Weight saving on a 172 Cup..?

[AdamR]

Hi guys,

My first topic Couldn't find a more appropriate section for this question/thread, but apologies if it's in the wrong place!

I got myself a 172 Cup the other day and I'm gonna try and whip out excess weight, as it will be mainly used for a toy/on the track. I figure that I could bung money towards increasing power, but dropping weight would make it faster in a straight line AND handle/brake better, plus these cars don't respond all that well to engine mods?

So far the car has all the rear removed (seats, trim, spare wheel, etc), then some front buckets with harnesses and a Momo wheel fitted. I noticed that the inertia reel belts are still in (random) so they definitely have to come out, plus the radio doesn't work anyway so I can save a few kg pulling that and the speakers out.

I'm not a complete novice when it comes to stuff like this (done similar to a Golf that I used as a track car too, but it was older so I wasn't too fussed about making a mess!), but I'm not good enough to start re-wiring looms to move electric window switches etc!

Had a good look over this thread and noticed there has been talk about 'tar':
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?437730-Chrispy-s-ITB-d-amp-Caged-182-Track-Car. I am assuming these are 2-3mm thick sheets that are used for sound deadening? My thinking is that I can pull the roof lining out and get to these, same for the door cards, etc.

I looked at polycarb windows but they are a bit more then I wanted to spend (£350 ish), plus I will possibly use the car as a daily sometimes so they might end up looking tatty fairly quickly.

I'll also be grabbing a second set of wheels/tyres for track use, any suggestions for wheels there? Ideally 2nd hand to save some pennies. Got OZ F1s on at the moment and they look pretty sweet, something similar in 15" would be good.

So, any tips for free/cheap weight saving? I'm reasonably handy with carbon fibre and fibreglass so may have a do at some bits of trim, but don't think I'm up to doing a bonnet/roof just yet! Happy to get handy with a grinder but nothing too detrimental to resale value

Cheers for any input!
Adam

 

[Adam.]

Cup doesn't have the tar patches.

 

[AdamR]

Well that's me told - n00b alert :clown: Haha. Cheers dude.

 

[MarkCup]

Aye, came without them.

Mine looks like this and along with a few things you can't see (under-bonnet sound insulation, engine undertray lining, carbon canister, power-steering) I've taken 117kgs out leaving it currently at 904kgs with about another 15kgs to come when I finally swap out the passenger seat. If you've a healthy engine to start with that'll put you close to or just over 200bhp/ton which is plenty fast enough.

Save the engine-mod money and spend it on trackdays and tuition...much better value.

 

[Damo_Sport]

Aye, came without them.

Mine looks like this and along with a few things you can't see (under-bonnet sound insulation, engine undertray lining, carbon canister, power-steering) I've taken 117kgs out leaving it currently at 904kgs with about another 15kgs to come when I finally swap out the passenger seat. If you've a healthy engine to start with that'll put you close to or just over 200bhp/ton which is plenty fast enough.

Save the engine-mod money and spend it on trackdays and tuition...much better value.

View attachment 52209

That must be a right laugh to drive

 

[AdamR]

Thanks Mark - didn't realise that amount of stripping would remove such a large amount of weight! Any ideas how much you lost by binning the power steering? What/where exactly is the canister? (Sorry!)

Yeah, definitely gonna leave the engine mods for very last (if I do anything at all), as you said 200bhp/ton is certainly healthy enough and good driving will be better all round anyway!

 

[marinemackay2003]

Light weight battery
Light rims
Light weight exhaust system

remap and tuition

 

[AdamR]

Starting to sound very much like there's not much I can do without putting my hand in my pocket...? Short of crazy stuff like cutting second skin out of boot and bonnet...

 

[Soot1e]

Take out the foglights, remove door mirror motors.
The carbon canister is under the offside wheelarch and behind the headlight, a rectangular black plastic box about 10" high. Pull out the valve fitted at the top leave the 2 wires conncted, cable tie it behind the headlamp unit, Join the 2 tubes together.

For wheels 15" Oz F1 or Ultraleggers and trackday tyres.

 

[p@blo]

Didn't you say you'll just use it for trackdays?

Presumably you won't be bothering with a cage?

 

[AdamR]

Awesome, thanks Soot1e, will have a look tonight.

Yeah, looking into a cage, they are bloody pricey! Might try a local welding place...

