on corner exit. Not so sure about the straights though .