anyone here know what the stock front/rear weight balance is on a '93? i know they tend to be pretty front heavy so my next question is what have some of you done to get your cars more balanced? relocating the battery to the rear seems to be a pretty popular mod. if you have done that, i'd love to hear from you about how it went!

also, unfortunately, i have to drive my car through the winter months and was wondering what can be done to get a little better traction on the rear wheels - bags of concrete or cat litter in the trunk? any suggestions appreciated.

thanks everybody!
~frank

When i lived back home in NY we use to put kitty litter in the back or rock salt. And if you ever get stuck you could always put some down for some grip

I believe it's 52% front, 48% rear.

In the January 93 Road & Track road test, they show a Trans Am at 55% front / 45% rear.

February 93 Car & Driver, Formula, 57.5% front / 42.5% rear.

August 93 Sports Car International, Formula, 57% front / 43% rear.

June 94 Motor Trend, Formula, 56% front / 44% rear.

Cool on the numbers Fred. Since Fred gave you those numbers you probably won't need this but I've always just heard to figure them this way on our cars if you want a rough guessimate - 60/40 split front/rear.

As for getting the weight more balanced between front and rear there really isn't much you can do. Yes you can move minor things around such as the battery to the rear, but since the majority of the front end weight comes from the engine/tranny it's next to impossible to get the front/rear balance to even out.

With the winter driving I have to do the same thing with driving mine. I've found that getting a good set of tires that are rated for snow is the biggest thing (and yes you can get z-rated tires that come with a snow rating). Besides that you can get kitty litter, rock salt, tube sand, even some of the big cinder block for in the hatch area. Myself I use the tube sand since you can get tubes that weight 50lbs each and they come in tubes that are made of the same material that tarps are made out of which makes them almost impossible to accidently tear open (as opposed to kitty litter or rock salt) so the chance of having them spill in the hatch area is next to impossible. What I do is get the tubes, bring them inside for a few days and put them in an "out of the way" spot so that no one trips over them so that any moisture in them can dry out. Once that is done I have a piece of heavy duty plastic that I've cut to fit into the hatch hole with enough extra along the edges so that the edges hang over the outside of the car and lays on the deck area that I place in the hatch hole. Once I have that plastic in place I put the tube sand on that and then fold the extra long edges over the top and around the edges of the tubes as extra protection just incase any of them do split and spill. If I don't plan on carrying anything in the hatch hole I usually have 6 tubes of sand in there (that's 300lbs of sand for anyone trying to figure it out lol ) and if I need to carry something in the hatch hole I take out the number of tubes to give me the room I need and rewrap the rest of them up (and I replace the ones I've removed when I'm done needing the extra room).

But I like the tube sand as opposed to kitty litter, rock salt or even concrete for several reasons, 1 the package it comes in (tarp type material vs paper wrapping); 2 it's easy to store when you don't need it, just pile it up either in the garage or even outside; 3 I can keep it from year to year without worrying about it getting hard (such as conceret); 4 I don't have to worry about it getting all nasty if it gets wet (which you have to do with kitty litter or rock salt) and 5 I can get more weight in the back using the tube sand then I can with any of the other 3.

But whichever one you choose is up to you since it's your car.

thanks for the responses everyone. much appreciated!

fred: do you own those mags? how were you able to trace that info to them? i couldn't find it anywhere. wow, i appreciate the effort.

sue: thanks for sharing your winter traction methodology! i didn't think of the bags tearing or getting wet so i'm glad you brought my attention to that, although i do like the idea of being able to drop some litter down for some bite. hmm. maybe i could use some combination of both. can you get the tube sand at home depot?

aside from that, i actually bought a winter tire package for my car (bridgestone blizzak revo 1's) and have been enjoying the benefit of the added grip they provide (it's already snowed here in boston and there's still ice on the ground), but i'm looking to further enhance it by adding some weight over the rear axle because the true test will be navigating my narrow driveway and surrounding streets after the big storms and i want to be ready.

thanks again everyone!

~frank

Cool on already having the snow tires on your car.

