Lightweight Parts Wanted

[Jamie Summers]

The engine on our little Cup Car is putting out about as much grunt as it is ever going to without getting into very serious expenditure, so the logical next step is to see if we can remove some more weight to improve the power to weight ratio. Ideally we'd like to remove as much as 80 or 90kg, but I suspect that might be unrealistic !

Sooooooo, we're interested in any lightweight parts that people might have available ie. fibreglass panels, bonnets, boot lids, polycarb windows etc etc. The interior is already fully stripped bar the headlining and door trims.

What have you got ???????

Equally any weight saving ideas would be gratefully received, but with the car already down at 917kg I suspect the easy and obvious stuff has been done......... We don't want to start drilling big holes all over the place as that is not within our series regs, but it is a race car, so road safety and useability are less relevant.

many thanks,

Jamie

[diditno]

have you got a fuel cell rather than the two tanks. could save a fair bit id imagine. as far as other weight saving fibreglass panels and poly windows is as far as you can go really. may be worth contacting beanimoo as he had fibreglass doors, and may have some contacts you can use for other panels.

[ThRaXaIR]

what is the weight saving of poly carb windows over glass? if anyone knows...

[Jamie Summers]

have you got a fuel cell rather than the two tanks. could save a fair bit id imagine. as far as other weight saving fibreglass panels and poly windows is as far as you can go really. may be worth contacting beanimoo as he had fibreglass doors, and may have some contacts you can use for other panels.

No, still on the standard tank, not sure if Cup Car is same as road car though ?? Either way, I can't imagine there is a great saving, plus it's likely to be quite an expensive job. Realistically you are right, we must be looking at panels and windows as relatively easy jobs.

thanks,

Jamie

[Coops]

well not to put too fine a point on it, but loose the headlining and door trims!lol!

[Jamie Summers]

well not to put too fine a point on it, but loose the headlining and door trims!lol!

Fair point, but that would mean having to get the roof sprayed, which is more hassle than we can be bothered with right now (the roof is white under the headliner rather than the turquiose of the rest of the car, and I'm afraid we're seriously anal about the way the car looks !).

I'm keen to lose the door cards, but I haven't seen a lightweight alternative - surely they don't weigh much anyway ? We could fabricate something out of sheet aluminium or carbon fibre, but it probably wouldn't look very pretty. Does anyone make an aftermarket doorcard ????

thanks,

Jamie

[RB23]

The fuel tank on the Cup is the same as the road car but it should have a special pipe where the reserve tank was?
Have you changed the exhaust manifold? I changed from the standard cast one to a tubular one and saved 5kgs

[northy]

There are some underbody sump guards that weigh a lot protecting the brake and fuel lines.

Glass is heavy, u can get fibreglass doors, bonnet and tailgate.

Other than that I would say the exhaust backbox is another heavy part compared to a side exit?

Lightweight wheels a option?

Gaztwo has a fibreglass bonnet for sale if you pm him!!!

[stevie_b]

what is the weight saving of poly carb windows over glass? if anyone knows...

I wrote it all down somewhere but can't find the sheet of paper at the moment. I remember that it was less than I thought - about 1 kg saved per side window and the rear was about 2kg lighter than the glass one. This was for MSA-spec poly windows - you could obviously save another 25% by going thinner on the plastic (e.g. 3mm versus 4mm)!

[stevie_b]

Ideally we'd like to remove as much as 80 or 90kg, but I suspect that might be unrealistic !

...

Equally any weight saving ideas would be gratefully received, but with the car already down at 917kg I suspect the easy and obvious stuff has been done.........

80 or 90 more to come out will be tough Jamie, but should be possible - mine is under 800kg now I think (yet to get it down to the weighbridge to confirm but I weighed all the stuff I took off/swapped and if it was 981kg book to start with then I should be under 800 now).

Fibreglass bonnet will save you 10+ kg easily. As will a lighweight battery (something like a 'Red Top 15') if you don't already have one fitted. Swapping all the glass to poly might save getting on for another 10kg in total. Something like OZ Superleggeras could save 10kg+ (unsprung weight) over the current wheels you are using. So that's ~40kg saved without too much effort!

After that it starts to get tougher. I presume there is no horn on a cup car? I went from dual tone to single tone to save a bit more weight (sounds like Noddy's car now though) Do you have the same loom as the road cars? I took out all the wiring for the stereo circuits, alarm system, central door locking, etc. but you probably don't have a lot of that to start with? Do the cup cars run with the carbon cannisters present - removing that and the bracket will save you a few kilos?