Driven: 2015 BMW 235i Cabriolet - TheChronicleHerald.ca
At least until I tell you why you should: 50. 6. That’s the percentage of the car’s weight borne by the rear wheels. I’ve always appreciated BMW’s almost-religious adherence to a 50:50 weight balance for its effect on handling, but it wasn’t until a trip to the BMW Driving Experience I fully appreciated what that means for driving safety, particularly in winter. It’s what makes your smartphone vibrate: a tiny motor drives a tiny eccentric wheel and your device shivers when you get an email or phone call. Turn the motor on and that wheel and motor will shimmy all over the table until it reaches a side and falls off. A car that doesn’t have close to a 50:50 weight balance is a much larger version of that eccentric wheel. It’s not uncommon to see a front-drive car, whether it has all-wheel drive or not, have as much as 70 per cent of its weight at the front and only 30 per cent at the rear. Put that car into a spin, say on an icy road, and that 70 per cent is going to pull the car much more than the 30 per cent will. If you see a spinning front-wheel-drive car veering into the ditch, this weight imbalance is a big reason why. With a 50:50 weight distribution, the sideways motion of that spinning car’s front end is cancelled by the opposite motion of the rear end. Source: thechronicleherald.ca
