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[XRoriginal]

Yo guys,

This is a bit of an odd one, but I'd like to pick your brains for obivous and easy ways to shed unnecessary weight from the car. This is probably going to be quite funny to some hardcore track purists but I'd like to keep the car comfortable for road use (hence sound deadending, seats, electrics etc. are to stay). I've put some things I've done and am thinking of below to hopefully give you guys an idea of what I mean - suggestions welcome BTW car is a mk3.5 rs1800

Removed spare wheel and carrier (can of tyre weld)
Jack and wheel brace
Removed rear speakers and wiring (have decent front components)
RS turbo bonnet (removed bonnet jacket)
removed airbox and mounting bracket (surprisingly weighty) in favour of K&N.

Next I'm thinking of removing foam from the front and rear bumpers as I have noticed these are significantly heavier than the non-rs/xr black bumpers.

My aim is to remove more weight from the front of the car as currently I think the weight distribution is far too front biased. I know this may seem silly again with my road use requirements.

Again - many of you are probably having a good laugh at this post of which I agree I can see the funny side - still if you have any obvious ideas of unnecessary weight I can shed I'd like to hear them

[wildheart]

What about poly windows,Fibreglass bonnet and boot?

[hb69]

take the back seats out, probably one of, if not the most effective weight loss measure

edit- just noticed you said you dont want to take any seats out any weight loss on the car will be minimal in this case

[xrsi]

what alloy wheels are you using? getting lighter alloys such as pro race by team dynamics can drematically reduce unsprung mass aiding hadling and turn in characteristics but also increasing acceleration by reducing the moment of inertia.

Same applies for brakes, lighter the brakes the better the unsprong mass, but if they are too small braking efficiency is rubish so its a trade off in that area unfortunatly! decent brakes are a must so you have to balance the brakes efficiency against weight.

but best option would be to remove all sound deadening and leave just the carpet over the floor, it will help a little and wont increase road noise too much. If you could then remove things like rear wipers aswell as that again is a little weight.

Apart from that there isnt much that can be done without removing seats and replacing fronts for kevlar/carbon backed bucket seats.

[edders]

fibreglass bonnet and boot would be the best options as you can pain these up and they look good. also i remember reading somewhere that someone was planning on making fibreglass doors (although id have thought it would flex too much) try googling it.

[Shreevy]

u wont b able to cut much out of the inside of the front bumper because it has metal in it alswell,
remove all the sound deading (sticky tar type) as u will be suprised how much this weighs.

[XRoriginal]

Thanks for reply peeps

I do apologise but I seemed to have completely overlooked this post.

I think I'm looking at a difficult task without
a) spending money by replacing parts with lightweight items
b) scraping away at all that sound-deadening (a right PITA to remove!)

I can't help but think that there is so much weight at the front of the car and so little at the back (now that the spare wheel/ carrier has been removed). I mean a nose heavy front wheel drive car is great for sprints but I'm assuming its going to be awful for the twisties.

Other then extreme measures (moving engine, RWD setup ) I think this is something us FWD front engine car owners have to live with

[hb69]

moving the battery to the boot can help ever so slightly with weight distribution

[frostie]

has anyone got any good tips on removing the tar in the rear boot floor?

[xrsi]

a heat gun set on low and a scraper.

then some thiners on a rag to remove all the residue.

[Medfin]

Does the car needed to be roadleagal? If not get a new lighter exhaust pipe from start to end. My 1.3 pipe did weight nearly 30kg so i made a side exhaust whit no mufflers. It comes out left side before the front wheel its like 1meter long now and less then 5kg. You can also take off you windows and replace them by a pleksi or plastic ones, like in a dragcar. Getting a new very light flyweel will have a dramatic change in acceleration and late breaking.