weight reduction

timk · Postby **timk** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:00 pm

Don't discount going on a diet yourself, you'd be suprised how many people don't think of this!

kula · Postby **kula** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:01 pm

yeah havent weighed the car yet, but hopefully soon..

yay i reckon i could easily loose 15kg:P

RaYmO · Postby **RaYmO** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:06 am

kula wrote:yeah havent weighed the car yet, but hopefully soon..

yay i reckon i could easily loose 15kg:P

15kg is a lot of salad and exercise :lol:

lam.666 · Postby **lam.666** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:13 am

what other things have you removed from the car kula?

do you have a roll cage?

phatMX · Postby **phatMX** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:57 am

Whats the go with replacing panels with either carbon fibre/fibre glass. Has anyone done this and have a value? Is it allowed in 2f or any of the other classes of racing?

OMY005 · Postby **OMY005** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:07 am

RaYmO wrote:
kula wrote:yeah havent weighed the car yet, but hopefully soon..

yay i reckon i could easily loose 15kg:P

15kg is a lot of salad and exercise

I did 18kg in 12wks. :mrgreen:

2hrs exercise each day Mon-Fri (riding to & from work) and 1500 calories a day.

Which is about 2% reduction for the combined weight of car and driver.

Andrew.

lam.666 · Postby **lam.666** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:43 pm

phatMX wrote:Whats the go with replacing panels with either carbon fibre/fibre glass. Has anyone done this and have a value? Is it allowed in 2f or any of the other classes of racing?

would be an expensive exercise with CF, and i think a fibre glass panel would probably weigh the same as the OEM panel

CT · Postby CT » Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:24 pm

Well, I have a custom hardtop made from fibreglass which weighs around than 6kgs with a polycarb rear window. It bolts on and doesn't have rain rails so it does leak but it's a race car - who cares! My race car is a fatty around 890kgs but as it's a 1.8 it has heavier diff and chassis, plus the roof, plus my cage has a couple of extra bars in it.

A lighter bootlid and doors would be the main items I'd like. There's not much weight to be saved in a lighter bonnet - unless it's single skinned and uses no hinges. Which we can use in a race car!

To be honest, if I had the money (which I sadly don't) I'd love to mould a one piece front from carbon and a one piece rear from carbon. One of the lotus's that race with us has a full carbon drop on body made by a guy in Newcastle I believe. It would save maybe 100kgs by the time you gas axe the rear end and add mounting points. Much easier to work on to for a race car and heaps easier to fix. I have in car video of a lotus hitting my front guard - his car just went back into shape while I had to use a hammer on mine. I'll even donate my SE for the mould making process - it's paint is crap anyway!

lam.666 · Postby **lam.666** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:24 pm

i always thought fibreglass was a heavy material, how much did it cost you to get that made?

how much does the OEM hard top weigh?

sharyl · Postby **sharyl** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:33 pm

just take out the engine, huge weight reduction... it worked for the flinstones

Shadow · Postby **Shadow** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:33 pm

i know on some of the rally cars they chop out the stucture of the doors and replace it with aluminium honeycomb to save the weight but increase the strength dramatically. i daresay a similar type of thing could be applied to the racecar.