Adding and removing ballast for co-drivers.

[alowe]

I weigh about 15-20 pounds more than my co-driver, but I would rather not run any more weight than I have to. At the same time, I would rather not spend too much time between runs dealing with weights.

Does anyone have a solution for quickly changing ballast?

[Lynn]

I have seen people using very heavy seat inserts when the drivers are different heights as well as different weights. They had either lead shot in the bottom "cushion" or the bottom of the seat insert was steel or lead plate. I've also seen a car with a couple of large diameter threaded rods welded vertically to the chassis. They were using 5 lb dumbell weights and secured them with wing nuts.

[stephen wilson]

For my CFF I made a 15# 1/4" steel plate that bolts on instead of the angle iron skid blocks at the back of the floor pan. It tucks up against the bottom.

[mblanc]

a solution to your codrivers problem:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/super_size_me/

[JBlock]

I know it is 15 or 20 pounds, but from an engineering stand point, there are bigger fish to fry. Even if you have super soft wheel rates (say 100 lbs/in) and assume the weight was equally distributed to all four corners, the ride height would only change 50 thousandths.

Another way to think about this is the weight is equal to about 3 gal of gas. Not a pretty solution, but at the pro level a good trick for tech, not that I've ever done that, but it has worked. But back to the topic, how much gas do you burn over the course of the day?

If it were me I would use what was required for tech and spend the time between runs reviewing data to improve the next run rather than fooling with ballast all day.

[Jim Garry]

I'm in the same situation with my co-driver. Until very late in 2008, I just ignored the fact that the car weighed 1108 with him in it and 1130 with me in it. Finally at Nationals we got some steel plate and we secured it behind the driver's seat. For this year we may use lead pellets inside of a piece of steel pipe and secure that roughly under our thighs. Haven't worked out details yet.

But JBlock's advice is quite reasonable. Until you are missing the trophies by a tenth or two, just concentrate on setting the car up good and driving it well.

[John Nesbitt]

a solution to your codrivers problem:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/super_size_me/

Or, work on the other half of the team:

http://jennycraig.com/

[Bob Coury]

In my karting days, I overheard one driver mention he was 3 # underweight-so he was going to eat a few punds of bananas before the race.

I really loved when guys would put weights in their pockets and it would spill out onto the track.