Put your car on a diet.

[boygenius]

What are some good ways to reduce the weight of our cars?
This is what I have thought of so far, Any more ideas?
1. Lexan windows
2. Fiberglass fenders
3. Fiberglass hood and decklid
4. Carbon fiber door panels, dash ect...
5. ??????

[Sandeep]

5. Alu trailing arms from 944 (if using 944 brakes)
6. Disk brakes which are lighter that the original drums
7. Remove rear seat
8. Use lightweight wheels with appropriate tires.
9. Remove front and rear torsion bars and substitute coilovers
10. Use lightweight engine components inplace of stock items
11. ???

[boygenius]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sandeep
[B]5. Alu trailing arms from 944 (if using 944 brakes)


My 944 aluminium trailing arms weigh 8 lbs more than my beetle trailing arms. Are the early traiing arms lighter than the late style?

[judgie]

drill holes in ever thing
no seriously if it's not needed take it out what is not thare don't weigh ant thing.am going with most of the above on my 03 race car.
cheers rob

[hybrid_john]

rob right if you don't need it don't keep it, including the carpeting and luxury comforts we all take for granted, but you must be willing to live with the noise cold and heat, etc. of not having everythingyou might want if its you daily driver... just do some serious p[lanning before you follow up on everything.



John

[judgie]

this is a all out race car so 2xseats&harneses roll cage{heavy but needed}steering wheel and thats about it inside.perspex windows door windows fixed doors trimed so no inners or winders,most of the front under bonnet area has been removed ie spare wheel well fuel tank support etc uesing a strut brace and some braceing.
cheers rob

[samcat]

Also it important to think about weight distribution/centre of gravity.

Lexan windows will pull the centre of gravity down a fair bit, as glass is heavy and high up in the car!

Move battery to the front of the car. I did this the other day and it make a BIG difference to the way the car felt

Cya,
Sam C

[boygenius]

Hey Samcat, You have a removable rear end right? How does that work at high speed. Does it rattle or feel like it's going to blow off around 120 mph +.

[kdanie]

Small battery like an Optima or DynaBat. Big $$ composite racing seats. Carbon fiber body parts instead of fiberglass. There are even ultra light gages from AutoMeter. If you are considering a roll cage go with chromemolly tubing, it's more expensive but stronger so the tubes can be thinner wall and smaller dia. and saves about a third or more of the weight of a mild steel cage.

Light weight, trick stuff is not cheap.
ken

[hybrid_john]

There are so many ways to lighten up a Super Beetle, it can make your head spin:silly: and chromemolly is lighter than conventional steel, I was gonna ask Alex if his roll cage was off erd in chromemolly but forgot. There i8s another way (I think), I might have seen fiberglass doors somewhere, I don't remember where exactly, but I'll look around some where and see if I can't find them....



John

[njv]

hi
bumpers are very heavy and the brackets holding them to your car so fiberglass bumpers fitted with simple aluminium brackets is good keep in mind you get different weight fiberglasses and the thick stuff can be the same as steel anyway!

ive replaced all my door panels with 1mm ally sheet should look nice when i get around to polishing it ! rear seats in a sqr are heavy as well ive made my own they are considerable lighter

did have glass front and rear bumpers till some idiot reversed into the front of my car rendering the front one totally unrepairable anybody know where i can find typ3 glass front bumpers! theres a lot to be saved simple aluminium l shaped brackets help to.

fit a typ4 engine you can then put your tool box in your garage that saves a few kilos .

take all the rubish out of your car and put it in the bin where it should be!:silly:

heat exchangers on your engine weigh a ton ! get rid and fit an eberspacher this you just take out in the spring when it warms up.

dont fit porsch seats as they are damn heavy especially with the motors 28kg!!! (im fitting them anyway as i like the look and boy are the comfortable

fit a slide back sunroof ! as viynle (sp) weighs less than steel

and lastly yet most controvertional dont fit wheels bigger than you need ! ok ok i know its not necersarily the size but the width of wheels that makes them heavy no need for 8 inch wide wheels on the back when 6 will do and weigh a lot less im in termoil at the minute with a set of pedrinis (very light sat there ) and a set of design 90s 6x16 i cant decide which to fit!!

and yes drill holes in everything

[zen]

Originally posted by samcat
Also it important to think about weight distribution/centre of gravity.

Lexan windows will pull the centre of gravity down a fair bit, as glass is heavy and high up in the car!

Move battery to the front of the car. I did this the other day and it make a BIG difference to the way the car felt

Cya,
Sam C

so how did you choose to mount it? pics?

[boygenius]

Originally posted by hybrid_john
There are so many ways to lighten up a Super Beetle, it can make your head spin:silly: and chromemolly is lighter than conventional steel, I was gonna ask Alex if his roll cage was off erd in chromemolly but forgot. There i8s another way (I think), I might have seen fiberglass doors somewhere, I don't remember where exactly, but I'll look around some where and see if I can't find them....



John

I think www.creativecarcraft.com has the fiberglass doors.


SORRY. www.markvfiberglass.com has the doors for $197.50 each.

[hybrid_john]

I new it was somewhere simple just couldn't think of it then...so what do you think... yay or nay?

Personal opinion, fiberglass doors aren't safe at all. I wouldn't if it's a daily driver!

John

[boygenius]

They are not for the street. there is no place for window regulator harware or a window. If you want windows you have to bolt them in. They are supposed to weigh 11 lbs. I will weigh my stock doors tomorrow to see what the real weight savings are. just out of curiosity I will weigh my chassis tommorrow and maybe my body if I get brave. Maybe we can turn this post into a technical referance artical for real world weight savings.