mx5cartalk.com

So,
Where do people take weight out of our cars?
while mine is kinda stripped out, Im sure there is stuff I am missing - so what have you taken out?
what is there we do not need?

spill the beans!!

Lol.

You really wanna know?

Dann

1. I am not giving up beer!
2. yes I'll take a dump before a race meet (as per Bryans thread!)
LOL

Give me 15 and ill have a list up.
Writing it now.

Dann

Reciprocating or rotating

Light wheels
Proper 2 piece brake disks
Flywheel
Puck clutch, no springs
Crank
Pistons rods

Interior

Carpet (really, you dont need it)
Stock cloth seats are 18.5kg each, a good race seat is well under 5, obviously get 2
Heater (and its box, dont be lazy!)
Interior fan
Heater controls
RADIO! And speakers/wires
Power steer
power windows
Air con!
Replace pedal rubber with grip tape
Centre console isnt needed at all.
Remove excess padding on nardi wheel
Of course the sound deadening
Antenna
Spare tyre
Lightweight battery
Boot carpet
Metal boot panels
Boot trim
Almost forgot arm rests. Remove arm rests 100%
Cut off now unused brackets (radio, heaterbox fan etc)
Remove 21KG rollbar
Definately cut off any bolts that are longer than necessary.


Exterior

Remove your 7kg ducktail!
Aerial
Remove your softop, replace with carbon hardtop
Remove your tow hooks
Fixed headlight conversion
Remove the engine mount sheilds (they are heavy)
Windows including hardtop window (because racecar)
Put the stock radiator back in and duct it to save 5 odd kilo
Also once ducted remove the fans.
Lightweight exhaust
Emissions gear
Remove washer bottle and associated (this IS legal)
Replace headlights with cheap lighter ones
Remove the bumpers, not the body panels, the bumpers underneath



Getting silly

Carbon panels.
Carbon mirrors
Lightweight wheelnuts
Remove dash shell etc
Remove unused wiring (fan air con etc) Ive done this.

Hows that?
My car has at least 90% of the stuff except the 'getting silly' stuff.

Dann

Awesome Dann!!

you are a wealth of knowledge on here !!!

when I bought my 5 - a fair bit was taken out alreasdy which was good - just need a point in the right direction so one night before wakie next weekend I can start attacking it again hehe

cheers,
chris!

When you drive mine you can decide what you do and dont think is worth it.

Slug dub recently pmd me saying that he was annoyed how his go fast mods are bolt on, and mine are bolt OFF.

I thought people would appreciate this list eventually.

Dann

What does your car weight Dann? I've done a few bolt off bits and pieces and mines down to 940kg with half a tank of gas. I do gave a half cage though which I'm not taking out.

These items, to name a few more, could also be removed to save weight.
Tyre air valve caps
Door rubber wedges
Sill plates
Foot rest
ECU shield
Bonnet rubber bump stops
Bonnet stay
Bonnet stay clips
Battery tray
Jack
Tool kit
Wheel centre caps

Depending on where you are some of the mods may be illegal for road registered cars.

No front windscreen demister (heater and fan) for one in qld.

I would question the washer bottle as well. But it may be like "you can't have a bald spare, but having no spare is ok"

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

You cannot really remove the ecu plate if your ever going to have passengers.
The footrest really helps with driving performance.

Sill plates, what track car has those !

I figured the tool kit went with the spare

The windscreen bottle was explained by the pink slip trainer like this.
'You cant knock back a car over the washer bottle, because the bloke can just get out and p!ss on the screen if it gets THAT bad!'

Dann

I almost forgot, under boot and bonnet support, including replacing hinges and locks with 3 or 4 aluminium bonnet pins. This is like 8kg.

Dann

I was looking at the bonnet and boot lid on the race car the other day and got to wondering how much of the metal work on the underside I could remove without them turning in to a floppy mess.

Boot might be a bit tricky as it has the spoiler bolted to it so it needs some strength in it.

The remote release and hinges for both are heavy s they can go and just use pins to hold stuff closed.

With a hardtop the stock mounting levers are heavy so replace those with bits of ally.

Those big black plastic / rubber bumper support thingoes are supposed to be upwards of 20KG each. Very tempted to get rid of those but on the other hand they are very handy things to have in place for a low speed impact as they stop the front bar flexing to much and if you do have a bump they take the impact and not the metal work behind that.

Only do this if you have a full cage but you can lose the door trims and then using an angle grinder remove all of the interior metal work from the door including the locks and just have a spring loaded pin with a bit of wire to pull to secure the door closed. The door will barely support its own weight when it is open as it is pretty much just the external skin left. You can go further with the doors at this stage as they will be so light you no longer need the big chunky hinges, you can use a regular door hinge.

NitroDann wrote:Windows including hardtop window (because racecar)

If you're travelling at a decent speed, wouldn't the extra drag created negate (or even greatly overwhelm) the weight saving benefit of removing the windows?

With no hardtop window, the air that comes in the windows goes straight through, and the turbulence behind the rear window changes, reducing total drag, to less than that of windows all on and closed.

Dann