Renault F1 spring balance weight

[FrenchLeave]

This "spring balance weight" that Renault have been stopped from using on their F1 cars, was it the same as the sprung weights that used to act as dampers on each wheel of the 2CV?

[CitroJim]

Did it roll on the corners then?

[Kowalski]

What I understood they had was some of the balast in the nose of the car, suspended on springs and damped. I'd seen that some of the cars, the Renault in particular, although harshly sprung, rode the curbs well, as if they were softly sprung, the mass damper explained why they did ride them so well.

[FrenchLeave]

Yes, that's what I thought.

I don't know whether the later 2CVs had a different system but the earlier ones (back in the'50s) had a mass weight, sliding on a vertical pillar and held between two springs, mounted at each hub and designed to act as a damper.

I remember reading a dissertation on them, by Laurence Pomeroy, in "The Motor". (Back in the days when you had the designer of the "Prince Henry Vauxhall" as a regular contributor to a motoring magazine).

Like they say, there's nothing new under the sun, but interesting that Renault resurrected it from an old Citroen design.

I can't see how the powers that be could ban it as an aerodynamic device.

[AndersDK]

Aint that the same principle several manufacturers are using - when they suspend the car's engine on rubber - and dampen it with a shocker - as seen on '60-'70 BLMC's ?