GTRA -weight reduction ideas

coming from a lotus background we spend alot of time on lightness.

1. Lexan/Plexiglass front wind screen + possilbe supports
2. Remove passanger seat/ harness
3. Remove ford radiator tank replace with small catch can.
4. Replace battery with light weight battery.
5. Remove windsheild wiper and motor, rainx.
6. replace door hinges, heavy.
7. remove front sway bar cover.
8. Aluminum heads
9. remove carpet-insulation.
10. light weight mufflers
11. aluminum shocks.
12. aluminum drive shaft.
13. aluminum block
14. ( rear end) I know of no lightweight ford 8.8 will check maybe backdraft racing knows.
15. smaller fuel cell -bad for enduros.
16. aluminum pulleys
17. light weight flywheel /aluminum bellhousing
18. Eat sushi/salads, and less steak, potatos
19. Drive with empty stomach after bowel movement.
20 . Use just enough gas to finish session.
21. Hold breath.
22. Transmission - any weight savings?
23. rear wing-change to carbon fiber.
24.aluminum suspension arms in front.
25. rear axel links in aluminum.
26.

The rear is a Ford 9"

The trans tunnel is removable. It's heavy too. It could be replaced with aluminum.

I believe someone makes an aluminum 9" rear housing. Not cheap.

I like the aluminum heads idea!!!

And the lexan windshield. Bob replaced his with lexan as I recall from Barber. Only problem is that you dont have a "defogger" anymore because the lexan supports block the inside wiper.

I removed the inside wiper... it was annoying, will use anti-fog. Interesting on the removal of the outside one and using rain-x.

What goal do you have for overall weight savings? I can see 200 lbs, maybe 300 lbs. But the last 100 lbs is going to be expensive. I think you're going the right direction, but you're going to drop a lot of $$$ getting there.
Bang for the buck I'd say your best item is the all alum motor. I'm investigating dropping in a LSX motor from a Vette, Camero, or GTO. You get the best of both worlds, weight savings (100+ lbs over the existing 5.0 l), and more torque and HP (150 hp and 100+ ft-lbs). The cost will be about $2500 for an LS1 or $4000 for a LS6. Hypothetically that should get the weight to power ratio to 3000 lbs/400 hp = 7.5. (Hope I did the math right.) Not too shabby. A bumpier cam will get you up to 500 hp and a 6.0 lbs/hp ratio. That's killer, and in the range of a true GT2 car. Very fast indeed!!!
Items 1 thru 7 on your list would probably only net you a 100+ lbs. The more exotic you go with light weight parts, the less reliable the car becomes. I guess it depends on what you are trying to do with the car. If your trying to get the last 1% out of the car for performance, then $$$ is secondary. If your just driving HPDE stuff, then seat time and tires will get you the best results on reduced lap times. Just my 2 cents.

^ I too have thought about a LSX swap, but I'm not racing so why bother. If I do race I'll run ST2 where the car can only have 320 rwhp based on it's weight and that can easily be done with heads/cam/intake.

I understand what your saying. I'm sure an LSX swap will cause all kinds of issues if you want to race the car in a SCCA or other serious series. No one likes a non-standard motor swap. The series I'm thinking of running only has two classes, vintage and contemporary. They have no other classes, and restrictions are minimal.
The '99 to '02 LS1 makes 325 hp at the crank, so it might not cause all that much difficulty for the ST class. I'm sure it can be mod'ed to be 320 hp at the rear wheels. It's the weight savings that I like the most.
I have only just begun to research the possibility. There are many varaibles that need to be considered before I go down this path. The mounts would need to be relocated, and I'd need to make sure the center of gravity of the motor would be similar to where the current 5.0 l sits. I like the balance of the car right now, so I'd want it to stay the same. The engine and all accessories need to fit between the frame rails, and that is always simplier said than done.

I look for cheap weight reduction ideas and same with Hp, less weight stops better, turns better, and accelerates faster. I think the cost to swap power would be high compared to hoppin up the old 302. I would like a new style 302 boss block and aluminum head. I actually think this would be the cheapest way to get the car to be a very serious car. I would like to get the car to 2600 lbs. should not be too hard. ( before fuel- driver), then get a 302 pushing right at 400 hp, so the car ready for track would be 2900lbs. and 400 hps. so a p/w ratio of 7.25. The rest of the lightening up idea are deminishing returns as cost get too high. But I did see a aluminum rear end housing unit that was not too much more than a new stock unit. A lot of what I am thinking about is speculation as I do not have a definite venue to race in. I am doing PCA/PBOC this weekend. The PBOC group head in So. Fla said he would place the car competively as it is with the 260 hp . But I will see I need a few more days in the car before I do anything major too it.

How about switching the Fiberglass bodies to the plastic ones? I have seen the plastic panels here at a Panoz dealer and they are much lighter and relatively cheap compared to some of the other recommendations. Anyone have an idea on weight comparison?

How about switching the Fiberglass bodies to the plastic ones? I have seen the plastic panels here at a Panoz dealer and they are much lighter and relatively cheap compared to some of the other recommendations. And the plastic is very resilient. An anxious Cougar hit me pretty hard during a race a couple of months ago. From inside the car it sounded horrible and I expected to see the entire side of my car smashed in. But aside from a couple of scratched decals you can't tell the car was hit.

They let those run around a race track? :lol:

Guys - who knows the details of the ST classification for the GTRA in NASA? I know they have a rear wheel HP limit, but usually there are other limitations...I'd think that its not just free to do lots of stuff like you're talking about...such as: "It must be a totally stock GTRA but with a bigger motor"...the point here is does the weight reduction project put you in jeopardy of losing the NASA classification? If so, value of car becomes a novelty car and track days only...which may be fine but you wouldn't want that to be a surprise...we've seen lots of guys do this - spending pretty big bucks to make a car better, but have it lose value as it becomes non-classified....

