How much of a factor does weight play into performance and ride quality...

How much of a factor does weight play into performance and ride quality? And how do you know whether or not to get a heavier car or lighter?

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Cars with a lower mass will have less weight and lower inertia. This means that they are easier to change direction.

Generally the only time you would want something heavy is if it is a luxury car with a really nice interior. However, all other things being equal, a lighter car will ALWAYS be faster than a heavier car.

Also, heavier cars will bounce around less and have a more comfortable ride due to increased inertia. So basically just another reason to reserve weight for luxury cars only.

Well that's why I'm asking this question because I just realized that. I can't decide if I want a light or heavy car for my next purchase. I do have a heavy foot and I tend to want to get to my ideal speed faster. But I realized if I get a lighter car, and slap on lighter wheels, the ride quality is going to be way worse on bumpy roads. Right now I don't slow down whatsoever. And I'm still not sure how this affects snow driving. I'm trying to do as much research as possible to understand this but the results have been shit

I drive light car with light wheels and very stiff aftermarket suspension

unless you're like 90 years old and have multible broken bones you're a fag if you can't handle it.

Heavy cars spin out in snow easily.

Get a light car and go fast. Trust me.

depends on where the weight (center of mass) is located in relation to the driving wheels

A huge factor.

Physics faggot

This. I work on buses for a living, the company I work at has normal 40-45ft coaches and these giant 40ft long, 13.5ft tall, double-decker Belgian monstrosities, and all the drivers I’ve talked to say the double deckers are way better in the snow simply because the extra weight presses down on the tires and helps hold traction.

Lighter wheels won't make the ride worse. If anything they might make it better because of less unsprung weight.

Comfort has more to do with suspension than weight. You'll be fine with a lighter car. Most of everything made since 1990 has pretty good suspension.

Heavier cars don't get pushed by wind and can maintain their speed better.

Wouldn't going fast on a bumpy road with light rims damage the rims? Especially if your car is 3000+ lbs?

Not how traction works as the down force of gravity and the cetrifical force are proportional to the mass so it cancel out. More likely what is happening is the heavier busses push the snow out of the way instead of gliding on top of it in a slide.

See unsprung mass. Basically lighter wheels allow them to move out of the way quicker meaning you are less likely to damage them.

It's a big factor, though horsepower is equally important

Pic related

what site is this?

I think I can handle it, but the question is whether that's desirable in a daily, especially if you don't live somewhere with decent twisty roads

Lurk moar

Not necessarily, depends how light you're talking. Up to a certain point, weight reduction helps. But a car that's too light won't have enough traction, therefore losing maneuvering ability.

The roadkill dudes did an experiment that showed this with their 'vette kart.

youtu.be/UfpQTAFoTU4

Yes, a lighter car will be faster in a line, but not on a toogay or track.

>pic vaguely related

>literally says "fastestlaps.com" in the URL
>what site is this?
holy shit user. there's no excuse for this.

FastestLapTimes.com

Aka Bench Racing: the website

A lighter car will definitely be faster through curves as well, less inertia means less loading on the tires and less resistance to steering and suspension movements, so you can stay on the brakes and gas longer up to and after the apex, and carry more speed through the apex as well. The issue with the Corvette was that the alignment and suspension were set for a full weight car. Taking weight out changed the weight distribution and reduced the amount of sag, changing the alignment. When they corrected for this the car went faster, but to really optimize for the lighter car, softer springs, different damping, corner balancing, and different alignment and tire pressure settings to maximize the tire contact patch are needed.

If you've ever been on a track, 250cc motorcycles and Miatas are annoyingly fast and will overtake a lot of more powerful large displacement vehicles on tighter courses.

idk ive never not lived in an area without twisties being 3 minute drive away.