Why magazines never publish center of gravity height measurements?

[Big time]

I wonder why they never publish it as its the most important handling measurement.
Maybe car magazines are afraid to scare SUV and Xover customers and lose advertising revenues?

It would be great if they measured "non roll compensated gravity center height"
So they would raise one side wheels at least then inches and measure weight on each wheel, allowing the suspension to roll freely to get a more real world figure.

BTW Do you guys have some data on center of gravity height?
I tired to Google it with out much success.

[drakkie]

When I was still working for a car magazine we did have this and other data measured/calculated. Because it was something many people take no interest in at all we did not publish this. As part of our 'deal' we could do some measurements at Koni in exchange for sharing the data with them for development of new shock absorbers. Since we offcourse drove a lot of pre-series vehicles they seemed to quite like this, as did we!

Also don't forget that the center of gravity can be different between individual vehicles depending on the options installed. For example; at the company I currently work for they don't even know the exact location of the COG along the width of the lorry. It's just too variable. You can imagine that wether it has a full or an empty tank can make a substantial difference. It is nearly impossible and very difficult to take out these variables, especially if you consider most car magazines only have a car for +/- 4 days maximum (atleast over here). There are choices you have to make.. Offcourse we want to measure everything, but the equipment, manpower and this schedule usually just don't weigh up to it!

[kingofthering]

Most people can't be arsed to check the oil or to tell you anything about their car other than it's "green" and a Toyota - if they think about it - what makes you think they car about center of gravity?

[Kitdy]

Car and Driver has started testing/reporting CoG height.

[RacingManiac]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

Car and Driver has started testing/reporting CoG height.

Yep, they sometimes even do pendulum test to get MOI measurement....making full use of the available resources in Ann Arbor area...

I think while the methodology to do CG measurement is simple enough, not all the magazine might have the facility/equipment to do it safely...

[Kitdy]

RM have you seen their HQ? AA is near you, right?

[RacingManiac]

Nope, I have not. I think Automobile is based here to, maybe even Motor Trend. R&T used to be the only mag out west, but I think they recently got consolidated to AA as well.

Ann Arbor is like a hour away from where I am. U of Michigan being based there, and they have an understandably strong faculty in engineering, especially automotive, it means that there are school facility as well as a lot of industry testing labs there.

[drakkie]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

Yep, they sometimes even do pendulum test to get MOI measurement....making full use of the available resources in Ann Arbor area...

I think while the methodology to do CG measurement is simple enough, not all the magazine might have the facility/equipment to do it safely...

How much time are they given by the importers/manufacturers over there to test a car? We were lucky if we had a car for 5 days and we could get about 4000km's on the clock, usually working very long hours.

[RacingManiac]

I think it depends, though I think they usually can have them for quite a while...sometimes though they might just do a ride and drive thing, and I think sometimes they might test away from their home location...

[LHamilton_w]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

Nope, I have not. I think Automobile is based here to, maybe even Motor Trend. R&T used to be the only mag out west, but I think they recently got consolidated to AA as well.

Ann Arbor is like a hour away from where I am. U of Michigan being based there, and they have an understandably strong faculty in engineering, especially automotive, it means that there are school facility as well as a lot of industry testing labs there.

Explains why Michigan plates are so popular on test cars in these magazines.

[RacingManiac]

A lot of car companies have their testing facilities here. So a lot of test cars are shipped here. Other popular one is New Jersey, which the main importation entry is located for EU car companies, so they have their test plates registered there.

[CharlotteGould1]

much appreciated