32 replies to this topic

[pat slattery]

I can tell you my Son Shawn can barely make the 2275 with at best a gallon of fuel left. He weighs anbout 190-195 and we have a MXL gauge and a small fire bottle, and that is pretty much it. We usually run thin tires and I have taken out all weight that is legal.

Pat

[Mike Collins]

Mike, why would you call my post stirring the pot? Everyone talks about the 1.6 weight but minimal talk about the 99 weight.

EDIT: No one ever talks about being over weight in a 99. Hmmm....

What's the finished weight of a well done 99 with a minimal wall/tube cage & no driver?

In my tub up rotessiere built 99 I have a 5 lb fire system, 2 gauges, no other extras and I run 34 lb of ballast and I weigh 242 in my gear.

[Mike Collins]

I have 2 customers in 1.6 cars that weigh 220 plus and can be under weight.

[pat slattery]

I am sure it is possible to make that weight Mike, with a little planning, I have the NASCAR bars on both side but didn't go far enough into the doors to remove the glass and panels, also don't know how much extra my cage adds, you can probably save some weight on that, but I have everything else you can take out of it legally. I am sure the cage is the variable that makes some heavier than others.

Pat

[Bench Racer]

In my tub up rotessiere built 99 I have a 5 lb fire system, 2 gauges, no other extras and I run 34 lb of ballast and I weigh 242 in my gear.

Thanks Mike

[William Bonsell]

I have 2 customers in 1.6 cars that weigh 220 plus and can be under weight.

WOW....I weighed 225 last year in full gear in my 1.6 and the lowest I weighed post race with minimal fuel was 2297....and that was with a viscous diff. Now running a torsen and weigh 245....yikes!
Will have to stay off the scales unless by some miracle I have to weigh. Not sure I want to know....

[dstevens]

I am sure the cage is the variable that makes some heavier than others.

I just saved about 20# using 13 ga footing and plinth rather than 3/16". It's almost 10# savings using 13 ga over 1/8". Did you take the AC condenser out and add an AC delete tube and remove all the E brake hardware?

[pat slattery]

all e brake parts are gone, glove box, some of the dash cluster, lighty weight steering wheel.

[davew]

This has been debated multiple times before. Getting a car down to weight takes some thought and planning when building the car.

You must remove the dash during the build, the insulation blanket on the firewall is a real bitch to remove, but it weighs 17 pounds. The ac evaporator in the dash is another 4-5 and the air bag controllers are another 2 pounds.

Nascar bars only add about a foot of additional tubing or 4 pounds. Gutting the door completly is about 20 pounds per door. Net gain of 30 pounds.

Bondo weighs a lot. If your car has had body repair and you just layereed an inch of bondo on the quarter panel, you may have added 10 pounds.

I build a lite car, but not by using a lite cage. I use 1 5/8" tubing that adds 8 pounds of extra weight over 1/5" tubing. It is also about 60% stronger. My rear tubes go all the way back by the battery, I run both a rear diagonal and a rear cross bar in the trunk. My dash bar alone is 4 feet long. All together I have about 60 feet of tubing in the car. And I can still get a 1.6 with no driver no fuel down to about 2040. My 99s come in right around 2100.

We are finishing a new build on a very nice arizona chassis. No bondo that I can tell and no cool suit, gauges or other pound adders. When we finish in about a week, I will give you the exact weight.

Dave

[Bruce Wilson]

And that's just the low hanging fruit. I thought I had my car as light as it would get last year but found another ten pounds over the winter, but t took a lot of thinking.

-bw

[dstevens]

I build a lite car, but not by using a lite cage. I use 1 5/8" tubing that adds 8 pounds of extra weight over 1/5" tubing. It is also about 60% stronger.

How do you quantify that 60% number for a completed assembly?

When I looked at the footings I used formulae from Machinery's Handbook but the ones I used only determine static stress and theoretical deflection. I did it for twice the weight of the car, estimated at 4000#. The difference between using 3/16ths and 13 ga for those plate sizes were minimal. At that point the likely failure point is the vehicle structure, not the footings or plinith. If I had a light driver I'd use 1/4" as I could add another 40-50 lbs in equal points around the car instead of ballasting 50# on the passenger side. But I have a heavy driver that will be lucky to make 260# suited. And that is after the driver loses 40#.

[Jason J Ball]

My first build ended up at 2285 with 25lbs of ballast, 2 gal of fuel, and driver 195 lbs in full gear w/Hans. I did not remove the firewall blanket, the tar sealant behind it, or the sealant in the trunk. All the airbag stuff was pulled. With the new one I have stripped the entire tub and was looking at removing the undercoating. But If it is only worth 8lbs spread over the entire car, is it really advantageous to be able to put it back on the floor in the passenger side?

[Jason J Ball]

I am using Dave W cage. Thanks Dave, saved my bacon in a side impact.