I'm too Fat

err ... I mean the car weighs too much,

On another thread I suggested - for ammusments sake swapping the dooors for carbon fibre ones etc on the assumption that it would save weight. Now that is pretty extreme but is there any way of saving weight before resorting to stripping out the interior (ie the backseats and the air con). My MKIV has a totally standard body.... are the performance bonnets lighter? Adding body kits adds weight but what about panel replacement.

Its a wild step but I thought it would proove to be usful food for thought...

Laters

Alex H

the mkiv has an aluminium bonnet so weight savings wouldnt be huge. If you have a manual you could get a lightened flywheel which would save quite a few lbs. Other options are to get lighter wheels, after that you will be stripping down components. You could fit plastic side windows, remove the spare wheel and use that tyre-weld stuff, strip out the electric seats and put normal seats in, remove the cruise and aircon, strip out the stereo system.

But basically you cannot make the Supra into a lightweight car without doing serious mods. I have identified one of the heaviest items in the car and Im working on making it lighter....

JB

That'll be a diet, then?

You said it not me!

The temptation was *almost* too much to resist!

Yours,

J

Hi...

Jack, wheels and tool kit amount to 80lbs I read somewhere.

G

Quote: from Ash on 1:00 pm on June 15, 2001[br]

You said it not me!

 

The temptation was *almost* too much to resist!

 

Yours,

J

I think you'll find it *was* too much to resist!

Said for the comedy factor only, not as a dig at JB, by the way.  I'm no Eros myself :biggrin:

its actually true...thats the cheapest way to save weight in the car.

The Seat Rally team offered Gwindaf Evans's co-driver £20,000 to lose a specific amount of weight, they had done all they could to the car to make it lighter and so that was the only alternative. He was a LARGE man indeed, probably over 19st. Judging from recent pictures he never got the money!!

JB

(lightweight edition available by Trax2001)

OK so if I take out the spare and have a pump and tyre fix spray - how effective is the spray - will it set ok in the wet - if say its raining household pets. Will I be limited to 50mph? Any one got a can to hand with its directions for use on?

As for light flywheels which I have thought about before is there a particular one I should use with a standard (I believe) clutch? How much do they cost? What's involved in fitting it drop out the drive shaft and the gearbox - which will mean I'll need new gear box oil?

Has anyone not noticed that I'm not a car mechanic!?

Cheers All

Alex

Tyre weld limits you to 30mph!  The space saver looks stupid, but is 'only' limited to 50mph.  I'll stick to the space saver

some of the tyre weld things allow you to go at 50mph for a specific distance.

The other option is the new 'run flat' tyres that are now being released, you can drive them at up to 50mph as well.

JB

Unless you are planning on constructing a built motor, I'd forget all thoughts of lighter flywheels, Alex. In theory the less power spent turning the engine, the more there is available to turn the wheels. But mods. such as lighter flywheels are generally fitted along with lighter forged cranks, forged pistons, etc., etc. together with a hike in maximum RPM. Then you start measuring the life of your motor in hours... as opposed to tens of thousands of miles.  

I note what Branners says about reducing bodyweight. It's often very noticeable on track-days with my motorcyle. Particularly now I have the smaller 600. On the straights I can keep up with most guys on 750's and 900's simply because I tend to have a significant weight advantage.

Yours,

J

exactly, if you can lose something like 2st then thats 28lbs, and thats a lot of weight to try and lose from a road going car.

Another point which we might not have covered, if you remove the cats and the stock exhaust and put an aftermarket one on you save a huge amount of weight.

When I was round at Leons quite a while ago I was amazed how heavy the stock clutch and flywheel assembly is, he then showed me the aftermarket clutch and flywheel and it was nearly 1/3 of the weight. There are ways of saving weight on the Supra but its never going to be cheap.

JB

Yep, a lot of those guys on the 900's probably weighed 13.5 stone easily. Being as I weigh in at a measly 10st 5lbs it's a significant proportion of the whole power to weight ratio on a motorcycle.  

Another one for saving weight: have you ever lifted out the seats? Particularly the electric driver's seat. My Cobra Sidewinders are easily a third of the weight which I reckon will make up for the weight of the subs.

Obviously, there is power to be had by stripping out this and that. But, to my mind, unless you are building an out and out track car you lose all the goodies like air-con, etc. Which I couldn't live without.  

Talking of track cars, that's one of the things Justin was saying before his hols. He reckons he might sell the EVO and buy a cheap MKIV, and he wants me to strip the whole thing and make it into a pure track car. With roll-cage and 6-point harnesses and all that kind of kit. If he does go ahead it will be interesting to compare against a typical tuned car with all the goodies attached.

Yours,

J  

I was offered a set of Cobra seats for £100 the other day and I was so close to buying them, but I wasnt sure if the runners would be readily available so I let them go. I can easily do without the electric seat adjustment so thats something I would happily rip out if I get the chance.

I shudder to think how fast my car would be if I got down to 10st.

I have talked to J about second Supras for a while, if I start earning a serious daily rate as a contractor I might consider it, but for the moment Im just going to make do with my MKIV!! The Blitz Supra is fully stripped down and when Dave Clarke used to drive it he hated the noise, but then the performance more than made up for that.

JB

Off the shelf Cobra sub-frames are not available for the MKIV. Therefore, I had to fabricate my own. I chopped the mounting flanges from the stock seats and fabricated a framework to suit. Still haven't solved the seat-belt anchorage. Just need a bit of time to get around to it.

Yours,

J

ahaa, so not buying the Cobras was a good move.

Just for info, they fitted Recaros to some of the later mkivs, I dont think they were electric so there must be a mounting frame available somewhere.

JB

Just picked up on this thread, cracked me up, I too am going for a 'weight saving' at the moment, just think how quick I could go if I got back to my once weight of around 7 stone! Any offers of £20,000 to do it would probably do the trick..!

Well (mainly for my karting) I've lost 17lbs this year so far (was 13st10 and now 12st7) so i guess this has chopped off 0.03secs on the 0-60 !

seriously though we all know what it feels like when you're carrying a passenger and luggage around.   It's amazing how much slower and less nimble it makes the car.    Actually in a turbo-car like the mkiv, i think that the car simply gives more boost as there's more weight to accelerate so you notice the extra weight less.

maybe..

(ps. if anyone wants a copy of the Stu Hollows Diet Plan it's available for £19.95 !)