Ways of making the 172/182 lighter

[xSmithyx]

Hi all i have a 172 and want to make the car lighter.

I have all ready done the following,
removed spare wheel and tool kit,
Removed rear speakers,
removed all the unnecessary plastic from under the bonnet,
Also fitted light weight rims

Is there anything else i am missing that will not effect the comfort/useability of the car ie i do not want to removed seats ect

 

[Gandi69]

How much do you want to get it down to and spend doing it? Basic lightening costs nothing until you reach a point. Think plexiglass windows, no dash, one seat lightweight seat, CF or Fibreglass bonnets/doors/tailgates I guess

 

[JackJack]

Is there anything else i am missing that will not effect the comfort/useability of the car ie i do not want to removed seats ect

Not really no

 

[p@blo]

Fibreglass boot, doors, bonnet, poly windows, interior into skip?

Out of curiosity, how come you're wanting to make it lighter?

 

[xSmithyx]

Fibreglass boot, doors, bonnet, poly windows, interior into skip?

Out of curiosity, how come you're wanting to make it lighter?

Just as one of the cars strengths is the lightness from the factory so i might as well play up to this fact and make it even lighter if possible

 

[hilldawg172]

interior out carpets door cards roof lining etc, exhaust system(standard ones way a s**t load). Dont fill the tank on petrol stops lol! i can notice a fair difference from quarter tank to full

 

[xSmithyx]

interior out carpets door cards roof lining etc, exhaust system(standard ones way a s**t load). Dont fill the tank on petrol stops lol! i can notice a fair difference from quarter tank to full

yea all ready do that will the fuel thing no more than 15-20L's at a time

 

[MartinR]

Seats weigh loads strip them all out and put 1 recaro or the like in

 

[hilldawg172]

If your wanting to keep interior in could always buy some cup seats. The rear bench is particularly light. Fuel rail guard can go to thats a kg or 2(two 13mm bolts and its out, personally think the engine bays look nicer without them as well) The list goes on dependant on how much your willing to lose. Stuff like cutting away the bonnet and door strengthening bars there is 7 - 9kg you can lose there, Air con removal that also frees up a few ponnies. Ive personally fully stripped the car out apart from the dashboard. With enough dedication i believe you could see high 800kgs. As i said it just depends how far you wanna go, i found losing weight on a car is very similar to losing it yourself can be addictive lol, not to mention free most of the time lol.

 

[hilldawg172]

Seats weigh loads strip them all out and put 1 recaro or the like in

I weighed my cup seats when i swapped them for buckets and the drivers was 25kg and passengers 21kg iirc. The seats that went in were 11kg each with subframes and mounts.

 

[xSmithyx]

If your wanting to keep interior in could always buy some cup seats. The rear bench is particularly light. Fuel rail guard can go to thats a kg or 2(two 13mm bolts and its out, personally think the engine bays look nicer without them as well) The list goes on dependant on how much your willing to lose. Stuff like cutting away the bonnet and door strengthening bars there is 7 - 9kg you can lose there, Air con removal that also frees up a few ponnies. Ive personally fully stripped the car out apart from the dashboard. With enough dedication i believe you could see high 800kgs. As i said it just depends how far you wanna go, i found losing weight on a car is very similar to losing it yourself can be addictive lol, not to mention free most of the time lol.

lol yea i will look at the fuel rail gard also the bars for the doors are they a 1 man at home type job or garage?
also i want to keep the inside of the car looking like a car lol

 

[JackJack]

I wouldn't be removing too much strengthening (particularly door bars) without installing a cage.

 

[is1]

Wheels? Find the lightest set of wheels you can.
OZ Superleggeras are light, 3kg per corner lighter x 4 = 12kg (x4 rotational mass and all that and you have a total saving of almost 50 kilos!).
I probably wouldn't remove the fuel rail guard.

 

[Dave Hester]

Sound deadening under the carpet weighs a ton!!!

 

[Ryanj]

as said, fiberglass/carbon fiber bonnet, doors, boot lid, polycarbonate windows. iirc toastfrenzy on here just bought a fiberglass bonnet and boot lid for his racecar from HRracing (member on here) at 100 quid each which is a bargain! when painted up, they look no different either so thats a good way. i belive he also does fiberglass doors but they are about 250 each

 

[Brett]

I'd just leave it as it is. If you start removing much more you will just ruin it as a road car, and it won't be significantly faster.

 

[jesus]

I'd just leave it as it is. If you start removing much more you will just ruin it as a road car, and it won't be significantly faster.

