Projekt alpinweiss II part I - weight reduction

[s2driveruk]

yep and in an aby the battery is already in the right location, i.e not under the bonnet Drop the airbox for a cone and that will give you 3-5kgs and 50 chav horse power extra Carbon bonnet, remove lights (5kgs each at least) alloy rad for more efficiency than oem and probably lighter, pacet/kenlow etc fan, thats all stuff hanging off the front.

Wonder if you can buy a carbon arb....those oem arbs weight a bloody ton

[Error404]

i've also got a pair of wings, a bonnet, an S2 bumper and a spare dash i can weight if it'll help?

I suspect even with frp / carbon wings and bonnet you would only save about 20kgs over stock.

[Error404]

biggest weight issue is the pig iron block really

[Greg_S]

Andy, A big win in terms of weight and weight distribution would be to plumb the front wash jets to the rear washer bottle and remove/empty the front one since this will shift a reasonable amount of weight and make it a better distribution too

[dest]

I would just block them off, much easier than running a long pipe to the front!
Its not like they are much use/needed on a track anyway

[EspenW]

Replace that huge lead weight of a battery with a smaller and lighter one. I bet your current 60Amp something battery weighs 16kg+.
I'm running a 4.8kg 14amp battery in the Golf and a 6.2kg 18amp battery in the RS2.
The RS2 was sitting outside for a week in -20degs during Easter, and fired right up on the first attempt.

[Greg_S]

I would just block them off, much easier than running a long pipe to the front!
Its not like they are much use/needed on a track anyway

Thats true, can def get rid of the headlight washers. Might like to keep the fronts though

[magarv]

Nice work Keep tearing that interior out!!

Replace that huge lead weight of a battery with a smaller and lighter one. I bet your current 60Amp something battery weighs 16kg+.
I'm running a 4.8kg 14amp battery in the Golf and a 6.2kg 18amp battery in the RS2.
The RS2 was sitting outside for a week in -20degs during Easter, and fired right up on the first attempt.

What kind of batteries are these? Make/Model? I would like to do this myself to save some weight...

[merlin's S4]

I would just block them off, much easier than running a long pipe to the front!
Its not like they are much use/needed on a track anyway

Needs to be able to get through an MOT though surely! Not sure Andy's gonna want to tow it on a trailer behind his newly aquired Polo.

[Acidburn]

Rear windscreen wiper could go if on track?

has the weight loss raised the back end slightly? would have been worth seeing how much it has if any?

Is there still any aircon parts i.e. behind the wings etc you could remove or the bits behind the dash?

[Rusty]

Removed the front seats today, they weigh 24Kg each. The Recaro Speed with subframe weighs a whopping 19Kg. Anywhoo, I've driven it around today with a total of 100Kg removed and acceleration is improved as you might expect but the noise in the cabin is just great, the absolute best bit is hitting the limiter in 1st and 2nd. The prap prap prap sounds awesome. Fuel pump whines at tickover but is not audible at any other speed. The car is still quite civilised driving along, needs a much louder exhaust

I've had to replace the 19Kg OZs with the 22Kg Dezents today due to standing water. With this in mind I've done some 0-60 tests on the GTech and got 5.3 average with a lot of standing water. In these conditions I prefer the hold-it-at-5k-sidestep-the-clutch-and-floor-it technique although the smell indicated that the clutch wasn't soooo keen on it! Seems like the standard item is fine for anything except standing starts. This technique resulted in pulling away at about 30 degrees on one run and a lot of laughter. Not done 1/4 mile times as the roads are too wet. My best time pre-strip with the OZs was 5.5s and the lighter wheels make a difference. Interestingly, the Bridgestone S-03s weigh 1Kg more than the Eagles, almost certainly due to stupid-stiff sidewalls, the tyre fitter that removed them and fitted the P-Zero Corsas hated me at the end of it all Shows the importance of tyre weight as pointed out to me in my previos wheel weight thread.

@ Dubmeister, yes, I have removed weight from the rear but also a bit from the middle. There is very little to remove from the front as I've already taken the A/C out and don't have the cash for carbon bonnets, wings and other such lovely niceties. I think I could remove 20Kg from the front but the cost is too high and would be used to improve the suspension. Placing the washer tank in the boot is a good plan, if I do strip it out permanently then this is something I'll look into.

@ Error404 Thanks for the tips on removing the main carpet, will recharge my batteries and remove that tomorrow as all the sound deadening need ripping out and replacing so now is as good a time as any.

@ Wab - SNAP!!!

@ Acidburn - No idea if the rear has lifted, I would have though that it would have done due to the spare, parcel shelf and seats but it'll be a few mm rather than cm.

@ EspenW - Lighter battery is not on the cards for now, I like the reassurance of a big battery although I understand your point and might look for a lighter replacement if I need a new one or do this long term.

@ Magarv - this is all your fault for posting up the shots of your car!

Overall this is a very fun test, the car is faster, sharper and still quite refined but I think that the result of quantifying the gains is that I am now going to leave the interior in and remove the seats, spare and shelf and clear the boot, door pockets and glovebox for track days as before as this represents the best weight saving with minimal inconvenience. As for the seats... need to have a think about what to do, a Recaro Pole Position is the dream but I need to see if my fat derrier fits in, the Speed is quite tight. Cage wise, I'll leave it until I know what's what with the car but I keep looking through the windows at the stripped interior and imagining the 2" tubular cross brace in there and dribbling a bit...

[EspenW]

Nice work Keep tearing that interior out!!



What kind of batteries are these? Make/Model? I would like to do this myself to save some weight...

Magnus, these are motorcycle type batteries from Biltema. The 18amp one has been fine for a year and a half. Something was wrong with the first 14amp one that I got, so they replaced it with a 14amp gel type that seems fine.
Modified the posts by cutting the posts off a old car battery, drilled a hole (vertically) and bolted the post on top of the motorcycle type post.

[Rusty]

Pole Position weighs 7.0Kg but then add slider and sidemounts, using the 14.0Kg quoted for the Speed that gives a subframe weight of 5Kg and I'd guess at about 1.5-2Kg for the steel sidemounts. So the Pole Position is 14Kg all in or 5Kg ligher than the Speed. Doesn't look like you can get the PP in Black with blue stitching like I have the Speed... not very efficient!

[WabTheKing]

front end weight reduction solution

[Rusty]

Yeah, I remember that from your V8 thread a few years ago, drastic but it'll sure shift some weight rearwards, 5-10Kg or so, shame you also add weight in the form of pipes and you also have to add a pump up front which more than likely weights about 5-10Kg once fitted