2012 Minimum Weight

#201

To the folks who think it would be hard to drop 50 lbs: Are any of you running power steering?

#202

To up date my car:

No tar anywhere
No windows/regulators etc.
Minimum wiring
No powering steering
No sun roof
No heater core and box/ AC
Late model cooling system
10 lb. fire system
Red top battery

#203

2650 sounds great!

#204

No PS
No Heater
No Door windows, regulators, gutted
No sunroof cassette
No tar in Dr or Pass front compartment
Start race will full tank
Passenger side race seat
90 Lbs ballast
Spare tire
Cage 1.5" - A little wimpy
Finish race about 2720 ish + or minus a little.

If we go to 2650, great! If we don’t, I’m Ok with that too. I just drive the hell out of it either way. I would rather see a negative camber increase to -4.0 so I don’t have to crap my pants when they check us in impound after the race.

#205

Whats the heater core weigh?

#206

I was just thinking a few hours ago we can make a list of what the major removable stuff weighs. I can weight the front windows and regulator and I think I have most of the AC system in a box also. Maybe the PS equipment. I can also weigh the factory oil cooler. Tommorrow night if I remember.

I was wondering if you were going to put in formula’s for average driver weight, car weight, and balast. I assume you know how to do it but PM me if not.

I’ve been trying not to post in this topic since it started because I haven’t gotten it weighed yet. I try to stay away from all the rule proposal topics but I do a horrible job at it. There is a good reason why us “Newbie”, “Building a Car” or “Never Raced before” are adamant about change and that’s because we are building a car right now. Rule changes are best for us right now when we find a spot in the rules thats illogical while we have the whole car apart anyway. I didn’t call anyone stupid for not thinking of the changes I want. You probably thought the same thing when you were building your car and forgot about it. Now you don’t want to undo anything because your car is already built. ABS is probably my most outstanding protest against the rules. My ABS doesn’t work and I’ve never had a vehicle with ABS so why spend a couple hundred dollars throwing parts at it until it works and decide that I don’t like it anyway and put a switch in to disable it. Not having it would make it easier to switch from scca or street since they never work. I haven’t strongly advocated any rule change that isn’t free so far except for extra tire width which is open to debate since I don’t have all my books with me in my apartment to quote from.

Sorry I’m a frequent poster but I guess I just don’t have a life. Better to not have a life than a spec miata I say.

Foglight: Although I hate your hp/lbs balance idea I’m sure we will get along fine when we meet.

This turned into another rant. My Bad.

#207

i will update this when i have some weights but i believe they are 2760('88) and 2720('87) for my two cars

88 with trunk tar and rear seat tar still in, no PS or heater system, no glass or sunroof, excess wires removed, passenger seat, spare tire and about 50-60lbs ballast (this car was built for the 2750 rule and will be fixed before next season) driver is 210 and starts race at 5/8 tank. just min fire bottle and TC design Cage which i believe is 1.5". no trans tunnel or firewall tar, no floor tar and i periodically get bored and start pulling stuff off while I’m under the car, last time i was under there i pulled all the horns out was about albs worth of crap. I also run no heat shields anywhere on the car except over the engine mount under exhaust.

87 will every time the same but only spare tire as ballast and 235lbs driver and starts race with full tank also has floor tar

#208

Did everyone else notice that the heaviest guys run the most ballast. I guess that disproves the fat guys being lazy since they actualy made the effort to pull weight out of their car. Guess it up to the middle and light weight guys.

Sorry again while being a “newbie” “build in Progress”, “frequent poster”. Maybe I should add that to my siqniture.

#209

86 Four Door
Driver 190 lbs
No PS
No Heater
No front Door windows or front regulators
Rear windows and regulators
No sunroof cassette
No trunk tar, tar in diver and passenger front and rear floor
Passenger side race seat
30 Lbs ballast
Hand held fire
Spare tire
Eviel Genius Cage 1.5" with nascar bars
Start race will full tank finish race about 2715

I would be fine with 2650.

#210

I’ve been pulling stuff out of my car in effort to be get below 2700 and ballast back up, so I can tell you what some of these things weigh.

Winter a year ago I pulled both windows/motors and gutted doors, then re-installed the cardboard/vinyl panels so I wouldn’t be exposed to the bare metal. Savings - 32lb total both sides.

Factory oil cooler, hoses, block mount - 6 lb
Heat shield above driveshaft - 5 lb
Complete heater system (fan motor, core, plastic housing) - 22 lb

Can anyone quote an accurate weight for power steering system, and who was it that was supplying plugs to cap off the P/S rack a few years back?