^ www.nasaforums.com (http://www.nasaforums.com) I posted up about it... they will work with you and you can get the car classified in ST2, but I know some are trying to run PT.

The car classed in PTB will not be competitive for NASA, it does not have enough HP, the guys at NASA Greg G, stated openly that in TT and in Performance touring we do not really want purpose built race cars , so he gave it a spec status, no mods, min. weight like 2950 with driver, Max hp of like 265 Flywheel, no race slicks, dot r tires, yada yada. So move it to a higher class. PBOC might give it an R4, which is ok. SCCA wants a GTS car so again go to 425hp and you can run in GTS SCCA. OR NASA SU I think it is.

A few questions about weight saving:
1. Are the Penski shocks aluminum and if so what is the weight savings?
2. Is there a source for the Lexan windshield? Cost?
3. Is the original bell housing aluminum?
4. Are hollow sway bars available? Cost?
5. Are the original sway bar arms aluminum?
6. Wouldn't replacing the efi with carb save weight? Any idea how much?
7. Any idea how much the weight savings is for the ABS panels?

Thanks,
Mike

I'm having the carb swap done now... I dont' think they weighed it before, but they'll weight it after to corner-weight it so I can get some data.

The swaybar end arms are aluminum... I had one brake so i replaced w/ steel. Yes they're heavier vs. the aluminum.

I'll probably do the lexan windshield next... but since I'm not really racing the car I'm not too worried about it. I just wanted reliable fun.

The bell housing is aluminum. I think you could same some weight if you changed to a steel bell housing and make a new trans tunnel out of aluminum. The tunnel is made of steel and weights a ton.

David

Same for me- not racing. Looking for the simple, cheap and reliable weight reduction ideas. I'm guessing that the aluminum bell housing and steel tunnel was clutch blow up safety. Is the steel tunnel important to the ridgity of the chassis? The blow proof bell housing with aluminum sheet tunnel then would substitue for all safety concerns at a net weight reduction. Sounds right to me and not expensive or hard to do. I need to look again, but it seems to me the clutch is at or forward of my feet. Could a car pass tech for say NASA time trials if both were aluminum?
Seems like Lexan could save significant weight that is high in the chassis. Would eliminate the cracking issue as well. Guess it depends on how difficult and the cost.

Thanks for the info.

Mike

I got my lexan windshield from http://www.percyshp.com/ . Some of the weight savings will be offset by needing extra supports though. It won't crack but it will get pitted.

Check the size of your fuel cell. My orginal cell was 34 gallons. Seems a bit much for the average 30 minute session. I replaced it with an ATL 20 gallon cell. The cells are heavy even without fuel but if your on a budget, just pay closer attention to how much fuel you are carrying and don't fill it up. Ever.

Get rid of the brakes, they are just slowing you down anyways.....:cwm27:

The bell housing is aluminum. I think you could same some weight if you changed to a steel bell housing and make a new trans tunnel out of aluminum. The tunnel is made of steel and weights a ton.

David

My aluminum bell housing weighs 10 lb, my steel bell housing weights 46 lb (want to by my steel bell housing ?). The trans tunnel is made of steel and will offer some protection if your clutch explodes - parts will travel right through a thin (weight saving) tunnel. My guess is, if you went to a steel bell housing (for protection) and, an aluminum tunnel (for weight savings), at best you will end up with an even trade in protection vs weight .... why spend the money and time ? However, if you want to go down that road, I am serious about selling my McLeod SFI bell housing with tremec adapter.

The bellhousing is forward of the footbox. My physics lessons say that the softer the bellhousing the lower the chance of clutch parts hitting your feet. Might have more of a chance of getting clutch parts coming through the windshield.:2cents: Or at least coming through the front of the foot box rather then the trans tunnel.

In a typical car your feet are directly in line with the clutch. The Panos is almost as long as a strectch limo.:icon16:

Jim, thanks for the Lexan source. What thickness (1/8, 1/4 or 3/8) do you recommend? How do you figure out how to properly brace it?

I agree aluminum for both would be fine given how far forward the bell housing is.

Mike

I installed the 3/16' from Percy's with no problems. They have blems that are 60% off that are fine for our cars. I would suggest you purchase a blank for the rear at the same time to save on the frt. cost. Remember the windshields are 2" over sized and need to be trimed and 18 tooth jig saw and belt sander work excellent. Jim Woodruff

Greetings , I went to a lexan windshield after cracking 4 glass ones ; body viabration ( plastic ) at 125 + -- would split them up the middle ... Go with a 1/4" and a center brace ... Tried a 3/16" by mistake w/ the same center brace , BAD news , at 125 -130 mph each side would pop in about an inch or better ; resulting in a BAD reflection / distortion ; Plus it would change the cars areo as each side went concave ... About a 1/2 lane instantly , a real bummer setting up for corner one at BIR after a .9 mile straight ... Pulled the wiper assembly completely ...
Net Result : Lost 30 pounds ; no more lost track time from cracking glass ; won't let anyone else clean my winshield ...
Speed-Glass has them ; approx. $550.00 ... they come over sized & need to be trimed all four sides ; trace the old one ... then mask off the areas'to be blackened out ; scuff w/ scotch pad & paint ... Archers used a paint that was like a thin rubber when dry ... They are coated for additional scratch resistanace , but leave the film on through the install process & then adjust to the fact that your not going to have the perfect clairity of glass !!!

Best Wishes for this Season / Paul