Weight reduction

[cartoon]

Batter relocation is fine even if you move the Oem one. The weight is being shifted to more ideal location.

Another thing to consider is removing all the weight from the passenger side will have an effect on turning left and right.

Your aim should be to get the weights front and back as close to each other as possible (by removing and shifting weight) then the front left and right with the rear left and right.

Coilovers can assist with weight set ups but remember lower is lighter. Also if u lower the front left you add weight to the rear right.

[cartoon]

Correction, height adjustable suspension should replace the word coilovers

[fr4n]

Just to add. I don't know about u guys. But i can feel a significant difference with a passenger in the car. And also between full and empty tank of petrol.

A single person is a 60-100kilo weight difference. Just by getting him out of the car you remove just as much weight if not more than stripping out the entire rear seats and upholstery. 50l tank is another 50kg or so.

[DC2-PWR]

I think the biggest problem is most of the weight you remove is from the back. you want to try and have as close as possible to a 50/50 set up.

This could mean running dead weight to get 50/50 MAY be better for cornering speed. (depends on how much you need to run of course)

Excuse my ignorance, but how many track days have you attended? If the answer is less than 10 then don't worry too much about weight reduction, yes it is a great performance increase for not much money but if you don't have much experience then you are just much better off focusing on track time and maintaining the car for track use.

Your car will never be as light as a CR-X anyway, just saying.

Nice debate guys, great to see useful information.

But I have to believe what cartoon and ChargeR have previously written. This is from my own personal experiance too and finding out the hard way on where to have more weight and where to have less weight.

Here is a spec sheet of my car on scales


Important details are the corner weight, it is damn important!!!! As you can see the rear of my car is lighter than the front - more weight on the front - causes heavy understeer.

When my car was stock, with full interior trims on the rear, rear seats, rear boot wood etc I would actually get better track results because my car is more balanced that way. Unless I adjust the rear suspension (lower) to transfer some weight from the front to the rear.

For a really good DC2R example, TGW92 from this forum also had a go at the scales. Stock DC2R - came out with a 'PERFECT' balance. However it is only perfect with the driver, because the driver sits towards the boot more transfering some weight and making a perfect balanced car - said from the fulcrum folks. I find this really intresting, as the DC2R was made from such a great engineering team. Props to Honda

So yes you will get a slight better 'feel' without interior, however without proper adjustments on your suspension you will be doing more harm than good. I have got most of my time taken of my PB at the tracks only from balancing the car.

It is critical, and I believe it is mainly people who look at others on the internet and read so much BS that removing interior will make your car go faster on tracks. Maybe at the straight line yes, but when it comes at the real tracks you will be a loser if you dont have your specs up-right.

[cartoon]

It's all about set up!

[tinkerbell]

When my car was stock, with full interior trims on the rear, rear seats, rear boot wood etc I would actually get better track results because my car is more balanced that way. Unless I adjust the rear suspension (lower) to transfer some weight from the front to the rear..

just to clarify, you 'got better results' with more weight in, but only because you didn't fine tune your set-up?

if true, then is there a lesson here?

i think cartoon has nailed it...

[cartoon]

Just to get back on track with the question asked,

Weight reduction does have lots of advantages if you have set up your car correctly. That includes suspension fine tuning, moving weight to more ideal locations where you can (either lower in the car or some place thats allows a better 50/50 set up).

If your going for track work scales are a must in getting this correct set up and also understanding how weight shifts and how suspension tuning affects the weights shifting.

Regards,

[Karl]

So how have you tried to achieve 50 to 50 ratio cartoon?

what has been relocated. added or removed?

[cartoon]

My car is stripped (just been painted) ATM so everything is out .

I will be running boot trims but removed the following.
Spare, tools, rear wiper and motor, rear carpet, rear seats, ac removed (all items taken out), running carbon hood, will strip all my wiring of items I don't need, no aerial or wires. Spoon brakes, lighter rims and nuts, light weight seats, no sound dampening or heat mat.

I will be relocating the battery on the scales ( running 1/2 tank of fuel for this) along with moving the fuse box and such so I know the affect of the placement.

I'm adding chassie bracing, half cage and a k24. I won't know how it will all play out till I install the fixed items, weigh her and place the moveable items.

One thing i did not do with my Kswap was shave the bay. Adds weight were I don't want it.

[Karl]

I was thinking about relocation the battery. but u add about 1.2kg in cable. 1 kg with battery box and about 1 kg with the distribution box needed and lugs.
so around 3-3.5kg.
I think its better getting a odyssey pc680. they only weigh 7kg and leave in stock place

[tinkerbell]

I was thinking about relocation the battery. but u add about 1.2kg in cable. 1 kg with battery box and about 1 kg with the distribution box needed and lugs.
so around 3-3.5kg.
I think its better getting a odyssey pc680. they only weigh 7kg and leave in stock place

in terms of 'quick wins' changing battery type is definitely one!

when i put a B16A into an 83 Prelude, i had to run the battery at the back as the air intake went through the stock battery location - so chose to run an oydessy 680 as it is sealed so doesnt need a battery box or venting...

[cartoon]

I'm running a sealed oydessy batter

[justinfox]

All the Hondas I've ever owned felt slower when a passenger was in the car with me. It's amazing how much 60kg's will slow down a low powered NA car.

Get some good scales, both gram scales AND a kg scale and have some fun (I always do).

For my Golf GTI DAILY DRIVER:

Lightening
----------------------------------
Antenna: -20g
Golf Manual: -818g
Tool kit: -3.78kg
Parcel tray: -1.82kg
Rear floor: -1.62kg
Rear seat bottom: -4.96kg
Rear single seat back: -6.46kg
Rear double seat back: -17.48kg
Spare wheel: -14.34kg
Rear wiper assembly: -1.02kg
License Plate surround + fog light block-off panel -300g
Rear floor matts: -572g
Osir carbon bonnet -6kg
Rear boot trim panel: -1.74kg
Rear boot trim: -2.57
Amplifier cover: -170g
Undertray: -880g
Exhaust heatshield: -560g
Oil filler neck -35g
Battery box -646g
Fog Lights -420g
Rear fender lining: -1.5kg
Front brake heat shields: -720g
----------------------------------
+10.80kg (H&R swaybars/Coilovers)
-3kg (Miltek Turbo Back Exhaust)
-200g (Neuspeed Turbo Discharge kit)
+1.2kg (Forge Twintake)
- 12kg (Advan RZ + Toyo R888)
+395g (Kics lug nuts)
+1960g (H&R + ECS Wheel Spacers)
- 464g (new MKV rear hatch mechanism)
- 4.58kg (Odyssey Battery)
+ 400g (Unibrace)
- 1393g (Neuspeed pulley kit)
- 1kg (BSH billet mount package)
- 10.5kg (Brembo brakes)
----------------------------------
= -84.61g

Build thread was here: http://www.vwgolf.net.au/showthread....KV-Project-Car

[cartoon]

You must love it when added new and upgraded parts lowers your over all weights (and usually in the front where its needed)

[cordz]

Wow so much hate for weight loss on this thread. I'm a weight loss fan, since our cars have no torque - weight loss is our best friend. I have nothing in my boot, absolutely nothing, and it makes for horrible echoing and droning from the 60rs catback. That's the down side of interior panel removal. But I love the go-kart feeling of a car with minimal weight.

Further steps of weight loss I want to achieve:

- carbon: doors, hatch, hood
- rotating mass: forged wheels, two piece rotors
- unsprung mass: forged one piece brakes, rear LCA's
c