Popular Post Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset Posted August 17 Popular Post Share Posted August 17 I have been curious about how much my car weighs, and had been looking at all sorts of mad cap schemes on YouTube which involved sticking multiple scales under each wheel at a time and adding the results up. This is possibly useful for estimating corner weights but probably a lot of phaff just to get to overall weight. It probably seems obvious now, but a bit of googling found a public weighbridge just over 15 mins away in Martock. I popped up there this afternoon with the car in lightweight mode ie no roof or doors but it did have 3/4 tank of fuel. It came in at 540kg which seems pretty good to me. My biggest challenge now is to deal with the 120kg of lard which sits in the driver’s seat! 🤪 Hard to see how I could lose much more from the car, perhaps 10 or 20kg here or there, but certainly there is likely 35kg to be saved from me if I ever get round to it. So, engine is nominally 135bhp which give 250bhp/tonne. With me in it now we are at 204bhp/tonne. Losing 50kg between me and the car puts it at 221. Sticking a 155bhp engine in it gets me to 254bhp/tonne with driver. Possible project for future when funds allow. Now, how do I stop eating so much cake and chocolate? 🤪🤪 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Carrot Steve Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 On 17/08/2024 at 17:34, Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset said: I have been curious about how much my car weighs, and had been looking at all sorts of mad cap schemes on YouTube which involved sticking multiple scales under each wheel at a time and adding the results up. This is possibly useful for estimating corner weights but probably a lot of phaff just to get to overall weight. It probably seems obvious now, but a bit of googling found a public weighbridge just over 15 mins away in Martock. I popped up there this afternoon with the car in lightweight mode ie no roof or doors but it did have 3/4 tank of fuel. It came in at 540kg which seems pretty good to me. My biggest challenge now is to deal with the 120kg of lard which sits in the driver’s seat! 🤪 Hard to see how I could lose much more from the car, perhaps 10 or 20kg here or there, but certainly there is likely 35kg to be saved from me if I ever get round to it. So, engine is nominally 135bhp which give 250bhp/tonne. With me in it now we are at 204bhp/tonne. Losing 50kg between me and the car puts it at 221. Sticking a 155bhp engine in it gets me to 254bhp/tonne with driver. Possible project for future when funds allow. Now, how do I stop eating so much cake and chocolate? 🤪🤪 That is super light in my opinion. Anything under 600kgs is very light indeed. I did the scale thing with my car a few months ago. Managed to get a 200kgs bathroom scale so only needed the one. It was hard work and the result I got was lighter than I expected so I may have got it wrong. I'll find out when it gets corner weighted. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset Posted August 17 Author Share Posted August 17 22 minutes ago, Flying Carrot Steve said: That is super light in my opinion. Anything under 600kgs is very light indeed. I did the scale thing with my car a few months ago. Managed to get a 200kgs bathroom scale so only needed the one. It was hard work and the result I got was lighter than I expected so I may have got or wrong. I'll find out when it gets corner weighted. Might be fun to try. I saw a 500kg scale on eBay for £89, so you could just do front and back with that I guess, although each corner would be easier to setup. Weighbridge a lot easier and only £7.50 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew902 Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 Me and my mate took are kit cars a few years ago my Westfield seiw with 1.8vvc k series engine came in at 600kg and his pinto powered mac#1 came in at 630kg. I now have four 300kg postal scales. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Carrot Steve Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 1 hour ago, Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset said: Might be fun to try. I saw a 500kg scale on eBay for £89, so you could just do front and back with that I guess, although each corner would be easier to setup. Weighbridge a lot easier and only £7.50 👍 Yep, weighbridge is a LOT easier. It was actually quite hard work inside a small garage putting equal thickness blocks of wood under each of the other 3 wheels each time you move the scale around. Any idea how accurate a weighbridge us though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 7 minutes ago, Flying Carrot Steve said: Any idea how accurate a weighbridge us though? The answer is… how long is a piece of string? The only way you can know for sure is to ask the weighbridge operators. It could be off by up to 5%, though. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Carrot Steve Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 3 minutes ago, Captain Colonial said: The answer is… how long is a piece of string? The only way you can know for sure is to ask the weighbridge operators. It could be off by up to 5%, though. Quite a bit then if you get a not-so-good one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 I had mine weigh (well actually 4-wheel alignment done) by NMS last year and it came in at 680Kg. Which I thought was pretty good for a weighty V8... I'd be over the moon with 540Kg as it means more pies for the driver 🤣 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 2 minutes ago, Flying Carrot Steve said: Quite a bit then if you get a not-so-good one Yep, but one needs to remember that most public weighbridges are set up for lorries and trailers and are there to help prevent wildly out overloads. The weighbridges at landfills tend to be much more accurate because they use them for charging purposes. The cost of installing and maintaining these weighbridges is substantially higher than ones with 5% variance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Carrot Steve Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 Well I know about power to weight, but pies to weight is a new one on me! How many British Hot Pies per Stone? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIY-Si Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 My car IVA'd at 530kgs,from memory, and that's with an all aluminium drive train, so 540 would be quite light. I think XI's are usually a little lighter than 7's, although we do get a full set of bodywork to lug about, so anything sub-600kgs usually needs considerable work/carbon/BEC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Carrot Steve Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 I'll be happy if I can get mine down to about 640kgs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset Posted August 17 Author Share Posted August 17 14 minutes ago, DIY-Si said: My car IVA'd at 530kgs,from memory, and that's with an all aluminium drive train, so 540 would be quite light. I think XI's are usually a little lighter than 7's, although we do get a full set of bodywork to lug about, so anything sub-600kgs usually needs considerable work/carbon/BEC. Really not sure how accurate it would have been, I may drop them a note to ask. My car is a 1990 SEi, pre IVA/SVA and fairly stripped out, no internal side panels, carpets, no driver’s seat, (I sit on a pad), ali bell housing so I’m not surprised it’s towards the lighter end but clearly it could be heavier given the tolerance on the weighbridge. Will have to get it done properly some day but good to know it is not bad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset Posted August 17 Author Share Posted August 17 Found these weights from a weigh-in done by a groups in Essex. Looks like there is an SEi at 556kg with a screen, not sure if it had an carbon or other special bits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIY-Si Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 As the XE engine (assuming the 1.6VX what that refers to) has an iron block, it would be a few kgs heavier...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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