Lightening the clio williams any ideas?

[jimwilly80]

Hello all,

Ive got my willy 3 up to a respectable and reliable 170/175bhp but I wanna make it faster by lightening it, ive removed the boot lining carpet/foam (which weighed a lot more than I expected) and the spare wheel but has anyone got other suggestions?

I heard a rumour that theres like a 30kg weight at the front end sumwhere in front of pass side or drivers side ? the obvious stuff like interior etc I know about (the front seats weigh a tonne, anyway a few pointers from you guys would be great let me know. Just dont want to spend as little as possible!!

thanks
james

[Wobba]

The carbon canister has a large lump of solid iron strapped to it, its under the offside front arch.

[jimwilly80]

okay so how do i get to it?im pressuming i remove the passenger side front wheel and take of arch lining and its easy to see and get to, to remove etc? how much does it weigh approx do you know? and does it effect the car handling and grip etc in anyway?

[andreas395]

Drivers side mate it does nothing take it away must weigh about 10kg use some cable ties to hold the carbon canister back in place

[jimwilly80]

cheers , anymore tips?

[stevie_b]

If you check my project thread you should find some info in there. I saved about 200kg in the end. Big ticket items are the seats, as you mentioned. You'll save 10kg by replacing the bonnet with a fibreglass one and another 10kg by replacing the battery with a racing gel-type one. Motors in the doors for the windows and for the wiper on the boot also save a fair bit. Remove the sunroof, if you have one, fit lighter wheels. Remove all the dashboard and clocks and replace with an electronic display. Scrape off all the 'tar' sound deadening from the body in the footwells and remove the sound deadening mats under the seats and behind the dash and that will easily be another 10kg gone. Fit perspex windows instead of glass, although that didn't save as much as I hoped (maybe around 5kg in total for all five windows). Cut bits of the loom out that you no longer need, remove the aux tank. The list goes on and on but it depends how much effort you want to spend removing it, how much money you want to spend fitting lighter parts and how much 'discomfort' you can put up with living without various items and sound proofing!

[16v_paddy]

Get chopping the impact bars inside the doors, they weigh a fcuking ton, I was genuinely shocked at how heavy they were when I chopped them from mine

[andreas395]

When I had my doors sprayed last month the painter said he was supprised how heavy they were must be them bars then I don't have them in my w1

[16v_paddy]

Being a later phase 2 car the impact bars will be like this, that thick & solid steel, easily 10-15kg in each door to be saved there

[Wobba]

There is some good advice here, it just depends how hardcore you want to go. Because these cars are for the most part relatively low power, weight reduction plays a big part with BHP/ton.

I replaced my driver door with a Willy 2 door and it has the damn bars now, so I am looking at sorting that soon, I'll also be doing the bonnet before long as I've just done the seats with buckets (just 6.9kg each now!) and the tar based sound deadening. Please note though you will hear a lot more noise from the transmission and engine, just don't be alarmed and think your gearbox is failing, it's just that you can't hear it in a 'normal' car usually.