This - you'll not notice it.

 

[xSmithyx]

yea i want to keep it like a road car, but where did you get the fiberglass bonnet and boot lid from?

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

What you've done is f**k all.

Either do it properly, like strip everything! Or just leave it standard.

 

[xSmithyx]

What you've done is f**k all.

Either do it properly, like strip everything! Or just leave it standard.

Not really in the words of Tesco "Every little helps"

 

[p@blo]

yea i want to keep it like a road car, but where did you get the fiberglass bonnet and boot lid from?

Here

PM HrRacing as he may still have some too.

 

[Bobby.]

Fuel rail guard - weighs fcuk all so I wouldn't just in case u have a front end crash.

Sound deadening - yea it does way a lot but if you remove that your going to here all the stones flicking up etc. Not nice for a daily.

Strength bars/plates in door, bonnet etc. - like jack said you don't want to remove really with out a decent cage in.

Cup seats and bench - iirc its exactly the same as non cup stuff just with different covers so they weigh pretty much the same.

You could remove the carbon canister, recirculating valve, weight under engine mount. these will loose a few kg's

Another thing you could do is fit a cup brake system so you loose the abs unit

And if you never use aircon. Fit a kit to delete that too.

 

[Chip-mk1]

What you've done is f**k all.

Either do it properly, like strip everything! Or just leave it standard.

^^ This

 

[olihodgson]

No point removing rear speakers, they're so light you could add that weight again eating a big lunch!!

Why would anybody remove the fuel rail guard out of choice?! What happens if someone smashes straight into you?!

And you'll love having no toolkit when something simple goes wrong and you need to call someone out!!

Without sounding rude, I don't think what you've done will make too much difference, compared to the difference it makes to using the car everyday if you know what I mean?

 

[xSmithyx]

No point removing rear speakers, they're so light you could add that weight again eating a big lunch!!

Why would anybody remove the fuel rail guard out of choice?! What happens if someone smashes straight into you?!

And you'll love having no toolkit when something simple goes wrong and you need to call someone out!!

Without sounding rude, I don't think what you've done will make too much difference, compared to the difference it makes to using the car everyday if you know what I mean?

yea i will not be removing the fuel rail guard.

 

[xSmithyx]

Fuel rail guard - weighs fcuk all so I wouldn't just in case u have a front end crash.

Sound deadening - yea it does way a lot but if you remove that your going to here all the stones flicking up etc. Not nice for a daily.

Strength bars/plates in door, bonnet etc. - like jack said you don't want to remove really with out a decent cage in.

Cup seats and bench - iirc its exactly the same as non cup stuff just with different covers so they weigh pretty much the same.

You could remove the carbon canister, recirculating valve, weight under engine mount. these will loose a few kg's

Another thing you could do is fit a cup brake system so you loose the abs unit

And if you never use aircon. Fit a kit to delete that too.

where is the carbon canister, recirculating valve

 

[Bobby.]

where is the carbon canister, recirculating valve

both in the engine bay. carbon canister is behind the drivers wheel arch liner and the valve is behind the passanger wheel arch liner.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Not really in the words of Tesco "Every little helps"

One if the surprising heavy items inside is the carpets. You taking those out?

 

[xSmithyx]

One if the surprising heavy items inside is the carpets. You taking those out?

no going to try and keep the car looking like a road car on the inside was just seeing if there are any unnesacery item that i could remove

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

I really wouldn't bother. You can't keep it looking standard AND have a worthwhile weight loss.

 

[Bobby.]

Removing front fogs and arch linners is another one I've done as its a kg maybe plus it helps cool the brakes and tyres on track days.

Their quite abit of plastic under the bumpers that can come out too but i personally Would leave it in though just incase I had a crash.

 

[hillclimb_clio]

I'm in the same situation, want to strip some weight from my 172 Cup for hillclimbing but due to Regs it has to retain most of the interior. Planning to swap the battery for a Gel type & replace the seats when funds allow - good to read above that this could save 20-25kg alone! A fellow hillclimber removed the carpets & underlay from his MG ZR & reckoned they weighed approx 25kg! Probably not such a great saving in the 172 Cup but its free so every little helps! Also planning on removing the head unit & speakers if they're easy enough to remove.
Are the CF bonnets much lighter, I thought the originals were alu anyway?

 

[Bobby.]

Yeah cf bonnets are alot lighter than standard. Only the phase 1's had a optional aluminium bonnet.