Part Weights
- Thread starter Neil Haughey
- Start date
Peter Empson
PCGB Member
That's on my to do list too, I want to try to get a decent diffuser under the back and that means getting the spare wheel well out of the way first. Seems quite a reasonable weight saving too.
Neil Haughey
New member
Also very popular in the US, IMHO something to be careful of though is keeping the weight distribution nice. Simon 944man said something about this some time ago, if you take to much weight off the back of the car you could loose traction and handling.
The biggest weight loss areas are the shell and interior, contrary to popular belief all the electrical parts don't weigh much at all. I think ppl have bought into this mythological idea because of the 968 CS. My rear wiper as an example ISTR only weighed 1 Kg for the whole thing, as Simon said changing to manual winders will only save a couple of Kg.
I wish someone made a CF series 2 dashboard. I will weigh mine when we get it out but poking it about so far has told be it is pretty heavy just like Simon hinted at earlier.
It is a tempting idea to me now to hunt down a nice early turbo and rebuild it as a lightweight summer use road car, using a similar approach to the shell but without the roll cage.
The biggest weight loss areas are the shell and interior, contrary to popular belief all the electrical parts don't weigh much at all. I think ppl have bought into this mythological idea because of the 968 CS. My rear wiper as an example ISTR only weighed 1 Kg for the whole thing, as Simon said changing to manual winders will only save a couple of Kg.
I wish someone made a CF series 2 dashboard. I will weigh mine when we get it out but poking it about so far has told be it is pretty heavy just like Simon hinted at earlier.
It is a tempting idea to me now to hunt down a nice early turbo and rebuild it as a lightweight summer use road car, using a similar approach to the shell but without the roll cage.
944 man
New member
The difference in weight between the series one dashboard and the series two is massive! The later dashboard weighs several times as much as the simple 924 derived part. If Peter manages to make a half decent looking wet-laid CF replacement then I will certainly have one (Id been meaning to mention this), as I suspect many others will. With regards to the weight saving that you can expect by fitting manual regulators: Im sure that it was well under a kilogramme, but I donthave the figures to hand now.
Peter Empson
PCGB Member
The dash without clocks but with glove box lid is 8.5kg, so stupidly heavy for what it is (and probably 10kg including clocks). If the weather is nice tomorrow I might get around to starting messing with the spare one I have [
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944 man
New member
Ive been meaning to get my perfect series one dash out and clean it up, ready for fitting into my 924S: I'll weigh it and Im guessing that itll come in at under 2kgs.
Pete: had you considered cutting out all of the rear load deck floor and spare wheel well and fitting an aluminium sheet? Whether its viable depends on your cage: and also on how far you want to take it...
Pete: had you considered cutting out all of the rear load deck floor and spare wheel well and fitting an aluminium sheet? Whether its viable depends on your cage: and also on how far you want to take it...
Peter Empson
PCGB Member
I'm still a way off thinking about the spare tyre well, but was just intending to cut it out and bond in some cf sheet or similar, I hadn't thought of going further forward to be honest.
I keep looking at mine - there must be some weight there to be had out. It is a useful place for keeping things but a pain to get to if you want them - and you couldn't get the weight much further back.
It could also open up space to to encourage air out from under the rear of the car [8|]
Peter Empson
PCGB Member
Perfect for a fish tank exhaust too [
]Simon D has been threatenening to try cutting out the spare wheel well on his car, so I'm keen to weigh what comes out, but I've heard some pretty high figures rumoured.
For storage I find the offside rear arch sufficient (and when I get around to moving the battery that'll free up the other side too).
I'm still trying to work out how I can fit a side exit exhuast in so I can get the diffuser to run the width of the rear of the car, it's proving more difficult than I thought without risking grounding out on white lines, let alone speed bumps [
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Hilux
New member
Certainly for an MOT it will need to be a structural repair ie: metal fully seam welded as it is considered a repair to a structural member.
The boot floor will also act as the bottom brace for the rear of the car. I therefore would think you`d cut out the well and weld in a metal sheet of required gauge to ensure rigidity. The gearbox is attached as is the suspension...........isnt it?
Neil Haughey
New member
Something else that would be a massive nice to have is to make it multi-part with some form of support structure onto the car. The reason why I say this is that getting the dash in and out with a welded in cage in the way is going to be a major PITA. For my build it isn't to bad as I hadn't figured until told the other day that you can get it in OK because the car will not have a windscreen in place until pretty much everything else has been done.
On a track car a CF dash will look mega cool.
sawood12
New member
remind me again, why not simply remove the dash altogether? Or at least cut out the instrument binnacle and ditch the rest. You could get a simple manual heater and heater controls to replace the stock one, say from a Ford Fiesta or something.