Thanks so far for the quick replies
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/member.php?51206-Soot1e

 

[jack_kemp]

Ultraleggeras are pretty much the lightest non-magnesium rim you can buy, but they're very expensive. Team dynamics pro race 1.2's are only ~400g a corner heavier which isn't too bad. Going 15'' is the most important thing.

The biggest things I'd be spending money on are brakes, Brembo HC disks and ferrodo ds2500 being as you're on a budget, and some suspension upgrades, sportline springs and a whiteline RARB will see you pretty good.

 

[AdamR]

Thanks Jack! I did look at the Pro Race 1.2s, pretty sweet and not toooo pricey. Hopefully I can get a package with some Yoko A048s or R888s on. Car is already on 15s with the OZ F1s and it does feel pretty 'agile'

It's already had a few other upgrades including AVO GTX coilovers (and been corner weighted), Brembo HC front discs with Carbon Lorraine pads, Ktec engine mounts, panel filter and a tyre pressure/temperature monitoring system - so pretty sure those bits are up to scratch. I did think about ARBs but I'm thinking I'll probably drive it as is for a bit, then see if I notice anything in the handling that could be improved and take it from there...

 

[Dave.]

Rear arb will be the best handling mod you do, guarantee it!

 

[jack_kemp]

Fair doos mate, seems like you're of to a good start. Try www.revolution247.co.uk for wheels, I got mine from there and they're excellent, great service and the cheapest I've found. They do 6 months interest free finance too (I veary nearly took it out on some kw's and a whiteline ARB, but I got told off by the missus :dapprove: )

 

[AdamR]

Sweet - thanks for the link, I'll check em out. RARB sounds like it would be the way to go then, cheers guys.

As for weight saving, I'm pretty much at a dead end it seems - very little else to do other than foglights, wing mirror motors, power steering and a few bits of trim?

 

[jack_kemp]

Removing the power steering frees up about 7bhp too which is nice

RARB is definitely the way to go. It's my only complaint about the handling of mine at the mo, the body roll.

 

[AdamR]

Always up for some free BHP haha

Sweet, thanks man, I will have a good look into it!

 

[franx]

^^ I just took out all seats, threw in some 6,5 kg Sparco's , exhaust oem is a heavy mother so that's gone, all the trim is still in there . Weighed at 960kg without me in it. So that's what you get when you do'nt want to strip it totally

 

[franx]

Removing the power steering frees up about 7bhp too which is nice

RARB is definitely the way to go. It's my only complaint about the handling of mine at the mo, the body roll.

Which rack did you put in to replace old one ?

 

[jack_kemp]

Which rack did you put in to replace old one ?

I haven't done it yet myself, but the dci rack is what I'll be using when I get round to it.

 

[AdamR]

That sounds pretty... involved! Don't think I'll be tackling that for a while

 

[clio_luke]

engine hoist mounts, tar sheets, fog lights, lighter wheels, non power steering rack, ss exhaust, sound insulation, unnesecary interior, steering wheel, bucket seats, smaller battery.

 

[MarkCup]

Removing the power steering frees up about 7bhp too which is nice

RARB is definitely the way to go. It's my only complaint about the handling of mine at the mo, the body roll.

Yup.

Added 10bhp/ton to mine when you also consider the weight savings of Dci manual rack vs normal PAS. Quite involved to do though.

 

[lindleyp]

theres loads of things to remove that are often over looked, im at 910kg at the moment as i still have only my bare creature comforts like front door cards in with speakers, roof lining, nearlly a full dash with radio, with these removed it would weigh around 891kg but i need my creature comforts for long journeys. My advice is take out what you can live without, and replace bits such as wheels, seats, exhaust, battery, carpets and airbags as thats where the major weight is.

 

[AdamR]

Nice one dude - had a bit of a go at it yesterday, everything is out now apart from the dash, heaters and glove box. Probably dropped around 25kg. Need to get some resistors so I can remove most of the airbag loom, it's bloody heavy! It's gonna be pretty much a track-only car so I don't mind it being noisy and rattly. There are OZ F1s on the car already so they are pretty light, but I might look into a lighter battery and exhaust since they should be an easy place to shave a few kg in one go - thanks.

Got some stuff arriving today for making carbon door cards so will post some photos if I don't make a complete mess of it haha