Birdsmith - weight reduction
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 8,941
Likes: 35
From: El Cajon California
Birdsmith - weight reduction
Birdsmith in an earlier post you mentioned removing the bumper covers, crash bars from underneath and spare tire.
Can you elaborate? How much weight are we talking about and what are bumper covers and crash bars.
I have already removed the spare tire and am working on removing A/C components (It did not work and I live in a mild climate so it is not really needed)
Can you elaborate? How much weight are we talking about and what are bumper covers and crash bars.
I have already removed the spare tire and am working on removing A/C components (It did not work and I live in a mild climate so it is not really needed)
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 5
From: Japan
I can't really speak to specifics here, but I CAN give a few general rules of thumb...
7 pounds of weight loss is roughly equal to one horsepower gain. Obviously it's cheaper to throw away dead/ useless weight than it is to buy horsepower. Back in the 90's, when I was vintage racing with VARA (a notoriously liberal group who seemed to care more that the cars 'looked' right than if they were historically accurate) guys did all kinds of interesting things to pare weight from their cars, including cutting out the bottoms of their door shells with holesaws, using plastic (Lexan) windshields, anything imaginable.
Basically, if you are looking to effectively lighten your C3, I would consider anything that is not primary structure fair game, and that includes the reinforcements that extend from the frame ends underneath the bumpers on post-'73 cars. These things do nothing to add to the rigidity of the frame; they were only put there because the .gov decided they were good for us. The problem here is that the bumper covers on these cars are flexible urethane and without the support that the structure gives them they will likely distort. If it were me I would replace them with fiberglass...
There are probably a few other racer-types here that can chime in (my race car was a '67 Mustang, which was about 800 lbs. lighter than a C3 Vette to begin with) with weight-saving advice. It CAN get tricky with these cars because they are VERY heavily built to begin with, and much of that weight (Frame and birdcage) is primary structure.
One racer from the 60's and early 70's who was notorious for ridiculous weight-saving tricks was Dick Guldstrand...you may want to look into what he was doing. I have read from various sources that his '65 roadster was among the lightest SCCA racers of its time, and the one car that gave the Cobras occasional problems...
ps I work in San Diego...
7 pounds of weight loss is roughly equal to one horsepower gain. Obviously it's cheaper to throw away dead/ useless weight than it is to buy horsepower. Back in the 90's, when I was vintage racing with VARA (a notoriously liberal group who seemed to care more that the cars 'looked' right than if they were historically accurate) guys did all kinds of interesting things to pare weight from their cars, including cutting out the bottoms of their door shells with holesaws, using plastic (Lexan) windshields, anything imaginable.
Basically, if you are looking to effectively lighten your C3, I would consider anything that is not primary structure fair game, and that includes the reinforcements that extend from the frame ends underneath the bumpers on post-'73 cars. These things do nothing to add to the rigidity of the frame; they were only put there because the .gov decided they were good for us. The problem here is that the bumper covers on these cars are flexible urethane and without the support that the structure gives them they will likely distort. If it were me I would replace them with fiberglass...
There are probably a few other racer-types here that can chime in (my race car was a '67 Mustang, which was about 800 lbs. lighter than a C3 Vette to begin with) with weight-saving advice. It CAN get tricky with these cars because they are VERY heavily built to begin with, and much of that weight (Frame and birdcage) is primary structure.
One racer from the 60's and early 70's who was notorious for ridiculous weight-saving tricks was Dick Guldstrand...you may want to look into what he was doing. I have read from various sources that his '65 roadster was among the lightest SCCA racers of its time, and the one car that gave the Cobras occasional problems...
ps I work in San Diego...
