Weight Savings For Xr6ts ?

[Lumpen]

I dont know if lexan is legal for road going vehicles here?

Lumpy

[xr6_prod]

Hi - I race an XR6 turbo in Australain Production cars.

The XR6 factory seatas are very heavy - they have an electric motor and a substantial steel frame - they would be at least 15kg's each - maybe 20.

If you are really serious about weight saving then the places to look are -

number 1 is the exhaust - it weighs over 45 kg's alone - a titanium exhaust would save heaps.

The metal reinforcing bracket and frame that goes behind the rear seats (between the rear seats and the boot) - it is zipped into the uphostery weighs ~ 12 kg's a sheet of carbon fibre may surfice - as long as you did not want to fold down the seats.

An Odyssey dry cell battery can save half the weight of the battery ~8 kg's.

Under the carpet of the drivers and passangers floor well is a large thick rubber insulating mat - it would weigh 15kg's and is easy to remove as it is just sandwiched between the carpet and the underbody deadning / sealer.

The wheels are always a place to look.

All of the seatbelt equipment and bolts (all 5 belts with bolts may be ~10kg's)

Scrape off all under body deadning (maybe 20kg's) - this is supprisingly heavy

From there on it is starting to get harder - one place you could look at (however this is a big job) is the wiring harness - I have not had mine out in totality - however I would not be supprised if there was 60-80 kg's of wiring running around the car - I am sure you could remove many unused wires - in my car there are many dozens of factory plugs that are not used (I.e. go no where) - you can even buy multiplexing equipment to run multiple devices on one wire strand - however this is probably going too far for the average enthusiest.

Things that are already light and would provide marginal weight savings are: speakers (supprisingly light), electric window wipers, air bags, stereo, heater and most of the dash assembly - if you replace or remove all of these with lighter items you may save only a few kg's.

I hope this helps.

[Typhoon]

  xr6_prod said:

Hi - I race an XR6 turbo in Australain Production cars.

The XR6 factory seatas are very heavy - they have an electric motor and a substantial steel frame - they would be at least 15kg's each - maybe 20.

If you are really serious about weight saving then the places to look are -

number 1 is the exhaust - it weighs over 45 kg's alone - a titanium exhaust would save heaps.

The metal reinforcing bracket and frame that goes behind the rear seats (between the rear seats and the boot) - it is zipped into the uphostery weighs ~ 12 kg's  a sheet of carbon fibre may surfice - as long as you did not want to fold down the seats.

An Odyssey dry cell battery can save half the weight of the battery ~8 kg's.

Under the carpet of the drivers and passangers floor well is a large thick rubber insulating mat - it would weigh 15kg's and is easy to remove as it is just sandwiched between the carpet and the underbody deadning / sealer.

The wheels are always a place to look.

All of the seatbelt equipment and bolts (all 5 belts with bolts may be ~10kg's)

Scrape off all under body deadning (maybe 20kg's) - this is supprisingly heavy

From there on it is starting to get harder - one place you could look at (however this is a big job) is the wiring harness - I have not had mine out in totality - however I would not be supprised if there was 60-80 kg's of wiring running around the car - I am sure you could remove many unused wires - in my car there are many dozens of factory plugs that are not used (I.e. go no where) - you can even buy multiplexing equipment to run multiple devices on one wire strand - however this is probably going too far for the average enthusiest.

Things that are already light and would provide marginal weight savings are:  speakers (supprisingly light),  electric window wipers,  air bags,  stereo,  heater and most of the dash assembly - if you replace or remove all of these with lighter items you may save only a few kg's.

I hope this helps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

COOL!!!

[Slymeat]

  TurboDewd said:

I weighed by BA auto sedan on a public weighbridge and I had barely any fuel at all - tipped in at 1700kg on the dot.

Std brakes and std sound system.  Spare present in boot too.

With me in it, it would be 1800+ Kgs.

[replicant]

XR6Prod was referring to saving weight in a competition situation... Some things you may wish to consider about what he has done.

Seats - the side airbag pyrotechnics and hardware are contained in the seat if your car is so optioned.

The laminated rubber section in the footwell actually has a part to play in the crash-worthiness of the BA shell (have a look at the ANCAP results) in terms of reduction of lower leg injuries in the frontal collision test.

Seatbelts - removing belts will void the compliance plate ditto the airbags. The inertia reels for the fronts contain the pretensioner and the load limiters.

The door skins (interior) can be removed or replaced with something else lighter (you could always do the Mark I Mini trick of having a drawstring to open the door).

If you want to get real serious... you can try drilling all the bolts, removing the airconditioning hardware (weight and drag), the rest of the interior, rear seat, carpets, centre console - get a gel battery and put it in the boot for better weight distribution, go dry sump and have the reservoir bottle in the boot and lower the engine mounts so the centre of gravity is lowered).

[cobrav8]

Only problem is that the dry-sump system will add weight (but improve durability) and to lower the motor you will also need a smaller diameter clutch & Flywheel / flexplate and a different starter motor, longer gearstick and probably a new driveshaft (and lots of money for the dry sump system).

In fact since we are spending lots - why not ditch the gearbox and diff - and install a magnesium cased transaxle.

Edited 01/02/06 01:59 AM by cobrav8

[replicant]

True. There's always the cheapest but not necessarily the most popular way to lose unwanted mass... get the driver to get his stomach stapled and lose 30 kgs.

If he paints the car lavender then he won't have to worry about the passenger weight either...

[veczar]

"number 1 is the exhaust - it weighs over 45 kg's alone - a titanium exhaust would save heaps" - How much does the APS one weigh?

[aiboart]

Mk II 17" std wheels and tyres 25kg (my spare)

Allowing 9kg for the tyre (please correct this figure), say 16kg for the rim.

BBS 17x8 rims 16.4lbs!

OZ 17x8 rims 15.9lbs!

The downside is the BBS and OZ rims are AU$800+ retail per rim.

If you can do better than this for a correct size and offset lightweight 17" rim please let me know.

It would be interesting to have access to the weights of the XR6T and F6 factory rims, and factory rim-tyre combinations for 17", 18", 19" for the various styles.

It would also be interesting to know the weights of after market rims, and rim-tyre combinations, for popular brands such as Starcorp.

All you need is 10 minutes, a matching spare and a bathroom scale.

regards,

aa

[blueboost]

another thing you can do is trim the exsess length off bolts, there is a lot of bolts that stick an inch or more out after bolting it up.

and also removing bolts like the ones that just hang there for the towbar, but there are a lot of bolts to long in the BA. even the body panel bolts seem to extend to far.