6speedmanual Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Here's a few more ideas, but not seen your car so don't know if you've already done them..... Optimise length (shorten) all fixing bolts. Bin all split washers. If you need anti slacken, use loctite. (Split washers don't work too well anyway) Minimise use of plain washers. Only apply for anti gouge when fixing ali or other soft material (use smallest possible diameter under fixing head. When using to spread load eg item bolted through ali panel, reduce size from the 'default' penny-washer. Stick on number plates Nylon fixings for very low stress applications Remove inner ali panels from rear basket section (behind side of seat) If you are prepared to do without the side protection honeycomb, remove it and the inner ali skin ( I wouldn't) Remove handbrake rubber grip File down FIA plastic key (or do without a masterswitch) Make FIA key 'guard' from ali or carbon If no passenger, remove all items from that side - seat, belts, areoscreen. Shorten passenger toe box as per superlight race chassis Run half width dash panel ( maybe a bit unsightly as wiring etc would become visible) Remove sill scuff protection covers Make exhaust exit hole 20mm bigger all round Remove '7' rad grill and just use the mesh one alone Remove nose badge Use only one pinch bolt in headlamp stay to chassis. Saw/file away redundant material Paint weights about 2Kg Rear wheel arch beading: trim down to half original width. Its made of quite a dense material. If you don't mind the look of no beading. Bolt wheel arches on with out and neatly seal around with silicone Trim out the inner flange of the rear wheelarches between the fixings Ditch the rear whhel arch stone guards Cut No. Plate lamp bracket off chassis an surface mount to rear panel Get a non-hoodstick version of the rear luggage space tonneau from CC or get Jill Judd to make one up in lighter non vinyl canvass Run without hub caps (set of 4 = 55g ! ) Shorten wheel nuts so there is no redundant section beyond end of wheel stud Shoten thread on bottom of vertical link (upright) It's about half an inch longer sticking out beyond nut. Spacer washer between steering arm and upright: replace with ali Shorten front wing stays to get wing closer to tyre. Cut tubing off as near as possible to outboard fixing bolt In some places, Nyloc nuts could be replaced with plain nuts and Loctite, lighter nut, shoten thread further For oil catch tanks a nylon screenwash bottle is often lighter than some of the fancy stainless steel or alloy facricated one available from motorsport shops Engine block: grind off any redundant mounting bosses or location lugs used as location points in the machining part of the manufacturing process Ditto other powertrain castings Run a thinner rad: lighter and holds less coolant. Increase efficiency by ducting the airflow to force air through it instead of spilling round the edge into the engine bay Smaller coolant header tank Aluminium fuel pipe from rear to front Use spring type coolant hose clips like on modern production cars. Lighter than jubilee clips and clamp with constant load Ali pipes to replace any steel water rail coolant pipes? Ali pulleys on alt, waterpump etc? I've tried to keep off the obvious stuff like removing all the SVA edge trims, etc, but hope there may be some useful ideas in my suggestions ...........And there's always more of course. I seem to remember some previous threads on this subject. Good Luck!! P 6SpeedManual *tongue*There's no such thing as too much BHP per Ton 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 there is another way of loosing 10Kg of useless weight .... here is C7 TOP Taffia rear gunner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Perry Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 There is a lot of weight in the FIA roll bar. Why not get a bespoke one made that protects only the drivers side, like some of the racers had about 10 years ago. They were certainly lighter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 Hey thanks for all that - it's fantastic and I think that in the future hopefully the phrase "weight saving" will bring this thread up to help others. That's a terrific list there 6sp - a few things I'd thought of but lots that I hadn't. I'm resigned to running a full cage, which is a couple of kg's more than even the FIA bar IIRC but this appears to add significant strength to the chassis (LA chassis is quite twisty!) as well as protecting from a multitude of crash nasties, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 Hudson - that battery is fantastic but I don't seem to be able to find anything remotely similar in the UK and I'm not sure about shipping a battery? Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Julian, It's not a lead-acid battery, hence it can easily be shipped. They reckon it'll be 45$ to Denmark for the 3lbs version. Wonder why I know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setok Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Wow, that battery sounds like a good idea. Drop in replacement and immediate weight saving. If someone does this, I'd like to see/hear the results. --- Kristoffer Lawson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 😬 Sounds good. Can we do a shipment of a few of them then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6speedmanual Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 JT You mentioned panelling car in CF. How much lighter than the standard ali panels is it (Kg/m2) ? Total weight saving on whole 7 ? Another option is to skin in thinner ali in non structural areas, but terribly vunerable to dents. How about bonding the panels on and doing away with all those rivets! When I was looking at the RiF car at 50yot7 it occurred to me that it is a lot of effort in putting all that CF on a car that remains essentially the same space frame giving limited functional benefit. Just got me wondering about the feasibility of making a CF tub without the steel tubes. This would obviously take a lot of design and development input but worth a passing thought. 