Weight Distribution

[Alex]

High all,

 

Having just carried 40 Litres of water in two drums for the office water machine I can appreciate how heavy the fuel is that I stick in my car (I know petrol is slightly lighter) so it led me to wonder

 

A: Where exactly is the fuel tank in the car (infront or behind the rear axle)

B: has anyone seen a Supra with the rear seats ripped out and replaced with a fuel tank and then raced it to see how much time it would take off of your lap assuming that the fuel tank was positioned perfectly for a really low centre of gravity right in front of the rear wheel (if its not already).

 

I assume that doing so would not degrade the handling as (even if the fuel is used as rear balast to make the rear heavier and balance out the weight distribution) the engineers who designed it would have wanted the car to balance on a half-full or empty tank (as how often are you going to to really push the car round the streets or a race track with a full tank of gas?

 

Theoretically if you moved the tank forward an kept it low down you could then use softer rear dampers and springs to help get the power down....

 

I'm not going to do it - I'm just curious as to how things "could" be done and the knock on effects.

 

Your thoughts ladies and gentlemen.