lower centre of gravity, how much does carbon roof save
Turbo Mini Forums

Evening,
I know there are a few people here who have fitted carbon roof skins to their mini's. I'm thinking of doing the same to lower the COG of my car, does anyone know the real weight saving??

Failing that, anyone got any tips to lower the COG? Can't really run the car much lower as my driveshafts are already at silly angles.

Cheers

Jimbo

Team Racing

place a bag of concrete behind each seat

i supose if you still had the full std roof going to carbon would save a few

what about replacing glass around the car? its heavy and for the most part easily replaced with plastic not sure if its much chop on a road car?

The general weight saving seems to be 4 to 5 kg which I suppose is not insignificant at the highest point. My approach to lowering the cog has just been fit the flattest objects like fuel tank, batteries and seats as low as possible in the car.

I have only seen your car on pictures an movies on youtube so don't know what you have done to it.
But I guess you have already lowered engine and radiator as low as you can in the subframe.
Carbon roof sounds logical as its the highest bit in the car.

Dazed and Confused....

I would say that a CF roof would be a good way to lower the CoG and something that would work well on your car.

Assuming that everything else is as low as it can be, the only other thing to do is send your shell to Dave and have it 'Sprinted'.

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

yea I'f got polycarb windows all round already, I can't lower the engine as the driveshaft angles are too steep already.

I suppose next step is to sell the shell and build a spaceframe

Edited by Jimster on 8th Jan, 2015.

Team Racing

Mine was a shit fit as it was made from a mold of a standard roof and had no extension of the edges to allow for fitting over the rim/edge you leave behind for it to sit on. Assuming you have no roof lining in then another 2-3kg (depending on weither you still have sound dedening on the panel) would sound right however you will add 300-500g of adhesive to glue it down. Also at the time the guy who made it could not get a big enough sheet of carbon to make it in one piece so it had a join in it. It also went very floppy in the sun.

I think I'll keep the steel roof for now and build a spaceframe after this shell has a few batlle scars

Team Racing

A spaceframe is not a Mini

Nothing wrong with that if because racecar

Drop the car further but raise the engine back up by the same amount (so that the driveshaft angle doesn't change).