Hey does anyone know what it is that weighs so much on the car? If you think about lightening a little bit on the car could bring a lot of value to the overall drivability to the car. The motor would rev quicker, the car would go faster, and possibly handle a little better than it already does. I mean if anyone makes a CF hood or CF deck lid or anything does anyone know what weight can be taken off of the MCS and where it can be take from.

 

maybe the tires and rims

 

Yup! tires, rims, control arms, bonnet, back seat, new front seats, AC, perhaps some interior trim...more than that and you cannot compete in some classes, however. The paint and undercoating should be good for a couple three hundred pounds.

 

Don't know about the weight savings or the quality, but there are CF hoods and boot lids on eBay.

 

Oh yeah, you could do an acid dip.

Or maybe just lose 20 pounds, that would help

 

Guys unfortunatley I enjoy the sarcasm but I am serious. There has to be something in the car that can be lightened, and by the way I dont weigh much to begin with. Thanks though.

 

OK try this ... Do a "search" for your question and you will find a lot of answers.

From the top of my head (stuffed in there somewhere) here are a few:

1. Lose the rear seat
2. Lose the A/C
3. Lose the battery and get a lightweight braille?
4. To to 15" Comp SSR wheels are regular tires (unsprung weight)
5. Rip out the front seats and add racing seats
6. delete radio
7. CF Hood
8. Lose the wing
9. No floor mats
10. No sunroof

 

On another forum the concept of going faster by going lighter was discussed. Some ideas were carried out resulting in considerable performance improvement:

from this
Curb Weight: 2,762 lbs
1/4 Mile:16.3 @ 84.0 mph
60-foot:2.9 sec.
0-60 mph:8.6 sec.

to this:

Curb Weight:1,674 lbs
1/4 Mile:14.3 @ 93.2 mph
60-foot:2.6 sec.
0-60 mph:5.8 sec.

The approach seemed to be rather uncomplicated. I think the steps taken could be adapted to the Mini. Maybe you'd like to be the first to take this seriously and try it out. Here is the link:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=776885

Be sure to report back with progress and results. Provide some pictures too please. Can't wait to hear back on your progress.

 

Now THAT was impressive. Especially that old SAW

 

Also, going on a diet and losing a few pounds helps.

 

Yah I'd loose alot of weight right there .

Keep the gas in the tank low and empty out your washer fluid.

 

I remember attending a driving event where a fellow who had to have weighed nearly 500 pounds explained to me that he ordered his car without a sunroof to keep the center of gravity as low as possible and to reduce weight for the race track.

It was all I could do to keep from laughing my fool head off!

 

FWIW, my '03 MCS has every available option and weighed just shy of 2800 lb with a full tank of gas. By swapping wheels, tires, exhaust and removing rear seats, jack, and cargo cover, and running very little fuel, the weight dropped to 2612 lb.

 

More than a few of us here have been taking weight loss seriously for some time. My most recent drop was the Xenon washer system. When full, we're talking just about 10 pounds, and being that its' off the front, this is particularly nice. I'm down about 170 pounds from stock, and see 220 as very realistic...

 

I was serious in the order of my suggestions. But, you should check the rules first - if you are racing. If you can get creative, you can remove lots of weight off the front and add it to the back for better weight distribution while maintaining stock weight limits. Still, some classes are very specific about what can be removed.

Mine weighs a stock 2,563 lbs with a half a tank, no driver. Every 100lbs is apparently equal to a 1/10 or two to 60mph. Braking and handling fair much better, but that depends upon many other things. Good luck!

 

At a track day earlier this year I was busy pulling out my passenger and rear seats when an STI pulled up next to me. It was hot, I was sweaty (and probably showing about a yard of plumber's crack). I was wrestling with getting the passenger seat out of the door when the driver rolls down his window and shouts:

"If you'd just drop about 50 pounds you wouldn't have to put yourself through that!"

 

The lightest street driven mini I have heard about was in the low 2300 lb range.

 

You have lost more weight than TonyB , the weight expert? Impressive


although i guess alot of that is in the gas loss

 

I have been on the same maniacal quest to drop weight from the car, but I quickly learned that all of the easily-removed heavy stuff is at the rear, and these cars are not well balanced to begin with.

On the Cooper, you can drop 100lbs in 10 minutes by taking out the rear seats, spare tire, and toolkit. Of course, you just made your weight distribution 7x/2x, rather than 6x/3x.

To maintain stock weight distribution, for every pound you lose in the rear, you should try to lose 1.6 in the front. That's not easy. On the Cooper, that means a carbon bonnet (and they're only made for the S), carbon quarter panels, and a Braille battery just to balance the loss of the spare tire and toolkit.

Wilwood brakes will help you shed another 11lbs from the front, and H-Sport sway bars will cut another ~10lbs.

At this point, you're getting very diminishing returns for dollars spent. I'd rather put 50lbs of turbo-charger on the car for the 6lbs of boost than spend months trying to decide if I could live without the stereo.

 

Related to the above for sure...

Personal weight loss is a lot easier than most folks make it. Stay away from hydrogenated anything and corn syrup - that'l eliminate about 60% of what is sold at the store. Then, 30-60 minutes of aerobic exercise a day smack in the middle of your Fat burning Heart RateZone. This is determined by a stress test and maximum heart rate. For most men in their 40's this HR value is approximately 125-130bps. At higer levels of exercise, 145 and above, fat is longer a suitable energy source. I helped my 385lb boss lose nearly 200 lbs in one year; he bought a bike, took a stress test, I gave him a workout schedule and told him to avoid the dietary items above and to be sensible about other stuff - fat intake - which you need by the way.

The point? Most folks trying to lose weight work out way too hard. They end up in their lactic acid heart rate threshold or completely anerobic at times. That requires lots of carbs...complicating weight loss for those on Atkins; no carbs for fuel at these HR values, and working too hard to burn fat. No wonder people have trouble. I had all I could do to maintain 160lbs during the season and I consumed 5,000-9,000 calories a day at 46 years old. I trained and raced nearly 12,000 miles last year. But my first 8 weeks of efforts were all in the fat burning zone. Builds a very good base.

I'll help anyone who wants help...

Then, worry about the car!

 

Michael, while seemingly OT, you really are not! I have found that many who have such goals, have them in many, if not all aspects of their lives; not just with their MINI's. It's just a way of life - always trying to improve upon onself and those things in our lives...

My current driving weight is 142 pounds. The wrist watch is carbon, and the wedding band, titanium .

Oh, gasoline weighs about 6 pounds a gallon. So, a full MINI compared to an empty one, that's about 80 pounds...

 

Not to nit pick but back in the Moto X days we always used aweight of 7.7 lbs per gallon of gas. I could be wrong as it was the 80's LOL

 

I just did a search and found a few interesting articles. Looks like there's a range, depending on the type of gas, and temp. This one says 5.8-6.5:

http://www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/...gasoline.shtml

 

Maybe it was leaded gas


Yea Tony I've thought it to be around 6lbs/gallon.

 

Roughly 3500 calories = 1 lb of body weight (and therefore 1 lb of sprung weight for your car).

http://www.calorie-count.com/

Walking the dog burns 200 cal/hr. Driving the MINI probably burns some smaller amount. :smile: