Rear wiper delete including motor asembly.....about 4 lbs.

One Ball Mod............................................abo ut 25 lbs.

Enkei Perf Rims( any lighter will do)..............about 15-18 lbs total ?

Friend of mine replaced his OEM Size battery with one
1/2 the size.............................................. ....about 15 lbs ?

And these mods do not effect creature comforts and passenger capacity either.................

 

Think you may be in the wrong forum.

 

I did light wheels and my car has no sunroof, everyone thinks the car is a freak. I think its just light.

 

I searched "weight reduction" and this thread seemed to be the most relevant. I can't believe saving weight is that different between S/non-S or Clubman (even though the weights are)- if that's what your referring to.

 

Thats my bad, I was not paying attention and I though gray raven was the first to post.

Anyway my R56 with no options, no rear seats and lighter wheels weighed in at 2500lbs dry.

 

Well lets see what can you do to lighten up a Mini Cooper. To begin with if you are looking for track light you can remove everything on the interior. But if you are looking for street and every once in awhile tacking it to the track you can do cf boot, bonnet, doors, and fenders (maybe looking at about 150lbs total). You can get a smaller battery. Remove backseats and passenger seat. Floor mats and stuff in the glove compartment. With all of that together your looking at maybe 200lbs(this includes entire lit of things) I can't really see where you would really lose much more weight with out sacrificing comfort. With the Mini it is all about hp/lbs. If you could drop 200 to 300lbs and add about 200hp you would have one serious car. Also don't forget that most aftermarket parts are lighter then the stock ones so that helps you case too.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I didn't want to start a new one when this already has some pretty goo info in it.

How much weight would some 2 piece lightweight (front and rear) rotors take off? Saying the fronts are 12" and the rears are 11" (I'm guessing all CS' have that size).

I'm guessing a really good set of 2 piece rotors would take off somewhere around 20-30 lbs. Any ideas?

 

I am not sure you want rotors that are too lightweight. You need some mass to dissipate heat and mass also helps reduce warping. A little reduction is fine especially with aluminum hats versus the rotors themselves.

However, reducing the unsprung weight will help and this includes Wheels and tires and suspension.

 

I understand the science behind it, that's not what I'm asking. I come from a performance background and the Subaru community (2009 STI). So our rotors (and everything else) are bigger, our cars are heavier and weight reductions are bigger. It's hard to compare that data to a Mini, this is why I'm asking.

I'm asking in compared to the stock rotors, how much weight would lightweight rotors take off? A good set of lightweight rotors, non-drilled types. I'm actually looking for weight numbers so I can compile a list of stuff I can do to make a Countryman All4 "lightweight".

I understand it will never be as light as any other Mini, but it will be my DD. I'd just like to make it as light as I can as my DD then add as much power as I can, while trying to not to go to extreme.

My STI kills me in gas, mostly with these gas prices going up. Besides, I want to switch to E85 (moar powa ) and there is only 1 station somewhat local... I'd hate to have to drive all the way there every few days just to fill up.

 

Also, not sure how different the seats are in the 2011 Mini's (probably not at all), but my question is how much do the stock seats weigh? Along with the stock mounting brackets connected to them.

 

I lost the weight where it counts. 8 lbs lighter clutch and flywheel. 7.5 lbs lighter wheels (30 lbs total). This weight loss is all rotating mass. That's where it really counts. Reduce the drive train power loss.

 

I know that's a good place to loose weight. I want to lose more than that.

I want to drop weight from a few different areas of the car. Plan is:
- Aluminum exhaust
- Lightweight battery (not sure how heavy stock is)
- Clutch
- Flywheel
- Lightweight reclineable "racing" seats (Recaro, bride, etc- tasteful and comfortable seats) (front)
- 2 piece lightweight rotor
- Lightweight "racing" wheels (18")
- Aluminum drive shaft (not sure if that will ever be out, I have a CF one for my STI)

That's a start. I'm sure there are more areas that I can't think of right now. They need to make a CF roof and hood for the CM.

That's the kind of lightweight I'm talking about. But I just don't know what's available for the R56 (might give me an idea of what WILL be available for the CM). I'm searched a bit, but haven't really found much.

 

From the other threads I realized all this dieting is for a countryman!

How about you start with something skinny and buy a Lotus Elise or Exige.

