From the March 2018 issue

A vehicle’s center of gravity, or CG, is the theoretical point where the sum of all of the masses of each of its individual components effectively act. In other words, from a physics perspective, a vehicle behaves like its entire weight resides at this one point (this is why, in physics class, this is where all forces and moments that are acting on a body are applied). Carrying weight up high, such as a panoramic sunroof will raise a vehicle’s CG while placing heavy subsystems low in a vehicle, such as a battery pack, will work to lower it. Lower is better from a handling standpoint, as it reduces weight transfer during cornering and braking, and it also reduces the propensity to roll over.

Unfortunately, automakers don’t publish CG-height data, which is one of the reasons why we started measuring it ourselves. But just how do we do this (and how could you do the same)?

We start by measuring the hub heights (R F and R R in the formula below) and weighing the car on level ground (W). Knowing the wheelbase (ℓ) and weight distribution, we can calculate the longitudinal location (a and b) of the center of gravity (CG). Then we blatantly ignore every safety warning on our lift to set the rear wheels onto homemade platforms and weigh the front axle (W F ) in this tilted position. The angle (θ) can be computed using the triangle formed by the wheelbase and the height the rear wheels are raised. Plugging all of this into the following formula spits out CG height:

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