Weight saving measures Evo VI track car?

[JT71]

I'm embarking on a project to turn my newly purchased Evo VI into a track only car. As well as the obvious brake and suspension upgrades (it's already running about 360bhp), I'm looking to lighten it considerably.

Has anyone got any experience of doing this in a similar car and have any idea of what kind of weight savings I can expect? And also the kind of things I can do that would be relatively quick wins in this regard?

I'd like to keep the cost down to a min, so sticking to reducing bits rather than spending £1000's on replacing panels etc.

[mrmr96]

Firstly, if you're not already on the MLR (www.lancerregister.com) then get over there for more evo knowlege than you can realistically shake a stick at.

Seccondly, it's all the usual stuff which is free :-)
- Rear seats
- Boot lining
- Door cards
- Carpet
- Sound deadening
- Spare wheel etc
- Glove box/cubby holes
- Centre console (not dash though usually)
- You can also remove the roof liner, the A/B/C pillar trims etc
- Aircon system

But then you really need to start replacing things, whih costs money :-(
- CF bonnet
- CF boot
- CF doors
- Lexan windows
- CF rear spolier
- CF front wings
- Lighter seats in the front
- Lighter alloys
- CF roof

Hope that helps.
PS - if you're really really serious then consider getting a cage and harnesses. You can lost the OEM seatbelts then too.

[sniff diesel]

For a simialar sized 4 door saloon I've managed to get my M3 track car down to 1200kgs from 1450kgs originally. That includes 45kgs of roll cage. Had to be pretty extreme to shed 1/4 a tonne though as you can see in the build thread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[mat205125]

sniff diesel said:

For a simialar sized 4 door saloon I've managed to get my M3 track car down to 1200kgs from 1450kgs originally.

The M3 is loaded with lots and lots of heavy sound deadening, chairs, carpets etc etc etc.

The EVO 6, on the other hand, is already relatively light, and the standard interior pieces are not excessively heavy for a modern car.

The potential improvement / saving for the above two cars in nothing like the same, and therefore the overall percentage saving for the Evo is far lower.

Unless you are planning to go the whole hog and make the Evo a full on race or rally car with a cage, and compete in it I wouldn't wreck the value of the car by going half way .... As a road car that can be used for the odd track day the car is worth money. As a full race / rally car that can wear a numberplate the car is worth money. As a car that isn't suitable for regular use on the road, and lacks the full performance / safety kit for racing and rallying, the car is effectively worthless.

[Lefty Two Drams]

mat205125 said:

sniff diesel said:

For a simialar sized 4 door saloon I've managed to get my M3 track car down to 1200kgs from 1450kgs originally.

The M3 is loaded with lots and lots of heavy sound deadening, chairs, carpets etc etc etc.

The EVO 6, on the other hand, is already relatively light, and the standard interior pieces are not excessively heavy for a modern car.

The potential improvement / saving for the above two cars in nothing like the same, and therefore the overall percentage saving for the Evo is far lower.

Unless you are planning to go the whole hog and make the Evo a full on race or rally car with a cage, and compete in it I wouldn't wreck the value of the car by going half way .... As a road car that can be used for the odd track day the car is worth money. As a full race / rally car that can wear a numberplate the car is worth money. As a car that isn't suitable for regular use on the road, and lacks the full performance / safety kit for racing and rallying, the car is effectively worthless.

I'll give him a grand for it... Only to help out a fellow PH'er of course.

[mat205125]

£1100

[sniff diesel]

mat205125 said:

sniff diesel said:

For a simialar sized 4 door saloon I've managed to get my M3 track car down to 1200kgs from 1450kgs originally.

The M3 is loaded with lots and lots of heavy sound deadening, chairs, carpets etc etc etc.

The EVO 6, on the other hand, is already relatively light, and the standard interior pieces are not excessively heavy for a modern car.

The potential improvement / saving for the above two cars in nothing like the same, and therefore the overall percentage saving for the Evo is far lower.

Unless you are planning to go the whole hog and make the Evo a full on race or rally car with a cage, and compete in it I wouldn't wreck the value of the car by going half way .... As a road car that can be used for the odd track day the car is worth money. As a full race / rally car that can wear a numberplate the car is worth money. As a car that isn't suitable for regular use on the road, and lacks the full performance / safety kit for racing and rallying, the car is effectively worthless.

