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) :lol: 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?

[Jamie Summers]

Thanks for all the useful pointers. I think the most useful things for us to look at (in no particular order) will be.........
1.) Bonnet and boot lid
2.) Lightweight battery
3.) Remove headlights (have the Cup covers in place)
4.) Remove horn (though it has its uses around the paddock etc)
5.) Poly windows
This lot looks like an easy c. 40-50kg.

Jamie

[Jamie Summers]

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!!!

We want to have a look at some aero improvements so will be looking to see if there is a way to smooth out the floor pan, and will be looking at a front airdam and splitter and possibly some sort of rear diffuser. Seems unlikely to yield much gain on a car of this nature, but we've spoken to some experts and they think we might be surprised !

We already have an aftermarket exhaust system of some sort, so I don't think there's a gain to be had there. Wheels might be worth a look though - reduction in unsprung mass worth double sprung mass so I understand.

Jamie

[Coops]

performance trim supplied my doorcard set, fronts, rears and boot panel

cant see fronts very well as never had a decent pic but they look schweet and weigh nothing

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/coopahstar/Turbo/IMG_0121.jpg

see rears here

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/coopahstar/Turbo/IMG_0124.jpg

[clio turbo]

I should have some 15" oz superleggera for a renault for sale soon if interested 8)

[Jamie Summers]

performance trim supplied my doorcard set, fronts, rears and boot panel

cant see fronts very well as never had a decent pic but they look schweet and weigh nothing

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/coopahstar/Turbo/IMG_0121.jpg

see rears here

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/coopahstar/Turbo/IMG_0124.jpg

I'm pretty sure Performance Trim have gone bust ! I've got one of their carbon bonnets on my Porsche and it's a piece of junk. My co-owner ended up having to cut his carbon doors in half and re-set them because the fit was so bad. Wouldn't go near any of their Porsche parts, and I can only hope their Clio parts are better .........

Jamie

[Coops]

the doorcards arent fit formed, they are just sheet carbon cut to shape and screwed to the door, cheap and cheerful

imo most c/f moulded panels are shite fit, i wouldnt touch any with a 10ft barge pole

[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!!!

We want to have a look at some aero improvements so will be looking to see if there is a way to smooth out the floor pan, and will be looking at a front airdam and splitter and possibly some sort of rear diffuser. Seems unlikely to yield much gain on a car of this nature, but we've spoken to some experts and they think we might be surprised !

We already have an aftermarket exhaust system of some sort, so I don't think there's a gain to be had there. Wheels might be worth a look though - reduction in unsprung mass worth double sprung mass so I understand.

Jamie

If you have not already - subscribe to track driver magazine. They are doing a feature on aerodynamic splitters

[Jamie Summers]

If you have not already - subscribe to track driver magazine. They are doing a feature on aerodynamic splitters

Thanks Northy, yes I've got that - makes interesting reading. Had a good look under the car last night and it looks difficult to do much about smoothing the floor out due to the position of the exhaust and rear silencer. An original side-exit Cup exhaust might be worth investigating, which at the least would allow us to panel-in the under-boot area to stop the rear PU acting as an air brake !
At the front it looks possible to make an undertray that would follow the legs of the front subframe all the way under the engine, which might help a bit.

Jamie

[cliokiz]

Have you looked at the engine to see what you can remove to save weight?

There's probably a fair amount of plastic and unnecessary bracketry that you could get rid of.