Alloy fuel tank/cell capacity?

Alloy fuel tank/cell capacity?

Author
Discussion

ZSStan

Original Poster:

8 posts

8 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
Looking at fuel cells for my MGZS track car and wondered what ppl generally opt for capacity wise. I appreciate some cars are thirstier than others etc. the standard tank is around 12 gallons which seems a lot to be inside the car. What is the general consensus for track days?

Cheers.

WombleCate

175 posts

17 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
Depends how seriously you take it. Many club racers will measure it by a 100ml and then panic if they have an extra formation lap.

A happy middle ground would be to have a morning's allowance in and top it up with Jerry cans at lunch.

brillomaster

1,466 posts

182 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
Well, my boxster starts the day with 13 gallons in or so... and normally need refilling about 2pm. So... 12 gallons doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

By all means go for a smaller cell, but you'll have to refuel more often.

Personally I don't really like refueling, and, given its not a race, I'd go for an endurance cell so I didn't have to refuel at lunch. Also car would get noticeably lighter towards the end of the day, which would be fun.

ZSStan

Original Poster:

8 posts

8 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Cheers for the answers guys! Perhaps maintaining a bigger tank is the answer then.

I will be swapping the engine next winter and consumption will go up so I guess a boxster drinking 12 gallons is something to consider!

brillomaster

1,466 posts

182 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
I had a z4 that averaged 13mpg when I did a trackday at spa a few years ago. Did 300 miles that day, so used 23 gallons... needed to refuel twice!

Work from there, how serious/lightweight do you want to go... ?

alicrozier

560 posts

249 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
Yeah, I'd recommend the bigger the better for trackdays. You're not realistically going to worry about the extra weight and the benefits of less refuelling far 'outweigh' any drawbacks. You don't want to be running close to empty and definitely don't risk a red flag for running out of fuel!

Hugely depends on car, level of performance, specific track and the conditions. Standard tank on my Lotus (~10gal) will only do about 14 laps at Spa on a dry track, no more than 5 at the 'Ring...been known to fill up 4 or 5 times before lunch!

Edited by alicrozier on Friday 7th February 08:41

ZSStan

Original Poster:

8 posts

8 months

Saturday 15th February
quotequote all
Cheers for the info, the car is light anyway and it’s fully stripped out so weight isnt an issue.

I’ll still with 12 gallons I think for the convenience of it all.

Thanks for the responses. 👍🏼