How to loose 200kgs?....

[Gareth]

Hi all,

Not from me, the car

So it seems speedway guys that are running up front are much lighter than im running, my car with me and full fuel weighs in at 1260kgs, the competition is at about 1000kgs. For those who don't know, the car is a VH commodore with an ecotec V6.
Im looking for ideas to loose weight from the car, to give an idea, here are some of the things already done -

- all body deadner gone
- all not needed floor pan and firewall brackets gone
- rad support gone
- rear floor and lower quarters gone
- bonnet and boot gutted
- all brake rotors majorly cross drilled
- ally door panels
- sle type alloy rims

Some of the jobs im working on now -

- changing all brakes to wilwood dynalite
- rear firewall replaced with ally
- small oddesey battery
- replace surge tank and pumps with singular intank pump
- fibreglass panels (i don't want to do this one...)
- electric power steering
- diff mods (ring gear and pinion are at machine shop being lightened now, diff housing has been deburred, chaging to full spool for 9 kg saving)

I understand that unsprung weight should be as light as possible and as strong as required, the rest should just be as light as possible. Im looking for other people's thoughts and experiences in this matter, im running out of ideas, sometimes the answer needs to be shown to you...

[immortality]

Does it need rear brakes, does it need the hand brake?

I'm going to assume you use a fuel cell? if not consider getting a plastic one, big enough to do the longest race you do with small reserve. Then cut out the boot floor and spare wheel well and put in alloy sheet.

Maybe the driver could loose a few Kg's as well

Auto or manual?

[Gareth]

Rear brakes are very important, required for corner entry stability

Handbrake is getting the arse with the wilwood conversion (bummer cos' its very handy in the pits)

Has fuel cell and as above there is no boot floor, has been replaced with ally but even that is going

Im not loosing weight

Its manual, getrag, lightened flywheel but standard diameter clutch

[slewinson]

Some basic tips I have seen used.

Get under the car with an angle grinder and trim each and every bolt to flush with the nut. While you are at it remove any mounting brackets that are not used.
Clean up the outside of any cast components like uprights, gearbox casing, engine block...

What size is the flywheel? What type of clutch? Can you get a lighter starter or alternator? Reduce cooling system capacity? Shorten the exhaust? Door hinges are often cast steel - are the doors welded closed but still using the hinges?

Simon

[Gareth]

Come to think of it there are heaps of bolts that could get shortened all brackets that aren't required are gone, when we built this and every other commodore for speedway, we would roll the shell on its side, thoroughly clean the underside, stich weld some weak areas and paint the underside in glossy paint so mud doesn't stick.

Gear box case has a lot of ribs, but don't they help keep the box temps in check? Have been looking at blocks, seems to be very little gains to be made there.

Flywheel is standard diameter, not sure how i'd get a smaller one to work, can't see how i could relocate the starter.

Been looking at tilton clutches in small diameter, and possibly using a flex plate but can't seem to find anybody with any experience in setting this up.

Alternator is about as good as it could be weight and output wise

There are no door hinges, the door panels are pop riveted aluminium sheet

I could move the radiator towards the engine about 6 inches, should save about a litre, could change the exhaust routing to make shorter, top ideas, keep em' coming

[Gareth]

Hmmm, what about a tefzel wiring harness, i wonder how much of a saving there is there....

[0081(2)]

Have been reading about these batterys
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SSB-12V-LH16 ... 4176a49615
A member on another forum is using it in his L67 and has reported good results, comes in at 1.7kg.

What exhaust are you running
Can you drill some material out of the in side of the door panels?
Are the windows being used? can you remove some of the gear that moves them up and down?
Im guessing the AC is gone? what about power steering?
You could drill some of the cast mounts on the motor in select places but that starts to get a bit desperate in weight saving
If you have a vs ecotec you could change the fuel rails to the vt vx vy ones but again thats stuff all weight

got some pics of the bay might give some ideas.

[slewinson]

Alloy flywheel with steel facing. Don't overlook ends of caster rods, sway bar struts, outside of brake disks, ABS teeth on hubs, lightening holes on engine mounts, outer diameter of wheel flanges.

Can also thin down the heads of bolts, use loctite or locking wire instead of locking washers, trim the outside of header flanges, replace steel spacers with alloy.

In areas like the flanges of sills or windscreen openings you could trim off some metal,and re-weld the edges.

Simon

[0081(2)]

if you have the money
http://zzperformance.com/3800/engine/zz ... ads-1.html
alloy heads.

can you change any of the pullys for alloy ones?
are the aftermarket balances lighter?

[vlad01]

what about changing the car to a VN or VP? They are 1330kg in factory form and easy get under 1 ton with the interior, deadener and trimmings removed.

That green Vp I was fixing up early in my build thread, when I scrapped it. it was a bare shell, with diff and rear axle still in, front K frame still in, 2 doors still on and climate control gear and associated AC stuff. Steering column and rack still in.


No shit, I could pick up the whole side of the car clean off the ground with my hands and roll it over, or pick up each end by hand. It was heavy but I could lift it. So the whole lot as it was maybe only 300-400kg max.

Realistically VN/VP could be set to 850kg with some work. Does the class allow those models?