If i'm going to keep costs down then it needs to be lighter. I figure i can remove 100kg from this car without making it much different and not costing too much. 1500kg is heavy in anyones language, but as mentioned earlier this is a still a road registered vehicle so i have to keep some things and there's some comforts that i can keep and some i can do without.
So before chopping this and that i had to think of what i can live with and without. It's Qld so most of the year its hot so removing the AC is far from ideal. Although removing as much weight as possible from the front of the car would be best i dont think i can justify this one, yet.
So i pulled the front bar. Oh while i was there i added some Hella Supertones, the oem horns are rubbish.
It doesnt have a crash beam, odd. This wasnt one of the things on my list but now i know its not there i'm not sure if i'll go searching for one. 10kg
The front bar is heavy, i might see if i can remove some of the support frame.
So looking at it and thinking back to the last time i was at the track, i kept forgetting to turn the IC sprays on. So i figure that can go as i'll get a bigger cooler somewhere in the near future. IC spray bottle weighs 5.3 kg full.
Update, i just found this article from MRT on how to recalibrate the control/decision logic of the intercooler sprays from the ECU. So i will keep this and relocate the tank to the boot.
The Oem radiator fan is a big heavy thing, i'm sure there's some weight to be saved there.
A smaller battery relocated to behind the passenger seat is the go, i will source one soon & update 15kg saving there when looking at a Lithium replacement. Looking around the only other thing that i can see would be a lighter strut brace, but this isnt high on the list for now.
The heat shield under the bonnet is paper thin so that can stay.
Ok moving into the cabin, opening the doors tells me they're heavy but as much as i would like to get some dry carbon replacements i just dont have that sort of budget. With the door cards off the only thing at this stage to remove is the speakers .4kg ea. Instead of cutting up these doors i might be best buying some others so i can cut out all of the inside metal, remove the power motors, replace glass with Lexan & and make aluminium door cards.
I removed the mirror to weigh it for future reference 1.1kg, front door cards are 2.4kg, the metal that can removed would be 2-3kg & motor 3-4kg & glass 4-5kg? So could be a saving of roughly 10kg per corner. I think it's worth further investigation but not until I have a trailer as swapping doors at the track is far from ideal & driving to the track is not an option as it's not legal.
So if the speakers are going so is the head unit & loom 2kg. Looking at the steering wheel & airbag setup i i know there's some weight savings there. I dont have the budget to upgrade the s/wheel at this stage so will look into this & a quick release in the future. This also prompts me to remove the pas airbag.
The sound proofing on the floor can go 5.5kg & so can what i can get from the firewall 2.2kg, carpet & matts can go 7kg & 3kg and so can the plastics up each side 1.5kg and centre consol 1.5kg & front consul 1kg. In Qld we cant remove the rear seat without getting a mod plate to have it registered as a 2 seater, @ $500!, so the rear seat base 4.6kg & top 7kg and passenger seat 17kg will be removed at the track. The drivers seat will be replaced with a much better seat which weighs 7kg with the alloy side mounts so a saving of 10kg.
Rear speakers can go .4kg, so can the parcel shelf sound proofing .45kg & middle seat belt 1kg.
All the plastics in the boot can go inc the boot liner & insulation 6.5kg, jack 2.3kg & spare 14.1kg can stay at home.
The boot with wing is heavy, will source a carbon boot & wing when the budget allows.
So all up i've dropped 83kg's & still retained all my functionality. I just put my carpet mats back in for driving duties on the street.
Here's a bunch of pics
The noise on the road is far from bad, the most noise i hear is from the fuel pump. The drive-ability is better, it's happier pushing its weight in a lower gear now. Hard to tell if the bum dyno says its any faster, I'll see at the track. If it's worth .5-1 second then it's worth it.
So total weight loss for track duties is 83.83kg.
I'll keep chipping away at this, i know there's 100kg there.
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