 

Here's the kind of weight saving components you can have, for the 2nd gen R55,R56 and R57 if you've got the $$$

Carbon ceramic discs/pads

Aluminum calipers to suit above ^^^

Complete Carbon fibre wheels or Carbon fibre with Magnalium centres

Titanium flywheel/clutch assembly

Titanium crankshaft

Titanium connecting rods

Titanium inlet/exhaust valves

Titanium exhaust system

Titanium rear suspension links (lower and upper)

Titanium drop links (front and rear)

Carbon fibre cased batteries (very light)

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe there are Carbon fibre hoods, doors and rear hatch.

 

Ummmm... you know aluminum is lighter than titanium right?

 

Yes Titanium is denser therefore heavier than Aluminum, however Titanium is twice as strong as Aluminum, and when producing components, Titanium has the advantage of strength and weight!

 

This is true, but for some of those parts aluminum would be plenty strong.

 

In the case for my project, I used Titanium were strength and weight are critical, (to me) and Aluminum in less critical areas.

 

Well a lotus starts at 45k.... quite a bit more. I have my fast car, this is going to be a daily driver, but i stll want it to perform well if I'm driving it

 

If carbonetics have a clutch for this car, then I'd get that one. It's very light and very strong; most likely not priced as high as a Ti clutch.

 

[QUOTE=
With that said, absolutely nothing comes remotely close to the gains from losing all the extra bodyweight![/QUOTE]


i'm 5'7'' and weigh 145....

 

Same here, not weight wise, but basically zero body fat to be lost without being in an unhealthy zone.

people always throw the "lose some weight" in all these threads. I think it's better people like that just stay out... or lose some weight themselves. And the thread is about vehicle weight-loss, not the person.

Back on topic...

I plan on getting a Countryman ALL4 next year; hopefully they will have the JCW out by then. AWD system is going to be a bit better, for my personal taste. Hopefully they can lighten the car up too!

My goal (if it's 3200 lbs from the factor) is to get down to 3k. nothing too crazy, but it will make the car a whole other animal and 200 lbs is totally possibly (I've dropped 350 lbs off my M3 as a street car).

Drop 200 lbs, try to get close to 300 WHP as a DD... and the car will be able to hang with cars in the same price range... finally. That puts it at about a 10 lbs per WHP ratio (at 300 WHP).

A tuned STI (sitting at 3300 lbs) would have to have 330 WHP to have the same power to weight ratio. A STI would have to be running E85 or do a turbo sway to get to 330 WHP... Unfortunately, for the Countryman, the EVOs turbo is bigger, so 330 WHP is easily attainable with basic bolt-ons and a tune.

Really, the main thing luring me towards the Countryman is the size and the fact that it is pretty wide... it can fit people comfortably, fold down the seats and it will have almost as much room as the STI hatch has. But it's shorter... I don't want a long AWD vehicle. STI was fun, but damn... it was long. Swinging out the back end on a tight snowy or gravel road worried me sometimes... but I still did it :D With the Countryman, it will have a similar feel, should lack the massive understeer STIs have stock and being a foot shorter... will be more fun. Main focus is getting that power... I used to bigger numbers and I'd like to at least keep a nice power to weight ratio going.

 

300whp is optimistic but dumping 200lbs out of it should be obtainable.

 

With a bigger turbo, maybe better pistons and rods... I'd say very possible. If it's putting down 210 WHP completely stock, with only an ECU remap and on a mustang dyno (dynojet would probably show about , I think there is plenty of potential.

Maybe the intake spot is bad for more potential... it will need some good, fresh, cold air. Maybe some sort of rotated setup, with the intake at the front of the engine, to pull in cooler air right from the front of the car. That seems ideal, to me. Headers might need some tweaking too, equal length is ideal, if they aren't already.

2-3 years ago people thought 400 WHP on the STIs stock internals wasn't even possible... now it's very easily attainable with the right bolt-ons and turbo.

I know there are 300 WHP minis running around. We just need to find the right tuners and setup for this engine. Might even drop a few pounds up front from making the setup better...

I'd say it would need the following:
1) Bigger turbo, GT2860R
2) Injectors
3) Equal length headers
4) Rotated setup (face intake side of turbo to the left of the car facing it)
5) Custom cold air intake; face front of car
6) Custom Down pipe to fit on lower/side of the engine
7) EWG
8) 3" exhaust to dual 2.25" or 2.5" exit.
9) Tune
9.5) Tune with E85 for MAX power out of the setup.

 

Thought I might through my stats out there too for my 2004 R50 (no sunroof):

Car has aftermarket intake, headers, exhaust, lightweight braille 6lb battery, and lightweight wheels.

My competition weight (with spare tire taken out and only 2-3 gallons of gas) is 2,341 lbs.

Going to do lightweight rotors and maybe racing seats. I would really love to see my car at 2,299lbs