PS I don’t see a viable way to remove the heater system with the dash in the car. I eyeballed it and didn’t think it was happening. Finally pulled the dash and removed the 4 nuts by the fan under the hood, and was able to whack it out of position enough to wiggle the beast out. The housing alone (not the core, not the fan) was 15.25 lbs by the way, so don’t stop at just the core/fan.

#211

[quote=“ctbimmer” post=62524]I’ve been pulling stuff out of my car in effort to be get below 2700 and ballast back up, so I can tell you what some of these things weigh.

Winter a year ago I pulled both windows/motors and gutted doors, then re-installed the cardboard/vinyl panels so I wouldn’t be exposed to the bare metal. Savings - 32lb total both sides.

Factory oil cooler, hoses, block mount - 6 lb
Heat shield above driveshaft - 5 lb
Complete heater system (fan motor, core, plastic housing) - 22 lb

Can anyone quote an accurate weight for power steering system, and who was it that was supplying plugs to cap off the P/S rack a few years back?

PS I don’t see a viable way to remove the heater system with the dash in the car. I eyeballed it and didn’t think it was happening. Finally pulled the dash and removed the 4 nuts by the fan under the hood, and was able to whack it out of position enough to wiggle the beast out. The housing alone (not the core, not the fan) was 15.25 lbs by the way, so don’t stop at just the core/fan.[/quote]

PS plugs. That’s me. I owe you for your help getting my car on my trailer at RA. Email your snail mail and I’ll send a pair Monday.

PS weight. I just took the PS off New #6. It weighs 8lbs w/o fluid.

HVAC can be removed w/o removing the dash but you have to do some hacking and breaking.

#212

[quote=“ctbimmer” post=62524]
Complete heater system (fan motor, core, plastic housing) - 22 lb

PS I don’t see a viable way to remove the heater system with the dash in the car. I eyeballed it and didn’t think it was happening. Finally pulled the dash and removed the 4 nuts by the fan under the hood, and was able to whack it out of position enough to wiggle the beast out. The housing alone (not the core, not the fan) was 15.25 lbs by the way, so don’t stop at just the core/fan.[/quote]
Did the 22lb include the A/C evaporator? The housing only on my car, after removal of things i didn’t need to have a defroster, was more like 7-8lb. The core was about 3lb.

#213

Possibly. I don’t remember what I removed 6 years ago when I put car together, but today I removed this amazingly heavy lump and ran it over to the postage scale. No telling what was still inside or attached.

Entirely possible I was just as clueless then as now, but my personal ‘get’ on the weight was definitely 22lb for whatever was excised today.

The A/C piece that is inside the plastic housing is still there. All I removed back in the day were the lines going into it that pass through the firewall.

#214

I think I will find a few more pounds of weight in the form of dirt in the front frame rails in the engine compartment. To many holes on top to let dirt in and none to let them out. I’m hoping that if I remove the bumper struts I can fish it out the front.

How commonly accepted is it to remove the charcoal canister. Mine founds its way into the dumpster last week.

#215

[quote=“turbo329is” post=62554]
How commonly accepted is it to remove the charcoal canister. Mine founds its way into the dumpster last week.[/quote]
Nothing in the rules allows removal of the charcoal canister.

#216

Yes I see that now but a charcoal canister doesn’t belong on a racecar.

#217

Well the point of the vapor recovery was for emissions, and we threw that out the door when removing the cats.

#218

I love you guys, but you don’t yet understand the culture.

Yes, the carbon cannister is only dead weight, but the series is about cheap, easy, and equal. Removing the cannister, while seemingly logical enough, is no slam dunk in “cheap, easy, and equal”.

Yes, it would be easy to remove the cannister and plug the tubes. But not removing it would be even easier. So from the perspective of a newby all you’ve done is add an additional task. Sure it’s not a required task, but human nature will ensure that most newbies remove it so the net sum will be more build labor, required or not.

But by all means write up a rule-change request next Fall for the deletion of the carbon cannister. Do another one for the horn so that issue gets clarified. It’s all in the presentation. You’ve got to come up with a way to present the rule changes as such that deletion of these items makes the series more cheap, easy or equal.

#219

I know there are threads that have covered this, but the search function on this site stinks.

I never had to worry about actually carrying ballast before so I’ve not spent a lot of time studying what you all have, but hopefully will be packing some lead in February. Anybody got favorite ballast types, locations, and attachment methods that they like? Pix would be nice.

A primary objective is to help keep the dang RR tire on the ground in the slower righthand corners.

#220

Mount the ballast to the rear of the back seat bulkhead next to the right shock tower or to the trunk floor next to the right shock tower. That puts the weight directly over the right rear wheel. Take a look at your corner weights. Most of the cars I’ve seen are light along the left front to right rear diagonal. Using thicker spring pads on the left front and right rear (or stacking pads on the right rear) is pretty powerful medicine for corner weight problems.