6SpeedManual *tongue*There's no such thing as too much BHP per Ton 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Gamma Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 The weight saving for carbon panels is documented in the depths of Norman's rebuild blog - here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setok Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Just got me wondering about the feasibility of making a CF tub without the steel tubes. You'll be building a Westfield soon --- Kristoffer Lawson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiF Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 And documented fully on my links below (CA07BON now updated too!!!).I have just added up the parts Julian has purchased and the weight saving will be at least 8.5kg. Then knock out the bits like the boot floor etc and I would say there is a good 15 kg saving or more. The rigidity of all the panels, floor, internal and external skins is considerably increased plus it will be pretty hard to dent! Very hard to shed 15+kg from an extra light car already RiF Driving one of the first Duratec 7, and building CA07BON for Henrietta 😬 😬 😬.for pictures of 7 and carbon andCA07BON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cornford Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 One for the future replace De Dion steel tube with "Coretex" De Dion tube Steel De Dion tube = 7.68Kgs Coretex De Dion tube = 4.8Kg Saving 2.88 Kgs See pdf I have emailed you. I believe that they are now in process of building complete spaceframe using Coretex. Sigma SteVe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hudson Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Regarding the 4.5 lb battery: The guys that are doing my Porsche project were looking into it. They would ship ..... I think. Talk to Keith. here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 Thanks Hudson - will do! 6spd, RiF! Thanks for the input on that - as Richard says the saving will be significant with the full carbon - especially since (in deviation to Norman's build) I shall not be concerning myself with fitting too many "finishing" panels as this is mainly a track car. Also remember that Norman's build was a fair while ago now and Richard's techniques, methods and parts have evolved I believe... Just as an aside, I have now had chance to digest the sheer quality of Richard's current carbon components - they are simply astonishing. My builder at home used to make glassfibre ambulances in a previous life and so has been involved with moulding and resins a fair bit. He was simply stunned by the consistancy of finish and moulding quality of the parts. He was also amazed that they could be produced affordably like this, too. I know that there was a whole lot of "ooooh aaahh" about various carbon parts a few years ago on BC but right now it has to be said that Richard's persistance and investment into the market has, inevitably, paid off in spades. Well done Richard 6sp - I agree about the composite tub but really I guess at that point you really are changing the whole design concept. I don't have the budget for development, sadly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 PS Just to say that judging by the reaction of everyone that has seen the quality of finish on the RiF carbon bonnet I am considering charging a small garage admission fee for viewings 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k80rum Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Any chance of some bonnet pics Jules ? Darren E K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library Superlight R #54 Edited by - k80rum on 18 Dec 2007 22:59:33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Chan Posted December 18, 2007 Area Representative Share Posted December 18, 2007 Is mine free as I am buying the Ipod bits 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cornford Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Would any of these here batteries help with weight loss. They can be mounted low down and on their side I believe. Sigma SteVe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k80rum Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 at 6kg, the traditional Powervamp/Oddysey's are still 4 times the weight of the 3lb VoltPhreaks one, although they do benefit from double the cold cranking capacity and almost 3 times the Ah rating.. Darren E K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library Superlight R #54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterg Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 The late Rob Barksfield used sets of Ni-Cad batteries in his PCD Saxon single seater to minimise weight between each run he swapped them over with ones being charged he also had an external battery/starter motor that his wife had to drag around the paddock... now, that may be going 'over the edge' 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsn Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Pricey for a battery though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hudson Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 I talked to Keith today and his only request was to please post the new web site. They in the process of adding to it. Zuffenhaus I have one of the Voltphreaks batteries ordered but Julian needs to tempt Keith with electronics... now about that Becker Mexico .... :)) Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted December 19, 2007 Author Share Posted December 19, 2007 peter - Hmmmn - Nicads.. 😬 No, seriously, that little battery looks very good. As Darren says it is a bit short on CCA and Ah but certainly still very impressive for the weight! Darren - I will try to take some photo's of the bonnet but I really don't think they will do it justice; carbon is one of those "hard to photo" things (well I find that!)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Julian, Are you free for a coffee and a chat tommorrow morning at the shop? I'm not far away and I wouldn't mind getting some loom advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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