Lightweight track car

[Jim78]

🤣

Yer it looks heavy

 

[Martin.]

If you're going to strip it all out anyway, then either get a cheap car and sort it yourself how you want it, or buy the best mechanically maintained car and get stripping the insides. It won't make any real difference to the end result whether you get a 172 cup, a normal 172 or a 182. There's no point paying a premium for a minter if you're going to tear it to shreds obviously.

If you dont want ABS or TC then the cup is probably the best base. But you can easily remove these on a 172/182 if you wanted anyway. Same with all the other bits. If you really wanted to be picky you could even fit the thinner glass windows and smaller windscreen wash bottle from a cup onto a 172/182, but you're talking grams here!

Basically the shells are the same when you strip it all back (well apart from a flat floot in the 182 and a spare wheel well in the 172s). So it depends how far you want to go with it all. If you're happy to remove sound deadening and every single thing you can anyway then it doesn't matter what car you start with.

I got my 182 down to around 930kg, without cutting any metal out of it. That was with a rear cage and half a tank of juice. With around 205 BHP it was a serious track tool. Thousands of photos and many videos on my build thread. Still have the car 8 years later!

 

[Cub.]

Regarding the ABS, is it still going to be road legal / MOT’d?

If so, i’d 100 per cent get a cup. I ripped the ABS out of the flamer and swapped to a cup setup. Doing the work was fine, getting the car through MOT’s due to the brake bias / low braking on these cars at the rear was a right ball ache.

VOSA issued a MOT note that I have somewhere that excludes cup chassis numbers from needing to meet the braking requirements on the rear of the car because that’s how they came out of the manufacturer. A lot of MOT testers would only accept that note if the chassis numbers matched, so non-cup cars have a problem.

That becomes even more prevalent if you strip a lot of weight out of it. Without that, you just fail all the MOT’s.

 

[imprezaworks]

gloves

 

[MarkCup]

Racecar

 

[Jim78]

Regarding the ABS, is it still going to be road legal / MOT’d?

If so, i’d 100 per cent get a cup. I ripped the ABS out of the flamer and swapped to a cup setup. Doing the work was fine, getting the car through MOT’s due to the brake bias / low braking on these cars at the rear was a right ball ache.

VOSA issued a MOT note that I have somewhere that excludes cup chassis numbers from needing to meet the braking requirements on the rear of the car because that’s how they came out of the manufacturer. A lot of MOT testers would only accept that note if the chassis numbers matched, so non-cup cars have a problem.

That becomes even more prevalent if you strip a lot of weight out of it. Without that, you just fail all the MOT’s.

Good to know thanks . Why would you want to disconnect the abs ? Is the system very intrusive ? Or is there some mad weight saving?

 

[Cub.]

Good to know thanks . Why would you want to disconnect the abs ? Is the system very intrusive ? Or is there some mad weight saving?

After a few “hard sessions” on track, mine basically failed and we couldn’t find where the fault was. With the light on the dash it would fail it’s MOT and so instead of chasing the fault and throwing money fixing a system I didn’t want, I just ripped the whole lot out and put a cup set up in 😂

 

[Jim78]

After a few “hard sessions” on track, mine basically failed and we couldn’t find where the fault was. With the light on the dash it would fail it’s MOT and so instead of chasing the fault and throwing money fixing a system I didn’t want, I just ripped the whole lot out and put a cup set up in 😂

Ok thanks . It's not something I need to do straight away then 👍

 

[alistairolsen]

Side airbags in the front seats, don't forget them, the rest of the weight saving is covered above.

Glass, wheels, sound deadening (my cup had zero stuck anywhere), simple rear bench and so on.

I took mine down to the bare metal inside, replaced the driver's seat with a lightweight bucket, removed the rears, headlining, no door cards, no interior trim anywhere, the only original thing that remained inside was the passenger seat and the dashboard. I also removed the carbon canister and power steering.

As is my way, I weighed EVERYTHING I removed and in the case of the drivers seat, the difference between the two.

That lot removed came to 117kgs so in theory my Cup ended up at 904kgs and with no power steering made a consistent 180bhp.

It sat a little high on the standard springs but otherwise, with proper brakes and sticky tyres, was an absolute weapon on track.

What was the difference in the seat weights @MarkCup ?

 

[Kev@KAM]

Dont focus too much on weight initially. You can be one of the fastest Clio's on track with some good brakes and suspension and driving it properly.
I would get a 172 cup if I was getting a standard car just for track. Things like a single exhaust and the lighter glass, lack of abs etc will all help a little
Get good basic components and a good bucket seat that can support your thighs through the corners and you will be having a lot of fun
Then pay the cost of a limited slip diff.
I happily run a Trophy on track and I dont think weight is its main achilles heel. Traction out of corners is.

 

[MarkCup]

What was the difference in the seat weights @MarkCup ?

IIRC it was 27kgs for the original seat + mount vs 12 or 15kgs for the fixed bucket.