The weight saving thread

[modnrod]

Stock OEM 35.5mm intake, with spring/retainer/collets.



Mitsi EVO 9 35mm (6.65mm stem) intake, with OEM Mitsi beehive spring/alloy retainer and collets.



Not much good for over 100HP, but fine for me.

The weight of just the retainer and collets is quite remarkable.......

[xbacax]

hello guys,

what is the difference in kilograms/pounds between 4 piece set of glass windows(without front window) in comparison with 4mm lexan set?

[Bruce]

It's gotta be at least half a tenth.

[Garrick Clark]

 

[NoBars]

I did this last year, I made my own out of scrateh resistant coated polycarbonate. 1/8 thick on the rear and 1/4 windows, 3/16 on the doors windshield and vent windows are still glass, door windows roll down. I figure it to be in the range of 25 pounds.

[JeeWee]

https://www.csp-shop.de/hinterachse/radlagerdeckel-501-311-311-30064a.html

428gramm unsprung wait saving by aluminium bearing caps!

[PPRMicke]

I did this last year, I made my own out of scrateh resistant coated polycarbonate. 1/8 thick on the rear and 1/4 windows, 3/16 on the doors windshield and vent windows are still glass, door windows roll down. I figure it to be in the range of 25 pounds.

What are the rules on plastic thickness ?
(1/8")=3mm

[Ian Brown]

Hi Folks, I'm in the middle of rebuilding my historic touring car and since I last raced the minimum weight for the 1300cc class has dropped to 695kg/1532lb (that's the minimum weight of car & driver at the end of the race) so i've got to find an 80kg/176lb weight saving on a car that's basically a bare shell with lexan windows. I wasn't sure that was possible but once i'd stripped the car down to its bare components I was finding weight savings EVERYWHERE! So i'll keep you updated on how i'm gonna get a 675kg/1488lb Beetle (with working lights/wipers etc) down to 595kg/1311lb

Adjustable seat brackets (removed) saving 2196g...My new lighter seat will be fixed from now on.
Tyre inner tubes x4 (removed) saving 3400g...Running tubeless on fresh alloys.
8mm rear wheel spacers (removed) saving 1051g...New alloys will have the correct offset so spacers not required.
Convoluted plastic wiring conduit (removed) saving 447g...Who cares what the wiring looks like!
Fibreglass battery box (removed) saving 1218g...Gel battery, so box not required.
Electric washer bottle (removed) saving 789g...I'll live without windscreen washers.

Only another 71kg/156lb to go!

[richie]

Ian, are they glass headlight lenses still? our lightweight plastic version saves a few ounces[ours weigh about 1.7ounzes each] and never risk having glass on track in an accident.

I will sponsor you a pair if you wanted to try them?

cheers Richie

[modnrod]

I love your car Ian, it's very cool!

Are those original alloy Talbot mirrors, or cheap thin and nasty plastic ebay ones with plastic convex lenses?
 
Window winder mechanisms still in the doors?
Li-Fe-Po battery with 330CCA that weighs about 1kg (instead of a 6kg AGM equivalent).
Battery cable lugs with alloy bolts (as bikes have) instead of heavy battery terminals.
New aluminium Brazil chrome strips instead of good German stainless ones?
Did you know that open-ended wheel nuts like you use on old steelies weigh 200g EACH less than shiny chrome mag/alloy closed ones?
What wheels do you use? Rays TE37 or CE28s (like WRC and British rally cars sometimes use) weigh in at less than 3kg each for 14x7".
I can't remember which is which or what way, but Yokohama Advans and Dunlop Sports are nearly 1kg each different in weight for similar performance.

Of course, I can say all this because I'm not paying for them!
 
Keep racing, great to see your car out there and on the box, thanks.

PS: lots of corrections, time for bed now, sorry!

[Ian Brown]

Hi Ritche, I originally used stock U.S spec headlights but then made polycarbonate copies of them, not just the lens but the whole light (base, bowl everything but the chrome rim) The fully functioning poly headlights weighed 369g each, saving 2430g off the front of the car.
The poly lights were great but a little rough and ready, so the plan was to make polished aluminium copies and using the old poly lenses from the old lights (The lights are purely for wet races so that other drivers can see me so I only need main beam and headlight aim doesn't matter so nice and simple to make).

Thank you very much for the offer of the lenses, i'm not sure i'll do them justice as i'll be running headlight grilles this time (extra weight I know but I'm going for the full period look)....Hold that thought though and i'll get back to you when the car nears completion (some way off yet as you'll see shortly when I create my build thread in the 'In da Werks' section)

Cheers Ian

[Ian Brown]

Hi modnrod, The mirrors were cheap and cheerful bullet racing types from a classic car parts website, couldn't see sh*t out of them so I later switched them for some stockish style ones which i'll reuse (but removing the glass and replacing it with mirrored polycarbonate)...As you can see, everything on the car's getting a weight chop!
I'll run through your list:
1. The doors are already gutted with fixed polycarbonate windows, so no winder mechanisms.
2. Already got a 1kg battery...BUT i'm moving it from the front to right next to the starter motor, so the heavy battery cables will be only about 6cm long ( thought of everything me!)
3. Yep!...have cheap alloy trim all round.
4. I've bought a set of 20 polished aluminium wheel nuts to replace the old chrome ones....Chrome=1048g, Ally=360g Saving 688g
5. I had a set of 'Raders' but i'm replacing them with Alloy 'Vintage 190' Porsche 356 style wheels which should save a massive 3kg per wheel!
6. As for tyres i'm stuck with the Championship control tyres 'Dunlop L section historic racing crossplys' size: fronts 120mm wide and rears 128mm wide ( Nope that's not a miss print!)

