Not as light as I thought...

[NigelO]

When I bought my Westie (2-litre Zetec Silvertop, Sierra SDV, Type 9, Aeroscreen, composite seats, no heater), I was told it weighed "500 and something..."

Just got it back from Matt at Procomp today and the car (a bit like its current owner) seems to have put on a few pounds. It's now 696kg with me in it, or more accurately, 614kg without me on board.

If I'm honest, I was hoping for the figure to be rather less than that. However, it has made up my mind on one thing - I'm not putting the car on a diet - getting the weight down to the point where it would be noticeable would cost a fortune - I imagine just getting it below 600kg would involve changing quite a lot of stuff, so I'm just going to spend the money on fuel and just drive it whenever I can. I fancy a couple of carbon bits purely for the bling value (cycle wings and diffuser), but other than that, I think it'll stay as it is

Alternatively, I could always try for more power, but I have a feeling that could be a slippery slope too...

[TAFKARM]

How much fuel was in it?

[maurici]

This is SUPER HEAVY...

 

My old Redtop, was on 580, with cage. Same as yours... Type nine, Composite seats, Full old chunky CAGE and fire extingisher... and with the chunky vauxal engine. Amusingly... I replaced most of the big bits with carbon, and the weight only went down by 10 or 15kg.

 

Mi current Zetec, SAME as yours again, 1.8 but LIVE axle... with zero carbon on it is 515.

 

Can we have some pictures of your car?

[Kingster]

My blacktop Zetec is 565kg with a full cage. Aeroscreen, no heater, carpets etc

[wizzer]

I'll make you feel better 693 kg with 85 kg in the  seat  its just a number.

Tony 

[DamperMan]

1994 ‘ kit’, zetec 2.0, type 9, SEIW   FullCage, fibreglass seats,  no added lightness of carbon,  or shiney bits...  Full size battery,  makes mine 630kg I think half full of fuel..    Plus 83kg of me

loosing 130kg to get mine down to 500 seams some what out of reach....  

[NigelO]

1 hour ago, RussH said:

How much fuel was in it?

just under half a tank

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Blooming heck.

Buttercup in full touring mode is 600kg.

[Kit Car Electronics]

We've weighed a lot of these on our annual Essex weigh days, and that's not unusual, Nigel. Many of the independent cars come out around 600kg.

[NigelO]

I saw the cornerweight gauges myself, as Matt tweaked the spring preload with me sat in the car - having read the weights of various other cars around the forum, I was expecting mine to be around 550 - 575

Other light stuff on my car:

• Lithium battery
• no internal panels (on the outsides of the chassis)
• No heater
• no wipers (obv)
• Raceline water rail with short plumbing to small expansion tank

Stuff that might be adding to the weight

• Original Sierra uprights and calipers
• Vented discs
• Extra-wide rear end (from the Sierra XR4 donor)
• IRS
• 15" team Dynamics

[NigelO]

1 hour ago, maurici said:

Can we have some pictures of your car?

 

[TAFKARM]

15 minutes ago, NigelO said:

just under half a tank

 

There’s 10-15kg saved

[hammie]

Was thinking of a similar thread then I read a write up about one of the weighins and thought mine wasnt so bad. 620kg with half a tank and spare wheel, I am on a diet myself and modesty precludes me from adding that.

I have however changed wheels and tyres recently to four Team Dynamics (which you have) 15x7 with new Toyo tyres 195 x 50 and the TD are 31/4 pound each lighter weighing in at 14 kilo. So that has saved around 5.9 kilos which means i dont have to. HAHA Just the spare tyre to go (on the car as well) for another 1.5kg.

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by hammie
additional info

[AdamR]

1 hour ago, NigelO said:

Stuff that might be adding to the weight

• Original Sierra uprights and calipers
• Vented discs
• Extra-wide rear end (from the Sierra XR4 donor)
• IRS
• 15" team Dynamics

The calipers are HEAVY, about 5kg each, some alloy ones would shed 7kg off your car weight easily.

Vented discs are also pretty chunky and un-necessary, could save 2-3kg there (each perhaps).

Unsure of the extra wide rear end, but probably only adds a little bit of weight.

Wheel / tyres could save a reasonable chunk there, maybe 5-8kg without going silly.

Haven't been able to weigh this exactly, but I've estimated IRS to about 50-60kg heavier than live axle.

Oh, and fuel is about 0.75kg / litre. A standard tank is about 25L IIRC, so half a tank is ~9kg.

 

Work on rotating mass first (wheels & tyres, brake discs, hubs), then unsprung mass (stuff that moves up and down relative to the chassis - brake calipers, dampers, uprights), then sprung mass (chassis, driver, engine, etc).

[stephenh]

And you may be a bit heavier than you think, because most people who weigh themselves "in the privacy of their own bathroom" tend to do so more or less naked, whereas I imagine you went to Matt at Procomp you were fully clothed?

And in my, admittedly limited, experience, to get a road legal wide body car engined Westfield on standard chassis and bodywork, and IRS, down to anywhere near 500 kg is not realistic. My old car, which started life as a road going 2008 car, with duratec engine (light by 2 litre standards) and type 9 'box, no carpet, carbon nose, wings and aeroscreen, and light weight wheels, with full cage, and shell seats weighed around the 565kg. mark.