Considering that most cars have only one occupant for most of its mileage, is any allowance made for the unbalancing effect of a body weight of around 75kg on one side of the car? Are they designed so that there is slightly more weight over the passenger side wheels?
Wouldn't think so.
But even on a small car, I can't imagine a 75kg driver on one side of it would make any meaningful difference. Small cars are not actually that light, our Suzuki Ignis, while very light compared to most cars, still weighs 865kg. 75kg on top of that is a fraction more than 8.5%.
A Reliant Robin weighed under 500kg, and only had one front wheel, with the engine right behind it. So it was already going to be unstable in the corners, but with a 75kg driver over to the right, left hand corners are inevitably going to be, "interesting"!. On a similar vein, but more in keeping with the question, the Bond Bug(!) had* rear suspension of a design which did adjust the weight distribution for being 'one up'. It was a fairly rudimentary setup where, with just the driver, the rear right of the car moved 'inboard' slightly.
*I say had because I remember reading an article about them many years ago which mentioned the rear suspension. But can't find any mention of it now, including on a Bond cars website, and a Reliant one.
Edited by badbusdriver on 14/05/2021 at 18:34
|