how light can u get a mini?
Turbo Mini Forums

my mk3 mini is a heavy peace of shit and i want it to become lighter.

but i cant find any more weight to scrap away.

i tought of striping the interor away . but thats like 10-15kg not much at all :(

change the doors to glassfiber should save u alot?
the boot is quit heavy to.

all plexiglas windos is some.
the orginalhood doesnt way any thing so swiching it woulnd save much but maybe a 1-2kg or so.

orginal chairs i car is light as hell so not much to do there..

is there any more good weight savings i have forgot?

and doesn any have a car that has plexiwindows and glasfiber doors and boot and stripped interior = how much kgs ?

sorry for crappy english iam from sweden so thats why i jerk around with kg's instead of lbs but its ok if u answer in lbs :)

thx /marcus

(and no i dont want to buy a all fiberglasbody)

Edited by litenmentuff on 25th Jun, 2009.

These are the lightest by far

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

haha yeah thats more like it! :)

If you add up all those 1 & 2 kilos you say are not woth bothering about that soon adds up.

How about,

Alloy radius arms
Minifins
Alloy callipers
Mag alloys
Drilling the front subframe or a nice titanium one
Beam axle in the rear
Fibre glass front end
Composite roof skin
loosing the rear seat bench
Composite boot floor
Smaller fuel tank

Own the day

how heavy is your mini at the moment, does it have a cage fitted?

My car is around 550kgs, (with a full tank of fuel, and a pretty comprehensive roll cage. One memeber on here has a car (called the Don) which is around 450kgs I belive both cars are road legal, and have heavy turbos on them

Team Racing

Sounds like you need a hole cutter and you need to start drilling holes in things...

and start thinking outside the box

Paul Wigginton made me think about what could really be done. damn those little note pads of his

Didn't paul manage to save a kg or 2 from his gearbox casing too?

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

i thought it was more than 2kg's!
things like break disks weigh alot too, i noticed the don uses custom stratigically drilled ones, another good one is going on a diet, rember the driver adds alot of weight as well (not saying your fat but it helps lol).
always use worn tyres is you really want to get panicaty about things as they have less rubber on so less weight :)
but imo i dont think its all about weight loosing it helps alot but getting traction becomes harder the lighter you get

Drives
-Ford S-max Mk2 Ecoboost
-Rover 100 VVC #2 - track project

Searching is all you need on TurboMinis

I left the speedo drive out of my box when rebuilding it, wonder how much that saves hehe. And resistence too .

Do the easy stuff first like mentioned above. Polycarb windows and remove door winders etc. You could remove rear valance too.

I wonder how much crap you could cut out of the standard loom aswell, I have a loom in a plastic bag and its really weighty! Alloy fasteners for as much as possible.

When youre saying stuff like "stanard interior is only 15kg or so" and the seats "dont weigh much anyway", thats the whole point, it all adds up and thats how you go about lightening a car.

Edited by richminiturbo. on 25th Jun, 2009.

its a standard mini clubman as speeking iam puting in a new engine and tought i might as well make it a little bit lighter.

Watching carl has taught me that to build a light car, nothing can be fitted unlightened, pretty much everything can be made to save some weight. You have to look at every single part, the first time you say "thats not that heavy" then you have lost the plot to build a really light car.

but how much do u weaken the front subframe by cutting a 100 holes in it ?

seen a few on here do that trick but it doesnt seem healthy at all or is the subframe realy that stable to start with?

and 450kgs mini that just crazy thats about 200kg off the starting weight of a mini ? :)

You dont have to cut 100 holes in it!!!

As tesco said "every little counts"

And as Tom said everything can be lightened

On 25th Jun, 2009 richminiturbo. said:
I left the speedo drive out of my box when rebuilding it, wonder how much that saves hehe. And resistence too .

Team Racing

Dilling circular wholes is fine. The circle is a very strong shape.

you can atually strengthen a pannel with holes, hear me out a moment! :)

years ago a hot rod builder i knew proved this to me with a sheet of steel, he cut several 2" holes out of it then tapered the holes inwards with a clamp affair (think of like a funnel shape into the pannel) and then the pannel would hold up straight under its own weight where as before it bent under it.

if you get a chance to look around a full fledged racecar you can things like that happening.

I agree with you sid, but you need an impressive flaring tool to flare a hole cut in steel as thick as a subframe

Team Racing

I'm sure i read some where on here, that Paul Wiginton said 10% of everythings weight can be lost without affecting its strength.

Or words to that affect, ill try and find the post!

Everything is made with a 'safety factor', so can always be lightened and still be strong enough for its job.

I'd say polycarb windows and lightweight doors are THE biggest single weight saving and easiest to do. You're looking at about 40kgs just doing them!

Ive now started cutting bolts down so they are just long enough for the nut the other side....fuck I need to get out more!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Fit a suzuki engine, 40-50 kg:s saved

internationally known as "big" swede

socket heads come pre back drilled sort of...

On 25th Jun, 2009 Tom Fenton said:

On 25th Jun, 2009 matty said:

Ive now started cutting bolts down so they are just long enough for the nut the other side....fuck I need to get out more!

You mean you are not back drilling the heads yet, HA, amateur :-p

Carl once explained to me, if it doesn't break then it's over engineered

Team Racing