I'll keep posting my progress and weight savings each week
Cheers Ian

[spanners]

Hi Ian, the problem for a circuit car is getting the front working, in short we need weight on the front as axle load is just hopeless to gain tyre temperature if its pared too far down, mine drops off towards the end of the race in terms of understeer creeping in with fuel burn off, it drinks 4 galls over 20 laps and needs care towards the end, braking power also starts to drop off together with the front beginning to wash out, its not bs to say they (the beam axle cars) like some high up cg wise weight up front also, the beams c of g is below ground level, great on the face of it but not so good again for racing and tyre loading, vw knew what they were doing to keep the front benign for the street.  find a way to load that axle mate, or you may need to add weight again, even porsche had to do that.

[spanners]

Hi Ian, the problem for a circuit car is getting the front working, in short we need weight on the front as axle load is just hopeless to gain tyre temperature if its pared too far down, mine drops off towards the end of the race in terms of understeer creeping in with fuel burn off, it drinks 4 galls over 20 laps and needs care towards the end, braking power also starts to drop off together with the front beginning to wash out, its not bs to say they (the beam axle cars) like some high up cg wise weight up front also, the beams c of g is below ground level, great on the face of it but not so good again for racing and tyre loading, vw knew what they were doing to keep the front benign for the street.  find a way to load that axle mate, or you may need to add weight again, even porsche had to do that.

[spanners]

Hi Ian, the problem for a circuit car is getting the front working, in short we need weight on the front as axle load is just hopeless to gain tyre temperature if its pared too far down, mine drops off towards the end of the race in terms of understeer creeping in with fuel burn off, it drinks 4 galls over 20 laps and needs care towards the end, braking power also starts to drop off together with the front beginning to wash out, its not bs to say they (the beam axle cars) like some high up cg wise weight up front also, the beams c of g is below ground level, great on the face of it but not so good again for racing and tyre loading, vw knew what they were doing to keep the front benign for the street. �find a way to load that axle mate, or you may need to add weight again, even porsche had to do that.

[Ian Brown]

Hi Spanners: The Mini's have 10 inch wheels, so their tyres rotate twice as much as everyone else, so with the extra tyre temp they usually ambush the rest of us for the first few laps!

Race ready with me on-board the FR/RR bias before was 40.5/59.5%...The plan is to get the car under-weight, then add ballast to try and load the front up a little. I used the corner scales to work out the centre of gravity and its at my left hip as i'm sitting in the car. The crazy thing is, most of the weight saving is coming from below that, so the centre of gravity is gonna be a little worse once i'm done. Alan at GAC said get as much weight below the roll centres as possible, so the ballast should at least help with that.

[spanners]

good work Ian, them minis... :-\n

[Ian Brown]

Removal of seat belt mounting brackets.

Not expecting many of you to go THIS far (as it's a real ball ache), but I had time on my hands and there are seven hefty brackets hidden inside the body, so all (but one) of them buggers got the chop!



Pair of B-pillar top brackets Saving 302g

[Ian Brown]

B-pillar bottom bracket (only one this time as I need the other side for my harness)  Saving 105g

[Ian Brown]

Centre bracket under the rear seat (This one's easy just 4 spot welds) Saving 350g

[Ian Brown]

Pair of C-pillar mounts (These were bigger than I could have ever hoped for) The pair saved me 380g

[Ian Brown]

All those seat belt brackets added up to 1137grams

Another 69.863kg to go!

[Ian Brown]

Heater Tube removal




Removing both heater tubes saved 3.3kg



Removing both rear seat mounting brackets (simple to remove as they are spot welded in) saved 580g

Another 65.983kg to go!

[Ian Brown]

A number of other weight saving alterations on the main bodyshell were small but as you know it all adds up!



The original steering column top mount isn't used as the column is mounted a few cm's nearer to the centre of the car (along with the drivers seat for safety/weight distribution) The steering column will be bolted straight to the rollcage. This old mount weighed 101g



A lot of grinding went on behind the dash, removing metal de-mister ducts, door check strap mountings, unused bonnet and bonnet spring mountings and just a general reduction in any excess metal. Total saving 699g



The rules won't allow the body to be drilled 'drag racer style' to save weight (The body must look original) but just to be a little cheeky I added a second interior light mounting hole opposite the other one. saving 14g



The interior mirror has a large bracket and spring spot welded inside the roof. I removed this as i'm making a polycarbonate interior mirror which i'll glue directly to the windscreen. This mirror bracket and spring weighs 105g



Much the same as behind the dash I did some minor trimming of the engine bay and removed the unused deck lid mountings. All this saved 409g

[modnrod]

Hehehe! Go Ian! 

[Ian Brown]

Hehehe! Go Ian! 

Gets under your skin this weight saving business...you start getting a bit obsessive and everyone around you thinks you've lost the plot! 

[kraftkaefer]

All of my carbon parts on my car are boring now for me.....

If i saw this earlier i´m sure i removed the heater Panels 

[Andrew]

Hi Ian,

  Out of curiosity, which battery did you use?

   thanks,

[numbnuts]

I have to feedback that the battery I found earlier in this thread is really good. It has been starting up my 12:1 2854cc motor just fine, I would definitely recommend this battery and for the price it is a bargain over the more expensive race batteries

[modnrod]

Stock bumper mount for late model

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Cheap and cheerful 60x6mm alloy with a distinct LACK of nice welding or shiny billet, bent in a vice with a hammer. 

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