MK4 cortez / excelsior weight / corner weight front rear

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Re: MK4 cortez / excelsior weight / corner weight front rear

Postby ACourtney » Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:04 pm

I haven't taken a Cortez for an IVA test, or weighed one, so I don't know exact figures. However, I wouldn't be surprised if you weighed yours and came up with a figure anywhere between 700 and 850kg.
My experience of Gold convertibles has ranged from 690kg, where the interior was bare with lightweight seats, to 780kg for a car with a fully soundproofed interior and hardtop.

The design figures quoted for the IVA test are the maximum allowable axle loadings and are based on those of the Rover Metro. These are not the actual weights of the car unladen.
benofbrum wrote:I have just found a letter from Alistair to John Crowson sent when John was preparing my Excelsior for its SVA which includes these figures:
Design Weight axle 1 600kg
Design Weight axle 2 500kg
Total Weight 1060kg

In other words. The maximum load that the front axle can take is 600kg, the rear axle can take 500kg and a fully laden car should not weigh more than 1060kg.
If your car weighs in at 800kg then your maximum load capacity is 260kg, or the weight of two 20 stone people! That isn't too bad for a 2+2 Midas, but as Neil (NenofBrum) said, Metros weighed around 815-845kg, so potentially only giving a total load capacity of 215kg for a car supposedly capable of carrying four adults. No wonder you often saw them with sagging suspension.

I think what you need to find out is what the all up weight is and then the corner weights. As already suggested, you can take the car to a local weighbridge to get the all up weight. The weight distribution is very front biased and the actual weight on the rear axle is likely to be somewhere between 200 and 250kg. So you should be able weigh the rear corners with a bathroom scale - 125kg = 19.7stone. The corner weights at the front are likely to be twice that so I wouldn't use the bathroom scales there, but if you know the overall weight and the load on the rear axle then it is a simple sum to work out the load on the front.

The actual corner weights can be varied slightly if adjustable spring platforms are used. Corner weight gauges are used to weigh each corner on competition cars and then the load at each corner can be balanced by adjusting the pre-load in the spring. The axle loads won't vary, but the loads side to side can be balanced. On a road car, where there may be passengers of varying loads, it isn't worth spending too much time balancing corner loads.
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Re: MK4 cortez / excelsior weight / corner weight front rear

Postby Jin » Tue Jan 19, 2016 8:41 pm

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, much appreciated, I trundled down to the nearest weighbridge today but as its located in a shonky old tat yard I would have needed a 4x4 to access it so had to retreat.
I'll out that one on the back burner for now and I've gone ahead and ordered some 1350lb springs anyway since they were cheap and I've a lot of trial and error ahead...
https://easywider.co.uk/ universal flexible wheel arch extensions
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