Editing Automobile handling (section)

==== Centre of mass ====
In steady-state cornering, front-heavy cars tend to [[understeer]] and rear-heavy cars to oversteer [[Understeer and oversteer|(Understeer & Oversteer explained)]], all other things being equal. The [[mid-engine design]] seeks to achieve the ideal center of mass, though front-engine design has the advantage of permitting a more practical engine-passenger-baggage layout. All other parameters being equal, at the hands of an expert driver a neutrally balanced mid-engine car can corner faster, but a FR (front-engined, rear-wheel drive) layout car is easier to drive at the limit.

The rearward weight bias preferred by sports and racing cars results from handling effects during the transition from straight-ahead to cornering. During corner entry the front tires, in addition to generating part of the lateral force required to accelerate the car's [[centre of mass]] into the turn, also generate a torque about the car's vertical axis that starts the car rotating into the turn.  However, the lateral force being generated by the rear tires is acting in the opposite torsional sense, trying to rotate the car out of the turn. For this reason, a car with "50/50" weight distribution will understeer on initial corner entry. To avoid this problem, sports and racing cars often have a more rearward weight distribution. In the case of pure racing cars, this is typically between "40/60" and "35/65".{{Citation needed|reason = Contemporary F1, Le Mans, and Cup cars are all between 50/50 and 40/60|date=July 2010}} This gives the front tires an advantage in overcoming the car's [[moment of inertia]] (yaw angular inertia), thus reducing corner-entry understeer.

Using wheels and tires of different sizes (proportional to the weight carried by each end) is a lever automakers can use to fine tune the resulting over/understeer characteristics.