They can come out, just drill the spot welds. You will need to move the airbag charge to get the ones in the back drilled.

They only weigh around 3 pounds total, but if you are geting rid of all the plastic back there it really helps the apearance.

 

I plan on making fiberglass or carbon fiber panels for the rear! I removed everything related with the back seats, seat belts, bolts, brackets, etc! But I don't like the oem panels saying : hey something was there that is missing now!

 

I thought about doing the same but, I decided I like the bare metal look.
Now I am just going to make some aluminum block off panels for the large holes, and spend some (probably A LOT) of time hiding all the wiring in the factory sheetmetal, then just give the rear a shot of wrinkle finish black.

Its clean and means buisness.

 

So did anyone ever weight the carbon fiber exterior parts compared to the OEM? I'm interested in some numbers for super mileaging.

 

hood, fenders, hatch and moonroof i think was 93lbs....

 

Yes I've weighed them and I know from the top of my head I know the carbon hood is only 7lbs lighter.
The hatch had more savings, I'll have to look up those numbers.

 

alright

 

Don't know if it has been mentioned, but my understanding is that a stock R50 with Tritec engine comes in at 23 pounds per horsepower. So you essentially gain 1 hp for every 23 pound shed. That's a lot of modification for not a lot of gain IMO. But i suppose it depends from where on the car you shed it too. I imagine deleting the sunroof would have a greater effect on cornering than removing the rear seat b/c the mass of the sun roof is so high off the ground.


Also, as was mentioned a way back, don't forget about weighing yourself and thinking about losing some of that weight if you have extra.

 

by that standard you could essential gain about 1 HP from losing the spare tire assembly @ 24.6lbs.

frankly, the places you would gain the most from weight reduction are either not safe for road going vehicles or eliminate certain features a DD needs.

i'd still like to know what the weight savings are for
CF hood vs non CF hood (both the justa C/F and the S C/F hoods)
CF trunk lid vs non CF
CF fender vs non CF fender (i would guess around a pound for these)
and the big one
CF doors vs non CF doors

 

Here you go!

 

that's one, i really want to know what the doors save

 

Simpler to go on a diet to improve mpg's and performance...and even strip the interior..sound dedening etc...
The CF parts are for race/LOOKS...
Quite a few drawbacks...numerous grounding issues...virtually no crash safety, and pretty short life on a street car due to cracking/flexing....remember any CF part yhat is ...er..affordable..is actually a fiberglass cor, with a CF skin...hense the low weight savings...the add infitment issues...spend a few thousand $$, save anout 100 lbs..might be a cool look or useful item for a track car...but a higher mpg commuter....

 

good thing i don't care about my MPG

 

From my experiance with the carbon hood that I bought for my car, I will never buy another carbon product from Siebon/VIS EVER AGAIN!

The quality/fitment is TOTAL CRAP! I spent $800 on a CF template that is just going to hang on my garage wall, untill I chop it up and make some parts with it.

According to just about everyone I can find, a base '05 COOPER S weighs 2668 pounds without the driver, or options such as the sunroof. The last I had my car on the scale it weighed 2660 even. (On Bandemere's NHRA scale)

OK so stock= 2668
My car= 2660

WTF only 8 pounds differance?

I forgot to mention, when I weighed my car, I was still in it! So automaticly take off 150 lbs= 2510
My fuel tank was at 3/4 full, and I have a 3 gallon W/M tank that was filled to the top with ICE then topped off with water. I also have an AutoPower "Race" rollbar installed. (IIRC 73 lbs for the bar with all the bolts/pices.)

Still not a single CF body pannel on the car, but if a good company such as APR got into the MINI market, I would give it a try.

 

Interesting thread. Dunno about acid dipping though.

I'm at 2,522 with a quarter tank in it.

It's a base R53, cloth seats, nothing extra (no sunroof for example).

The relative lightness comes from wheels, A/C delete, light battery and such - nothing radical.

My person adds 7.5% to that number (190 lbs).

I could probably take out another 50-60 lbs by changing the front seats, but I was talked out of that by a wise person at HMS motorsport a few years ago, and no regrets.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

I remember when I weighed my car on the scales at Luke AFB it weighed in somewhere in 2200lbs....but then I added the AP 6-point and the Stoptechs....so i dunno...add maybe 150lbs to the heavy side?

 

My biggest concern with all of the typical weight savings methods i have read here is car balance.

Everyone is talking about removing weight from the rear:
-Aluminum trailing arms
-Lightweight battery
-Rear seat delete
-Carbon hatch

The only things i think hold actual value are A/C delete, Carbon hood(maybe, little pricey) and Moonroof delete(i have hardtop so not applicable). I am also interested in swapping from Xenon lighting to standard halogen... not sure the weight savings though.

I already have lightweight wheels and Milltek exhaust so i would be very interested to get on a set of scales to know exactly where the weight is... including my "large" self.

And i finished a pepsi while writing this... not a good weight loss!

 

The front of the car is the hardest to loose weight from. The R53/50/52 have a heavy iron engine block, an equaly heavy 5 or 6 speed transmision, and for s models they cary an extra 40 pounds for the supercharger and associated hardware. There really isn't much you can go without up front, thats why it seems most of what has been done to loose weight is in the back.

For the front you can:

Switch to a CF hood= -7 lbs (Not recomended because of quality)
Delete the AC system= -20 lbs (and verry hot car in the summer)
Switch to MINI Madness front controll arms= -4 lbs (un sprung weight)
lightweight flywheel= -15 lbs (on S models)
Modify your aluminum bumper= -5 lbs (questionable impact on safety)

Some brake kits are lighter than the OEM. My 13" Wilwood's are just under the weight of OEM.
Lighter wheels, weights varry but its all un sprung
Tire weight matters too.
The front seats are actually about on the centerline of the chassis, change those and you see a differance in front axle weight.
Under the pretty dash there is a big chunk of aluminum for a dash support, it can be removed with severe modification.
On race builds the airbags can come out.
And dont forget all that sound deadening and chassis sealent goo, the weight of that alone can surprise some people.

Hope that helps.

 

As this is a non-S thread, a lightweight battery would remove weight from the front.
Also remember that deleting your AC will be a problem in humid weather year-round,
as the defrost setting will not work as well.

 

cristo... i completely agree on both counts.

However

I did specify i have an R53 and was generalizing about weight reduction, to include my E36 Sedan.

With the Z32 300zx i had, i was still living in Arizona... humidity was never a concern and i list 43lbs of the nose of the car with the a/c delete. also dropped coolant temps 5 degrees in city and 14 degrees on the track.

So for a track car or double duty type situation, it may be beneficial... then again, the compressor is so small(unlike the 300zx) that it may not make enough difference.

 

A few years back I saw an aluminium roof replacement panel but can't find it now ... anyone remember this, it may have been from a guy in CO that raced Lotus as well

 

What about engineering a CF subframe for under the front-end. You might be able to lose another 15-20 lbs there. Of course it wouldn't be easy....

 

have an aluminum block built?

 

Aluminum would be cheaper and more suited for a subframe... Not sure I would trust CF to handle the lower part of my front suspension.

 

Looking at lots of $$$$$ to digitize and mill one on a CNC, not to mention the cost of a solid aluminum billet that would need to be a few feet by a few feet by another few feet....

Would be cheaper to use a ViPEC and swap motors to something lighter.