As for the tube sand, yea you can get that at just about any home center type place (Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.). It's usually either back where the concrete is or back where the outdoor play equipment is and most places like that carry it all year long. No problem about bringing your attention to the bags tearing or getting wet thing, most people don't think about either of those. But I can tell you from experience since I have several cats that kitty litter is a real pita to get out of your car, so I can't even imagine what it would be like to get concrete dust out. As for wanting some kitty litter just incase you need some extra traction, you can do a combination of the tube sand and a bag of kitty litter but I'd find something to put the litter into (a couple of heavy duty trash bags inside each other should work) rather then leaving it in it's original bag. Then not only won't you have to worry about the original bags splitting or getting wet but you could "mold" the bag that's it in to fit into any open space in the hatch hole where it would be easy to get to incase you do need to use it.

I've seen my '98 on racecar scales and even made a post here on TFS regarding results--- I'll do a search and see if I can get you a link. I know, different motor with different body components... but that being said, it is exactly what Injuneer said the '93 R&T article states - 55% front / 45% rear. The car was weighed in total street trim(spare tire & all) with a full tank of gas and various personal items inside. No driver. It came in at something like 3,580lbs., 55/45 front to rear, and even more balanced, the corner weights. On the rear it was within just a few pounds left to right, and on the front the right(where the battery is) showed about 20-30 more than the left I think.

Found the old post...

Here's a link - '98 Trans Am weight

I was wrong about total weight, it was only 3,530. Front-to-rear % was correct though.

cool, thanks for posting those numbers, jon.

went to home depot yesterday and got the tube sand (thanks sue). i had no idea it would actually say on the bag that it's intended to be used to add weight to automobiles and trucks for more traction - what cool stuff! $2.98/bag. oh, and they had it in 60lb bags and i bought four so that's 240lbs of add'l weight. i'll try and keep the gas tank more than half full at all times and i should be fine. the rear axle seems to be located directly under the deck on my '93 so i put three bags up there and one down in the hatch hole (behind the axle). does this configuration make sense? i'm sure the goal would be to get them as close to directly over the rear axle as possible, right?

thanks again everyone.
~frank

oh and by the way, we had some freezing rain last night (and today) and with the add'l weight in the rear, she feels WAY more stable.

I use 3 of those 5 gallon buckets of cat litter about 35lbs each plus 2 of those tubes of sand on top of them comes to jsut over 2 hundred lbs and the cat litter is sealed unless you open it then it has a lid.

Cool on getting the tube sand. Yea most people are surprised that it actually says that on them. With the rear axle, that's where it's located in all the 3rd and 4th gen cars. With putting them on the deck, I put them there the first year I had my car but after a few unfortunate very quick stops due to people slamming on their brakes, pulling out in front of me, etc. I ended up putting mine in the hole cause on the deck they wanted to slide around too much.

Sounds like you got them just in time too, but it's nice to know that you can feel the difference with them in the back. It's surprising what just a few 100 pounds of extra weight in the back end of our cars can do isn't it?


Those big buckets of litter are nice but if you've got t-tops I've found you can only fit two of them (which is only 60 lbs) in the hole cause of the t-top holders while you can fit at least 6 of the tube sand tubes (50 to 60 lbs each) back there that's why I use the tube sand vs the buckets.

I see I don't have t-tops not to mention can't you take them out during the winter as I am sure you won't be running around with them off any time soon.

Lol, I can't resist throwing this out, my t-tops were off yesterday and it's in the low 80's here all week. The last time it snowed here, 1982 I think it was, no body went anywhere.

That's cool with not having t-tops. Even though some of us can't take our t-tops out during the winter months the holders are still there taking up about 6-8 inches of space on each side of the hole since the holders don't just slide in/out, they're bolted/screwed in.



That's it Brd, rub it in with you and your nice weather. Here it hasn't been out of the 30's since Thursday and on Friday, Saturday and today (Monday) we've had rain, sleet, snow and freezing rain and all of that is expected to continue through at least Wednesday or Thursday. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR lol

I don't have the individual magazines. What I have are two soft cover books that contain many of the magazine tests for the 4th Gen Camaros and Firebirds:

Firebird & Trans Am Performance Portfolio 1993-2000 - ISBN #1-855-20553-X

Camaro Performance Portfolio 1993-2000 - ISBN #1-855-20552-1