[Shotimes] Pontiac unveils SHO successor?

[Donald Mallinson]

DING DING DING....The MASS part is what I have been trying 
to get across all along.  Friction is just ONE part of the 
traction equation, and when talking a very LOW CF on 
snow/ice, the amount to be gained from extra weight on the 
contact patch is so tiny that the extra mass cancels this out.

Won't try to point this out again, heading to SEMA and maybe 
they will have someone there that would be willing to 
explain the concept to those that still don't get it.

Don Mallinson

cmichaelo@optonline.net wrote:

>>Friction between snow/ice 
>>and the tire just doesn't increase with weight.
> 
> I don't believe this is true. In fact, friction is directly proportional to weight.
> 
> To maximize traction in snow, you want as much relative weight as possible on the driving wheels.
> 
> And this is the main reason why FWD cars do better in snow than RWD cars since they have more RELATIVE weight on the driving wheels, typically around 60%, while RWD cars have only around 40-45% of their weight on the rear wheels.
> 
> Note, this doesn't mean that a heavier car will have more traction than a lighter car. In fact, this is not so.  The reason is that the increased friction of a heavier car "cancels" with the corresponding increase in the vehicles mass which has to be accelerated by the friction, so to speak.
> 
> Michael
> 94MTX,green,BOS+,Koni/Intrax,Baer,Corbeau
> SHO items for sale: http://hometown.aol.com/cmichaelo/for_sale.html