light race car mods

[4stAir]

autocrossers i need your ideas and help. i am settin out to build a two seat lightweight 87tsi racer slash circuit monster. what have you done or what would be a good idea to get free horsepower... I.E. get lighter

thanks....

[JustPaus_88TSi]

I've never raced in Auto-X but doesn't it depend on your class?

 

The real big thing you'll need is money.  My car is very stripped, but it's not even close to what i'm thinking you'll need.  I did the normal gutting, cleared out the hatch area except for the two computer boxes, took out the back seats and all side peices. The stock rear speaker/hatch shock mounts are gone, along with the shocks. I went under the dash and eliminated everything, glove box is not there, heater/blower motor etc.. I left the very outer vents functional, for blow through. I took off the four "boat anchors" as some call them, they're the tie down points that you use if you get towed, or put on a flatbed. There's four of them, and they have to weigh atleast 10-15 pounds a peice.  Eliminating the ABS system will definately save weight, that's the big a** black thing in the passenger side of the engine compartment, behind the turbo.  

 

There's a guy on here, I think it's ESi-Rtype?, his name is Shawn. He makes aluminum bumper brackets, saving alot more weight. I'm not sure the difference but knowing these thick a** cars, it's got to be worth something.

 

A custom driveshaft will not only loose you weight, but you'll gain some more power to the rear wheels.

 

After all that, maybe some fiberglass or carbon fiber fenders, hood and doors. Lexan hatch, side and front windows. Your choice if you want the windshield glass or not.

 

If this car won't be driven at night, I know the stock headlight motors could make a difference.

 

 

If this isn't what you desire, then you need a full tube frame and that's a whole different ballgame....

 

 

John

[Conquest351]

RyanTex and I gutted the hell out of this 89 Conquest.  I thing we got rid of over 400 lbs in a few nights of after hours work.  It was lots of fun.  LOL  The easiest thing to do is lay out your rollcage.  Once you do that then you can begin getting rid of everything that doesn't need to be there.  My philosophy is Less Weight, Go Faster _TM.  LOL  You can do things like take off the passenger side door and completely take everything out of it and cut off all but the outter door skin itself and leave a few little tabs to weld to.  Then you reattach the door and weld it right to the body or attach it via Dzeus fasteners.  I'd put in lexan windows all around and the windshield too.  Use an aluminum rod down the center of the windshield to support it.  Look at NASCAR and the GT2 Porsches and note how they have it all setup.  I'd definately do all the rear glass in lexan.  Really light weight stuff.  Holesaw is your friend!  Get various sized bits and go to town on your car.  Be smart though, don't get overzealous with it though man and end up turning your car into swiss cheese.  LOL  Set a goal on your weight and everythiing you take of weigh.  We had a cool weight loss post in this section a little while ago.  Go back in the history on this section and you should find it a few pages back I think.  Where are you at?  I'm sure some of the guys on this board are near ya and will be more than willing to help you out.  If you want me to go into more depth, you can e-mail me or gimme a call.

 

Laters,

 

Brian

B_Luv22@hotmail.com

512-259-5242 (w) Mon-Fri 9-5 central

512-335-7782 (h)

[offalot]

Yeah Ive been doing the same thing of course like they said, gut everything thatt doesnt have to do with you driving the car. the cruise AC ABS . Additionally I stripped all the interior wiring harness and eliminated all the wireed that werent neccesary, that was about  30lbs, Like Brian said use a hole saw everywhere that doesnt see outside air or is structurally crucial. I took off my dash and was going to make a custom one but instead I too off all the heavy a** metal supports behind it , its still as strong as you need it to be just about 15 lbs lighter. I am converting my heater system to run mechanicly rather than with all the vacuum actuators, not too much weight but alot simpler. You can cut out your spare tire area, and use a fuel cell(theres a post on this somewhere on this forum) . If this is just going to be a race car and you wont have itiots sitting on your hood you can cut all the supports on that off, except the bordering ones. Obviously replacing stock seats with race seats will save a ton, and using harnesses instead of the auto seat belts is also a chunk of weight.Also scrape off all of the sound deadening crap all over the car, improbably going to keep mine as it is still going to be a street car but thats now issue for you.

also keep in mind an aftermarket exhaust could shave quite a bit of weght.  Have fun . Let us know how your progress goes.

[rjf]

I am not sure who the sanctioning body is for

the "Auto-X" you wish to run in.

In San Jose it is the SCCA SOLO-2 competition.

The first thing to do arround here is to get the SCCA rule book.  

In there they list what you can and cannot do for the

various Solo-2 (the current name for Auto-X)

classes.  

As it turns out StarQuests can do fairly well in the

strick SOLO-2 STOCK class.  

They do not do well in the Street Prepared class as the rules favor

Camaros and Mustangs.   That is because in Street Prepared you can

put on anything that came from the factory, even if they only

built one car with it, but the part is listed in the factory record.

 

It sounds as if you want to run in one of the street modified classes.

 

But before you do anything, understand the rule restricitions.

[JamesR]

stripping the interior will put you in the prepared or modified classes.  In stock, street prepared and street touring classes you must keep the full interior.  You might be eligible for street modified, but not sure.  Get a rule book.

[AndyW]

Yah, Street Modified is where you will land with what you want to do to the car, which is a fun class becuase there are pretty much no rules.  When I goto a Solo-2 competition I gut everything behind the front seats (thats the only way i can fit the slicks in the car!!   )  I didnt like being in G-stock, its classed with mostly front wheel drive cars and I just didnt fit in    lol  In any event tracking down the rule book is a good start, I downloaded one somehwere before but I cant remember where, I do know its out there tho.  

 

anyways, have fun