I would have thought the boot floor is an integral part of the structure of the shell. The only cases where i've heard/seen this removed is where you have a fully space-framed cage where the roof panel is also removed and replaced with GF or CF.
I would have thought the boot floor is an integral part of the structure of the shell. The only cases where i've heard/seen this removed is where you have a fully space-framed cage where the roof panel is also removed and replaced with GF or CF.
Peter Empson
PCGB Member
Fair point Paul, I was thinking we'd probably need top add some stiffening anyway, I'l have a chat with some MOT guys about what we'd need to do (btw I finally got an mot on the white car today []).
I have just been reading about the new Ferrari 599XX and it uses fans to lower the air pressure under the rear of the car and channels it out the back, which could be another interesting idea if it's really beneficial. That's the great thing about doing this for fun and not for a race series, the possibilities are almost limitless.
Neil, I've toyed with the idea of just making the top of the dash and ignoring anything beneath, certainly makes it easy to fabricate, but not sure if it'd help with a full cage.
For my car I'm hoping to cover the top section in alcantara to stop reflections and if I do the full dash with the section below (including glove box) then ideally it will be in exposed carbon for a bit of bling (assuming I'm able to make a good enough mould, which is highly unlikely).
]).I have just been reading about the new Ferrari 599XX and it uses fans to lower the air pressure under the rear of the car and channels it out the back, which could be another interesting idea if it's really beneficial. That's the great thing about doing this for fun and not for a race series, the possibilities are almost limitless.
Neil, I've toyed with the idea of just making the top of the dash and ignoring anything beneath, certainly makes it easy to fabricate, but not sure if it'd help with a full cage.
For my car I'm hoping to cover the top section in alcantara to stop reflections and if I do the full dash with the section below (including glove box) then ideally it will be in exposed carbon for a bit of bling (assuming I'm able to make a good enough mould, which is highly unlikely).
Neil Haughey
New member
If you intend to race the car PCGB rules demand something that looks like the original dash, similar rule with door cards, you either keep stock door cards or use CF looking ones. Centre console has to be retained as well.
944 man
New member
Thats the reason: thatd also be a reason preventing cutting out all of the load deck floor, because the cage required to maintain the bodys rigidity would break all of their rules..... A cage of sufficient stiffness with the necessary locations would probably rule the vehicle out of most classes in most series in England, making it an expensive toy with a restricted re-sale market.
Neil Haughey
New member
Bit of an update guys because I know you lot like to look at pictures. I went to Donny on Saturday and the inside of the car looked like pretty normal again as I put the seats and front carpet back in for the MOT on Thursday (flew through). The carpets fitted OK without the sound deadening pads.
It was a noisy drive up to Donny, we both had sore throats from all the shouting []. Thing is you get used to it after a while and the car seems to feel a lot more airy without the rear trim.
Anyways car now in my brothers hands which meant we set at it on Sunday. Didn't have much time to weigh the bits taken off but I can say the bonnet and rear hatch are shockingly heavy, defo a 2 man job. Next time you see more pictures I will try and weigh various bits but as he has been at the car for a week by then unfortunately you guys will likely only see a stripped shell. This is what the car looked like after a couple of hours with my brother on Sunday, he does work shockingly fast []
Shockingly this box holds much of the stuff from the back of the car that will be going back on
Loads to follow over the Easter weekend when I will be helping to remove the Engine, Gearbox, doors and suspension. By this evening he has stripped off all the lights and mechanisms, bumpers, rest of the interior as above, everything under the dash and the dash itself.
It was a noisy drive up to Donny, we both had sore throats from all the shouting [
]. Thing is you get used to it after a while and the car seems to feel a lot more airy without the rear trim.Anyways car now in my brothers hands which meant we set at it on Sunday. Didn't have much time to weigh the bits taken off but I can say the bonnet and rear hatch are shockingly heavy, defo a 2 man job. Next time you see more pictures I will try and weigh various bits but as he has been at the car for a week by then unfortunately you guys will likely only see a stripped shell. This is what the car looked like after a couple of hours with my brother on Sunday, he does work shockingly fast [
]
Shockingly this box holds much of the stuff from the back of the car that will be going back on
Loads to follow over the Easter weekend when I will be helping to remove the Engine, Gearbox, doors and suspension. By this evening he has stripped off all the lights and mechanisms, bumpers, rest of the interior as above, everything under the dash and the dash itself.
Neil Haughey
New member
I forgot to add, those roof trim strips as seen above are scary to remove, you are convinced they will break, you hear a loud snap and then the clips release the thing. None of the clips broke although at one point I was convinced they would. My brother has also been making a list of things that are not quite right, need replacing or need renovation, the sort of things you don't tend to notice but you come across during a strip down. So far this has been a very fulfilling experience.
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