Originally Posted by
David Ferguson
Another thing to consider is that by putting the ballast you need (i.e. it's not additional mass, just where you position what you need meet the legal minimum weight) at the ends of the car, you will have a larger polar moment of inertia than if you placed the ballast between the front and rear axles. The larger the polar moment of inertia, the more your car will resist turning (ie, makes it stable in high-speed large radius turns, and not so much in the tight quick transitions, like slaloms). You will get the lowest moment of inertial by placing it near the CG of the car (likely under the fuel cell -- or in the fuel cell if you use extra fuel as the ballast)