[quote name='Anchorman' date='Aug 8 2006, 06:24 PM']Mirror: you wrote "...under maximum braking the center of gravity will be further rearward." Huh? My physics lessons taught me the opposite. When braking (whether maximum or otherwise), the vehicle's weight is shifting forward, not rearward. In fact, that's one of the reasons that trail braking is such an art - you're asking the front wheels to do double-duty - turn while under the extra load from the weight shift induced by braking. And that's why us novices (definitely me included) don't do it - we brake and then turn.
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I think Mirror intended to say that a lowered car would have its center of gravity shifted towards the rear ("
With a lowered car and stiffer suspension, the center of gravity is lower and may (not sure) shift rearward somewhat") - and not that the act of braking shifts weight towards the rear.
But having said that...
Lowering a car equally at the front and rear will not move the center of gravity back or forth (relative to the contact patches) significantly unless there is some horrible suspension geometery in the car (that litteraly causes the car's tires to move longtitudely).
Where the benefit of lowering a car comes into play is that it has (an obvious) effect of lowering the height of the center of gravity.
When you lower the height of the center of gravity, the effective grip of the tires increases because of the change in angle at which the center of gravity acts through the tires' contact point. You can achieve the same effect with lateral grip if you increase the track-width of the car, or traction/braking if you lengthen the wheel base of the car.
So when you increase the effective grip of the tires (and specifically the grip at the rear in this case), you can run more rear brake bias before you get lockup.
Another trick is to change the rake of the car - i.e. lower the rear a little more than the front so the car has a slightly pitchup attitiude. This techinque was used in the Turbo Cup series to tune the front-to-rear balance of the car (along with sway bar settings).
Karl.