Carbon fiber hood and understeering?

[phokingphosho]

I was speaking with a friend in my college class, and I was talking about which carbon fiber hood would look better. I was debating between OEM and Mugen, anyone have a say in this? Let me know what you guys think, and if anyone has a Mugen CF hood on a white EP3. Anyways, he told me that since it the hood makes the car lighter, it causes understeering. Is this true? I'd like to know what I could do to fix it, etc. Thanks a lot.

[Driftin SI]

Originally posted by phokingphosho
Anyways, he told me that since it the hood makes the car lighter, it causes understeering.

Tell your friend to lay off the crack, its really starting to affect his brain. We're talking about a 5lb difference in weight here. If anything, it will make the car handle better due to better weight distribution.

[phokingphosho]

lol I just told him, and he said "Yatzee!"

[civicSIracer]

oem for clean look. mugen for looks.
i got the VIS oem style and couldnt be happier. your friend is a dumbass

[Suk02Si]

You car already has understeer.;)

[RiceCzechs]

Ditto the crack monkey comment. Lower weight on the mug of a fwd, front-engined car should actually improve steering, as it already has a tendency to understeer. What little (and I do mean minute) difference the weight savings of a cf hood realizes would go towards minimizing understeer. That's physics for yah... heavy nose and driven wheels causes the front end to "wash out" (drive wide, understeer, etc.), which is generally an undesireable trait in performance cars.

The above also explains why some drivers/pundits actually prefer the sprightly handling of smaller-engined versions of different cars. A four-cylinder engined Accord, for example, is arguably a better handling car than the V6 because it has less weight over the wheels. Larger engines often force automakers to upgrade spring rates (stiffen rides), which can exact ride and handling penalties.

Hope this helps.

BTW, for what its worth, you won't be able to tell the weight difference either way unless you're RIDICULOUSLY sensitive.