I've owned this car for a little over 2 years. I intended to keep it close to stock and as nice as possible. Still trying for as nice as possible..... but it's no longer going to be stock. Motivation for this was the car doing much better than expected on the dyno and at the dragstrip. And yes, I know that to many the car will be devalued. Doesn't matter, it's not for sale and never will be. All this is going to take me a bit of time so this will be an ongoing thread. Here's what I have to start. Baseline weight, completely stock with 1/4 tank fuel- 3,199lbs ***What I'm doing for sure/currently working on***- *Replacing stock seats with Carbon 550 sport seats. (They have timing belts, how screwed am I ) Stock seats are 42lbs each with sliders, as removed. Carbon seats are 30.6lbs with sliders. Mounted them in the car and as Robb mentioned in a previous thread, you sit up a bit higher. Looking at the stock seats which are basically an inch and a half off the floor I can see why. Solution? Remove sliders and solid mount with .250 1.0 wide aluminum brackets. Save 5lbs per seat and drop them 3/4 of an inch. So, carbon seats with no sliders and alloy mounts, 25.6lbs each. Total weight savings for both seats- 32.8lbs *I had finished assembling the seats today, shampooed the carpet and floor mats and just about ready to install when I noticed a bunch of steel scaffolding under the lower dash board. I would guess for crash protection? Well since I'm already installing lightweight carbon bumpers and removing the airbags why stop there. Probably still safer than my 59 Cadillac or 68 Charger. Removed the dash and took out several rivets to remove the tubular lower dash structure and padding. When re-installing the dash I will make new lightweight/alloy lower mounts. These pieces added up to 7.2 pounds. Less than I thought when looking at it but 7lbs is 7lbs. *After I have the interior finished up I'm putting it on the lift to remove the front and rear bumpers as I have carbon replacements from Safetech composites. Not entirely sure of the weight saving yet but should be a lot. My car is a Canadian car and they were required to have heavy 5mph bumpers. Front bumper with fogs and corner lights weighed in at 60lbs. The carbon bumpers are 10lbs front 7lbs rear. I'm also going to remove the rear steel bumper support frame and rebuild out of alloy. All said and done probably save 85lbs with the bumpers and bumper support. When the bumpers are off I will probably remove the air injection system and rebuild any easily accessible steel brackets out of aluminum. *As previously mentioned, I'm removing the airbags. I bought a euro non airbag steering wheel (not in great shape so sending to be recovered) and the current plan is to build a lightweight aluminum glovebox in place of the passenger airbag. Airbag wheel- 6.8lbs Non airbag wheel (hub weight to be determined)- 2.2lbs Passenger airbag- 6.8lbs. Removing both airbags and building a glove box will probably end up at around 10lbs weight loss. Motivation here was as much aesthetic as weight reduction. (love the euro wheel). *What else? I bought some titanium wheel bolts from Freddan. Not sure the difference on those, not much. Probably will do Challenge wheels even though I'm drooling over HRE 505's. Might make carbon ceramic brake system from ZR1 components after getting a 23k quote from Movit. Will definitely do a lightweight/probably lithium battery and aluminum battery mount. Maybe 40lbs there? Thought about doing radiators but mine are perfect so will likely pass on that. Glass was a consideration but have also decided against it. Only other thing I'm currently thinking about is building a new muffler out of thin gauge stainless or titanium and doing test pipes instead of cats. Hard to take that on since I love the sound of the Capristo system but I'll probably try it. Oh, not weight related but also new motronic chips allowing 9k rpm. I think that's it for now Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Following this thread with interest If I ever buy another one (checking classifieds every other week) and find a way of registering the car post modifications (possibly in the U.K. As German TÜV is a b...ch) , this Thread will be an invaluable source You can buy carbon doors, hood and engine lid at superformance in the UK You could speak to surface transforms in the UK for a - hopefully - cheaper carbon brake solution Timate from Taiwan did a Great 360 titanium exhaust, but don't think they did a 355 version Subject to legislation, I think the cheapest and lightest exhaust solution might be the challenge no noise limit exhaust (from memory about 1k sterling at eurospares)
While I prefer a stock 355, every thing you do Jim is done well and with class. Looking forward to the finished product
What's the non-track insurance (UK) position on carbon doors? Are the SF just a skin or the whole door and frame? Would have thought you'd ditch electric glass windows and (have to) change door linings... with the doors I imagine that's a useful save and a fair amount above the CoG. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Depends on which parts...bumpers (especially on Canadian cars) and doors are relatively heavy and the best bang for your buck. The rest, like hood, fenders, rear deck lid, rocker panels... I have no idea and I don't think anyone has confirmed the weight on the stock parts for comparison but I imagine it starts getting really expensive.
A real fia plastic race seat is 7-15lbs. How often do you really have a passenger. Be intelligent about dumping weight. You want low cg and good cornerweights. Taking weigh from the wrong place can actually yield a slower car. Battery in the front corner forward of the front axle centerline is a packaging choice. Pull the liner and at least put it in the middle lowest central point. I would not use lithium anything. Google thermal runaway. Go with a traditional lead acid tractor or jetski battery they are 13lbs and with the extra few hundred bucks you can buy a nice dinner.
As long as it's salad, to keep it light! FBB did you replace the glass on yours? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Where would I remove weight that would make the car slower? They claim no fire hazard but I'm no expert- https://en.liteblox.de/frequently-asked-questions-lithium-car-battery/ https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/lithium-battery-overview.html
Li batteries are an issue period. Everyone has their head in the sand about them. They are great when they work and explosive when they don't. E-cigs, phones, samsung s7, and any number of other devices. In racecars the extra heat adds to breakdown between the insulating layers and occasional battery death. While rare racecar fires with Li batteries are known. Marketing and the green dreamers trump reality with Li. I would never have one in my racecar unless I removed it and put it somewhere else after my race weekend. If you remove weight so that you disturb your cornerweights you can disturb the handling of the car. Corner weights are adjustable within limits at the coilover spring perches but you then alter the ride height at the corner you adjust. Suspension is all about compromise. For example you can have the perfect 50/50 cross weight with or without wacky corner ride heights and with or without large mismatch in LF and RF corner weights. Just having a large LF to RF cornerweight can mess up braking stability. When I race I like late brake passing and killing the momentum of my rival. So if my choice is 49.5% cross and equal LF and RF weights vs. 50% cross and +/-50lbs at the front wheels of my 3500lbs racecar I will take the equal front cornerweights. It is also possible with bad weights to have wacky rideheights at the corners to get the cross weight right. Remember that the 355 is one of the 1st working aero cars. You mess with rideheights and you alter the aero. So that's how you can go slower.
Yes. Got 3/16" (iirc) lexan and cut it then shaped it with a heatgun. Not pretty...it was a racecar. We are required to use those aluminum supports to help hold the windshield. You don't want lexan on a streetcar because it leaks water and scratches easy. We use tearoffs on them to extend their life. This photo was in an early build stage of my 348 racecar. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I will be removing my carbon front lid in the next couple of weeks and replacing it with the oem hood. When I do, I will weigh them both and post the difference in weight.