Weight Reduction

[mattyb]

A mate has a R33 skyline he's gutted for weight savings. The list so far is... (all his figures not mine so don't shoot the messenger!)

Light weight wheels. Saved about 2-3kg per wheel

Fibreglass front guards, savings of about 4 - 6kg per corner

Carbon Kevlar Bonnet saving of 7-10kg

Carbon Kevlar Front and rear Bumpers, total saving of 12-15kg

Bride carbon reinforced drivers and passenger seats (no electrics) saving 9kg each!!!!! Look sh*t HOT TOO!

2 rear bucket seats and a fibreglass console, saving of about 5 kg (cars reg'd as a 4 seater)

Lightweight door cards/inserts about 2-4kg a door

space saver for a spare, no jack, or weel braces.

He has a plan to get some perspex made to fit the front wind screen, rear windscreen, and all the windows, and save 60KG!!!! apparently the mob that does all the V8's can do it for him and ADR approve it, I dunno how much truth there is in it.

He doesn't run a rear wing, has had all the sound deadening removed from the car, took 2 days and about 15kg of dry ice but got it all out, and man, there was a LOT of it. almost enough to fill a wheelie bin, and I'm guessing 40Kg maybe more!.

He said I'f you want to start anywhere, pull the door cards, and all the carpet out and get rid of ALL the sound deadening in the car, most weight saved for the least cost.

Hope this helps.

Edited 21/02/10 10:40 AM by mattyb

[Dillz]

More power would be a cheaper better option for a street driven car wouldn't it?

[Fords Rule]

Use run flat tyres and then theres no need for spare tyre wheel brace or jack.

[mattyb]

weight saving also aids in feul savings, and better cornering if done well. Being 100kg, I'm big on the more power option, lol.

[XR6TWolf]

Much of the discussion on weight reduction deteriorates into the argument of more power = same equation. Sorry fellas, it does not!

If the objective was to gain better straight line performance then I might tentatively agree. What more power will most certainly not do is a damn thing to increase handling or braking. Economy too for that matter although that is of no consequence for where I am headed.

This far I have managed to shed near enough to 100kg from the BA without compromising its abilities or creature comforts as a daily driver.

Having previously removed sound deadening from a number of vehicles destined for the circuit I know that there will be another 40kg minimum hiding in that department.

One of the other things that few seem to demonstrate any awareness of is exactly where weight is located. If these cars must carry the weight of a small house then it stands to reason that if we can relocated a good chunk of it to sit as low as possible and between front and rear axle lines then the ultimate result will be a better handling car.

Moral of the story for me at least....it is worth spending the time and money to reduce and relocate weight more efficiently. The overall outcome is quite frankly astounding.

I dont think I would be wrong in saying that my BA xr6t would leave my FG F6 looking pretty sorry in the handling and stopping stakes at this point in its development and every bit of that is due to weight reduction and relocation.

Food for thought.

[madmac]

just got my FG XR6T ute, just joined the forum

interesting discussion

- carbon fibre bonnet

- lighter wheels

- lighter exhaust

- lighter (no electrics) seat

so does anyone have any idea how much these weight reduction measures would cost roughly?

[Stoney85]

2grand for each option there, and probably around 50-60kg weight saving

A titanium exhaust saves a bucketload over a stock system, my mates Toyota chaser has a titanium system, we fitted the thing laying on the ground lifting it up with one Hand each - stupid light

Fixed carbon fibre seats (say Bride for example) on custom rails would save 15kg a side maybe more

Problem is you are fitting parts that are illegal (bonnet) unless ADR approved or compromise comfort - exhaust and seats

But for me, it's part of my car life, I live modding cars and accept what changes are made if there is benefits elsewhere.

[allmtr]

From my ute I removed:

Tow hitch 4.4kg

Toolkit 4.6kg

Spare wheel 23.5kg

Tarp and bars 3.0kg

Spare mount 2.8kg

Tailgate liner 2.5kg

Tailgate 15kg

Towbar 20kg

Tray liner 18.2kg

Tub 132kg

Tub braces 4.4kg

Rear muffler 7.2kg

Overload springs from leaf springs 11.2kg

Fuel tank xmember 6.8kg

Spare wheel xmember 12kg

Total weight removed 268kg

Original weight 1785kg

Car now weighs 1517kg (3337lbs)

Leather seats are 22kg for drivers and about 18kg for passengers. Fuel tank was 13kg with probably half of that being fuel.

[Pedja]

has anyone tried removing the crash beams?