Good points, I remember a guy at work being dissapointed in how little weight a carbon bonnet saved over the original alloy one.

[JT71]

Some useful points raised and its really made me think twice about doing anything too radical. The initial idea was to do the full works, strip it out, add a cage etc but I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm actually going to save enough weight to make it worthwhile.

Has anyone got any definitive figures on what weight savings you could get out of an evoVI without replacing panels, I think if I could strip out at least 100 kg its worth the effort, otherwise not. The M3 guys seem to have made some worthwhile savings - are we saying that its negligable what you could save on an evo? I don't mind spending a few hundred quid on plexiglass etc but draw the line at cf bonnet and panels.

Thanks.

[WildCards]

Fibre Glass body panels can be a fraction of the cost of proper CF but still with good weight savings. This could be an avenue to look down.

[JT71]

I'll look into it, thanks. Managed to find a full set of flexiglass windows for 250 on a recommendation from the MLR site last night, that's gotta save 30 kg on glass and electric windows alone?

[sniff diesel]

JT71 said:

I'll look into it, thanks. Managed to find a full set of flexiglass windows for 250 on a recommendation from the MLR site last night, that's gotta save 30 kg on glass and electric windows alone?

Doing the rear screen and side windows in 3mm polycarb, and junking all the electric motors and trim I saved just under 20kgs in my E36.

[JT71]

Is it easy to fit yourself?

[dr_rallye]

I think you need to be thinking of percentage weight losses rather than actual figures like 250kg. It's all relative to the initial cars weight. I would agree with the comments above in that is is definitely easier to save weight off premier brands associated with luxury rather than with things either at the cheaper end of the spectrum or with performance orientated cars.

As an example of what might be achievable, I have a 106 S2 Rallye which weighs in at a quoted 865kg. It's had a 16v engine conversion which adds roughly 25kg. So that's a rough 890kg starting point. The car is now stripped out and with a full 12 point cage and bucket seats and with a few intelligent part changes I have saved c. 65kg dry weight, getting it down to around a theoretical 825kg. This is a 7.3% weight saving. Sub 800 is doable, but from now on it'll get very expensive in terms of lighter body panels etc and you have to wonder if it's worth it when you could be upping the power

Other things to look at that can give you cheap weight savings:

Loom strippage - cut out any electrics you don't need. Don't underestimate the weight of all that cabling. There's generally a few kgs to be saved.

Wiper motors - you may think single wiper conversions look gay, but they'll save some weight and your really don't need a rear one.

Screen washer bottle - could be up to 10 litres (kg) of water to be lost there and replaced with either a rear screen washer unit mounted in its place or a fully custom setup with a kit car unit stowed away.

Driving lights - do you REALLY need them?

Edited by dr_rallye on Friday 26th March 12:15

[mat205125]

sniff diesel said:

Good points, I remember a guy at work being dissapointed in how little weight a carbon bonnet saved over the original alloy one.

I swapped a high quality CF bonnet onto a friends Evo 5, replacing the aluminium bonnet, and noted that I couldn't feel much (if any) saving between the two. We didn't have any scales available, unfortunately, however unless you are going for flappy single skin race bodywork, the savings are really not worth the expenditure for a trackday car.

IMO, of course.

[mat205125]

JT71 said:

Is it easy to fit yourself?

With plenty of patience, and time then it is. Not special tools are required, however there will be some drilling and fabricating to make some brackets to hold the windows in place.

Including all of the winders, switches, motors, mechanisms, and material swap, then the 20kg posted above may be possible .... Your windows do not weigh anything like 30kg on their own, let alone enough above that to save that amount of weight just from a switch from glass to polycarb.

I'm sorry if my posts on this thread to date might seem "anti-Chapman" as I do not mean to discourage the OP, rather to encourage a "real world" perspective on saving a passengers worth of weight when using a car on a trackday .... trackdays are about fun, and not about stopping the clock at the quickest time at the end of the day. Compromising the Evo's everyday usability and resale will not necessarily pay off in an increase in fun on the track.

[TPB1]

A Ti Exhaust can make a decent weight saving. We have one on our Evo Rs track car and it weighs very little....although they can cost a load!