How many kg's is your mini?
Turbo Mini Forums

Just a fun track car realy Jim

16V project underway

jimster there is a load of stuff you could do to get weight out of your car and running gear. I would think you could save another 10-20 kgs without to much difficulty.

See you on the drag strip next year maybe !! lol

mirage, where would you say I could lose this weight from? I still need the car to be road legal?

Team Racing

Top arms, front subframe, head, block, crank, crank pulley, wiring loom, intercooler pipes, door handles, etc ???

Yep you got the idea Dave.

Fasteners is an area where quite a bit of weight can be saved. Light weight bolts and nuts can be used, including use of aliminium bolts where approprate. Aluminium radiators. volume of coolant system. Drilled drive shafts. Spark eroded gears/crown wheel/diff housing. Proper thin wall racing exhaust. engine ancillaries like alternator and starter. Theres quite a few others but i cant give it all away !! lol you can go on and on with it.

At the end of the day you are going to end up with a bit of a compremise on a road car.

I'm amazed at some of the meetings how much more could be done to lighten the cars further, a lot of it really easily.

I'm the last person to be speaking about lightening stuff mind...
D

See I'm not mad !!

alex

AlexF

If you fancy some nice full on bling lightweight gear i can get hold of carbon fibre / kevlar oil hose, its about a quater the weight of your normal stainless overbraid variety and looks great with real light aluminium JIC fittings.

I've done some of that already. Most of the bolts and nuts are titanium, and some external ones are stainless. The exhaust from the downpipe back is ally. Are drilled drive shafts ready a good idea, as most mini drive competion drive shafts I've seen have huge twists in them. After fitting and LSD, the diff housing is thin allready, and this is ally to start with, surely efforts would be better somewhere else, my altenator is only a few grams lighter than a brise (or similar) starter could be replaced , but thats when I have cash again. Can you think of anything else

Team Racing

Lose some weight, you fat bastard!

Bugger off, I'm getting there.

aluminium head?
carbon roof?
body waxing??

I have lost 8 pounds so I'm getting there

Team Racing

look down the back of the sofa, theres always loose change down there

Jimster what nuts and bolts have you got in titanium. Where have you used them, have you used any on the engine ? I have to admit a disliking for titanium bolts and studs as the we find that when they have been on and of the thread a few times, the thread galls very dadly and the thread gets pretty much ripped of. I've taken out 80% of the tit fasteners on our F1's.

Not talking about drilling a set of mini drive shafts. You'd have to get some new ones made. Whilt you were at it i'd dump the mini cv's as well and go for tripode joints (stronger and more efficient that cv). You can have your new shafts with a larger OD to put strength where you need it. You'd find that your new shafts would be made from a better grade of steel. We put 500hp through shafts that would weight about the same as mini shafts (length for length) but are quite a bit thicker. Proper shafts are rifle drilled and the surface ground and polished to remove any stress raisers.

Loose those fat cast iron exhaust manifolds. T3 metro assemblies weight a tonne.

There is a mod you can do to the shell that would remove quite a bit of weight, but sorry im not saying what. And there are still other bits on the drive train.

For those using the car on the drag strip, there are a stack of things you could do, partic if its just for use on the strip. However a lot can me made to be easily removeable for the drag weekend. what wheels and tyres you running jimster ?

I'm using force racing split rims, and 32r's as I still want this to be road legal for class D.
If used ti fastners for things like boot floor, shock mounts, seat, engine moutings, but none on the actual engine.

What kind of money would these shafts cost me, and how would it save me ? for lb.

I take on board what you said about the manifold,, but isn't there some advantage of having a cast manifold as it holds the heat in before the turbo? Although this is somehting I may change in the future.

I'd be interested to hear where I can save weight on my shell, can you PM me,

Team Racing

What batteries are you running ? standard lead acid or smaller AGM cells like varleys (expensive and a bit tempramental), but you'd get away with a 15 a/h.

what about an aluminium tank or bag tank.

I'd say for muts nuts drive shafts you'd be looking at around ?500-600. Maybe as much as a ?800 for the machining up diff out shafts and hubs (i did once see a firm offering these in one of the mags a few years ago). I dought it would be worth even looking at hollow ones for standard size cv's. A lot of money for not huge savings, but more reliability in the bargain.

What seat are you using ? maybe some easy loss here.

Best option for keeping heat in your exhaust manifold is to ceramic coat it, there are some good products out there. You'd be amazed how much heat these keep in, the under bonnet temps can be reduced a lot. Couple this to a fabbed up manifold and your sorted. Got to be looking at 2-3 kg saving.

How about some tubular fabbed up bottom arms in aero tube and titanium tiebars ?

Jimster i dont wanna give all my tricks away as i plan on putting my car together for a bit of draggin and it will be in class D.

what does class d regs say about what wheels and tyres are allowed ??

The only regs I know of say "Road Legal". I guess you'll need an MOT (in theory) and no slicks.

Wil

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

not so sure about the mot bit but its up to the scrutineers discression i think. last year they werent exactly that strict. may not be the same next year. there was some strange class decisions made as some saw this year.

i was in class B

Everyone knows that instructions only have to be read if the thing doesn't work....

I use one of those redtop battery things, and I have a carbon seat, I've got a small ally tank. bottom arms and tie bars is something I have thought of, I plan to give carl austin some cash to sort these out for me in the future

Team Racing

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

im hoping to get the truck under 600kg's

On 4th Nov, 2008 matty said:

On 6th Nov, 2004 Nic said:
aluminium head?

Looks like Jim took your advice after all..be it a few years later!

Did Tim ever get his down to near 500kg's?

I seriously doubt it!

440!!
bloody hell paul!
are you drilling your tyres?

dont you have trouble stopping with only 450kg? i would be scared of locking up all the time

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

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