Worth putting 1.2 clio on a diet?

[Jamesstone]

Been talking to a few friends about removing the back seats ect from my 1.2 8v mk2 ph1 clio to get a better take off & more responsive feel to my little go-kart.. i've had mixed feed bk, people who have done it say you can really feel the diffrence & others have said the opposite so just wondering what u lots views are on this? as insurance is gonna cost far to much for me on a 172 i'm gonna have to make the most of it for a year & a half till i turn 21 so since i don't use the bk seats i'm very tempted to do it.. how much weight would be shiffted if i removed the back seats & changed the front seats for bucket seats?

Thanks,
James

 

[nozza89]

ive been considering doing that as insurance wont let me get a bigger engine, would also be intrested in the feedback!

 

[edde]

Back seats alone isn't a huge saving if your going to do it do the works the whole back and strip the car.

 

[Jonaldinho]

Agree with Edde

Just do it, theres a small difference.

Take the spare wheel out as well.

 

[Jamesstone]

I took the back seat base out on the weekend to give the seats a clean & see what had lived under there for the last 8 years.. lets just say it wasn't pretty.. bk to the point, surely swithing the front seats over for basic buckets would dump a bit of weight as you no longer have the mechanism inside the seats + removing the rears as well as spare wheel ect, you can feel the diffrence one you get 1 more person in the car so in theory removing all the gear should make for a nice improvment?

 

[DeanJ]

my Clio 1.2 98 MK2 PH1 has had it's rear seats removed/spare wheel etc running standard front seats on -60mm springs.

The only major diffrence I have noticed is the noise from the road and my exhaust increased at least 2 fold to the point of giving me headaches on journey's over 30minutes.

I also get very bad understeer and negative camber along with tramlining sometimes.

I'm running on 17's 205/35/R17 I noticed no major improvement's in performance and I see approx 115mph MAX (although clocks in mk1 ph1 are inacurate). I think i seen approx 105-110mph before hand. Although the 115mph I saw was down a rather large hill prior to the Angel of the North.

And let me tell you it has been a real annoyance only having 2 seat's.

Btw @ 20 with 1yrs NCB & 3points on my liscence insurance after a 172 conversion with Elephant.co.uk would see me paying around £1050 for 10month's insurance (Elephant NCB booster scheme)

Hope this helps
Regards Dean

EDIT: removing the back seats/rear spare wheel/sub/computer seen my suspension rise approx 15mm, I have asked elephant.co.uk if they can supply me an elephant to sit in my boot to lower my suspension but unfortunately they were dispositioned to acquest to my request so I am making do with a fat man in the boot.

 

[Martin_172]

i removed back seats, rear door cards, spare wheel, toolkit, all plastics and carpet from the boot/back and mine was a good bit quicker at getting going, didnt feel much different when it was rolling (only louder lol) but nailing it out junctions etc there was a big difference.

 

[Jamesstone]

Thanks for your input.. same as when i talked to a few m8s, half say good & the others say its not worth it.. not sure what to do..

 

[Mike_182]

You drive a 1.2. Get over that fact, and enjoy it for what it is - the stepping stone towards getting a fast car...

 

[DeanJ]

Make the best of what you have got...

 

[robbie17]

Do it and if you dont like it you can always replace everything you have taken out, just be careful and store it all.