Diet plan

I'm with rupert on this one, if you think rear seat belts will save you a couple of KGs, then you must also ditch the radio & spaekers. Prod sports cars just don't need them. When you want to listen to quality music, sit at home in the warm and dry, even look out of your windows. When in your racing car, don't forget to have a pee first too (a good one will be worth more than half a KG), just listen to the roar of the engine, the growl of the exhaust and the screach of the tyres.
What about drilling holes in the pedals and steering wheel spokes,
plastic gear knob,
ditch the arial too and it's wiring,
air-con pipes ( I think some cars had them incase it was to be fitted as an option),
use a smaller battery, (just weigh the one you've got)
glass from door mirrors, unless they are already plastic
ditch the rear view mirror,
empty the screen wash resivoir,
I guess you don't run on a full tank of fuel ????
window motors, they must go
sun visors,
what about taping up panel shut gaps to get improved air flow and aerodynamics???
A diet, all horse riders do it and they only have 1 hp under their bums.
Try removing the engine cover, I think the routed air cooling you will loos will be compensated by the extra void you will gain up to the rearscreen glass, or louvred item if you go that way, which will also remove heat.
I think DG runs his car without the turbo schrouds, so that makes the engine bay fans redundant too.

Top gear did an XJS 0-60 test, then striped out EVERYTHING, I think they went from about 8 to 6 secs, so weight is a real killer, especially when you are measured in 100 ths.

Good luck, when is your first event this year?

crankshaft weighs a fair bit...

[Alpineandy]

Your best off having a good crap before you go out racing!

Instead of during....


Whoa... the armco...whoops..

Peter take your car to the local dump!! They usually have a digital weighbridge - just drive on and you'll see how much the car actually weighs. Kerb weights quoted are usually under the weight of the vehicle in the real world. Be interesting to see what you've got it down to.

Reckon Ive saved 50kgs so far....the spare wheel and exhaust being the majority of it. Dont want to get a very light battery as it will just further inbalance the front to rear thing. Wont be ditching the stereo or window motors.......they are worth the 4kgs they weigh in total, and I'd never get the girlfriend in the car again either and would seriously hamper the resaleability if that day ever came (the car not the girlfriend ). Rear seats and seatbelts will be the first things to receive attention....no one will notice but I'll save a good few kilos. Might as well scrap the rest of the heat shield too. First event in Easter Monday......will definitely have more power than last year and better tyres too, and more familiar with the car so it could be a good year.

OK started it today....rear speakers binned just having a struggle getting the rear seat out to attack it. I have spotted what looks like soundproofing ( ) behind the rear seats and behind where the rear speakers are. Is there much of it????

It goes right across from behind the side panels, right across the back seats and the base. It total it weights about 7 kilos.

[Alpineandy]

In total it weights about 7 kilos.

Now that's some knowledge.

It will be gone!

Peterg,

I suppose it depends upon how far you need to go, are you just looking for big savings, or does "nearly every ounce count"?

I guess that the laws of balance apply here. For every kg you save from 1 foot behind the rear axle line, it should be equal to 10kg 10 foot infront of the rear axle line. I know you need some weight over the front wheels, as well as the rear, but the killer is the weight behind the rear wheels, YEH?

-What about moving the cooling expansion tank forwards?
-I guess you have removed the jack (as you have removed the spare wheel), what about the clips that held the jack in?
-If the difference between max and min oil level is 1 Litre, running at min will save a kg. Same applies to the cooling water.
-Have you drilled holes in brackets to make them lighter, or replaced steel brackets with Ali ones.
-You'll love this one, sorry must be the most impractacle, I'm told that the pigment in white paint is lighter than than that in dark and black paint.
-What about a removable radio, just slide it out on race days, should be ok with your g/f I guess. Removable speakers too??
-Any sound proofing under the gear box tunnel?
-You don't have a/c do you, perhaps the a/c pipes under the car can go, if they are there.
- a friend of mine has a sprite racer, they cut all the jubilee clips back, cut down bolts and even removed some washers, shortened the passenger wiper put all the bits in a pot and used some digital kitchen scales, saved a total of over 200 grammes, about half a pound. He reckoned it was a lot less bother than going down the gym to loose half a pound. Someone told him to save a stone by choping off his head.

It was a pretty crap day at work today, hard to muster up much enthusiasm for much work related activity, too much gossiping so apologies for these poor suggestions.

Good luck.

Spare wheel and all associated have gone.....not interested in saving grams .....only kilos....need stereo.....cant say why, its just worth it!!!! If it makes the difference between win/loose then I will dump it!!!!

[Alpineandy]

How much does a pint of blood weigh?
You can try giving the day before.....



Trim Yr hair & nails (in toe nails)....
Have you thought about a brazilian........ NO, for you..

Its a shame most of the weight is at the back, as a plastic pinned bonnet would save loads but its in thre wrong area. (Bonnets about 20kgs)

Then again Pete, it depends if you going for perfect weight balance, or keeping with the standard ratio but a lower overall weight, so if you manage to save 30kg from the rear, it wouldnt matter if you also reduced 30kgs from the front.

BTW, standard exhaust is 15kgs, Devil is 17kgs and the one youve got at the moment is about 4.5!

My battery is knackered so thinking of getting a lightweight replacement. Looking at red top race batteries......anyone any ideas about exactly what I need? Think the standard one is 250amps but not sure what the AH number means. Do I need an exact match or will one with more amps be better???

You need to save the same percentage of weight from both ends or it will alter the handling balance. I dont know what the exact split is but say there is 400kg over the front wheels and 800kg over the rear - I'll take things to extremes to make it obvious - you loose 300kg from each leaving 100 and 500 - you know have 5:1 rear weight bias as opposed to 2:1.