E30 Zone

Guys, what would be the first things you'd recommend in striping/ swapping to lose weight in a 4dr 325??

Interested in seeing any response's myself as another identical car is going on a diet soon

Empty the ashtray

Since mine is a daily driver as well as a track day toy/'Ringtool, when it does get tracked I 'field strip' it - everything that can be simply picked up and taken out or easily unbolted/bolted back is left at home.
That's the boot carpet, spare wheel, jack and wheelbrace, rear seat cushion and back. Comes to about 40kg in all and makes a noticeable difference.

couldnt help myself



remove th eosund deadening that weighs a bomb, also cut ur rear and front door inners out if it aint ur everyday car

jonnie wrote:Guys, what would be the first things you'd recommend in striping/ swapping to lose weight in a 4dr 325??

anything that doesn't make it go or stop faster things you won't use start on the interior and then the boot

cliffybabe wrote: also cut ur rear and front door inners out if it aint ur everyday car

Be wary of this unless you do something like bolting the doors closed. The car/doors flex on track as they are too flimsy without inner skins and disengage with the locking bit. Nigel, one of the PBMW guys, had rear doors that kept flapping open in quali at Thruxton, ended up sticking them shut with gaffer tape . There is an exra bit of sound deadening on the door skin that can come off with a heat gun. Pretty much as others have said, if its a track car only get rid of all the creature comforts including all carpeting, padding and sound deadening including the black stuff stuck on the floor. Get rid of the hinge at the front of the bonnet and fit pins instead. If you have a sunroof, take out the cage/cassette and stick just the actual sunroof panel back in. (A few photos on doing this if you do a search). If budget is no problem ( ) lose the heaters and fit a heated screen instead. Get rid of everything in the loom that is redundant. (Eg foglight wiring, cigarette lighter wiring, anything left from the stereo/speaker wiring, interior light wiring etc). Chop out the spare wheel well and fit a flat alloy panel instead. Merits of doing this are debatable, although you have a lighter car its front heavy already without removing more from the back. All the power steering kit. Then you are really looking at odds and sods that add up together for a kilo or two rather than big stuff, unless I've forgotten anything obvious. Really up to you how extreme you want to go, and what you can live without if the car is still going to be used on the road.

Cheers
Brian

Agreed with Brian28 - we've just done just about everything on that list to our 325 touring project car. Stripping the rubbish out of the loom is suprisingly good fun...

We've also taken out the ABS (modulator, pipework, loom and ECU add up to a few kilos, and all at the front), and we plan to replace the sunroof panel with a carbon fibre one from the US (only ~£70). We're also replacing all the side glass with polycarbonate, and have the cut the inner skins out of the rear doors as they're being welded in place. The inner skin can also be cut out of the bonnet - makes it a bit flimsy, but together with removing the hinges and using bonnet pins it saves over 5kg. The car started out at 1300kg, we're aiming to get it down to the tonne mark...

If it's strictly as track car a gel battery can save you 10kg's plus. Chuck it in the passenger side to even up the weight balance a tad.

If you lose the standard tank you can fit one in the boot for more balance and a weight saving.

I've even cut the steering lock to bits so I just have a bearing housing and an indicator stalk!!!!

As Tescos say.........every little helps.

Down to 1080 with me in it (80kg with all the clobber on)

on my old track car, i cut the spare wheel well out and made an alloy fuel tank to put there. it was lighter than the steel wheel well, plus i got to save the weight from removing the oem fuel tanks. with the rear seats out, my car used to sit high at the rear, even with 60mm springs. had to put coil overs on the rear in the end.
although i put the carpet back in for some comfort, just trying to remove my sunroof case now with great difficulty.

if you arent bothered about impact damage, make some lightweight bumper irons and fit plain old run of the mill plastic bumpers.

Start at the top and work down. Centre of gravity is as important as weight loss. Floor sound deadening should be the last thing to go.

I'm actually considering stripping my 325i touring- got access to awaybridge at work so may be able to get weights for different parts...

My Track 325i weighs in at 1050 kgs with a cage and 20ltrs of juice

Interior weight
Reduction weight of Interior by group LBS

Carpet 35 LBS
Front seats 40Lbs each (80Lbs) 80
Rear seat and back 40Lbs 40
Boot carpet & 2back door panels 10Lbs 10
Jack, Parring and centre consol 22Lbs 22
Spare Wheel 35Lbs 35
Rear parcel shelf speakers 6
Rear seat belts & 4 mud flaps total 6 lbs 6
Sound deadening 21
Sunroof 8

Total weight taken out in (2005)  273 LBS

All my info is at http://www.whitetrack325i.webeden.co.uk

Keep the power steering, makes the car so much easier to catch when it slides, so if you're driving it right you won't end up tired at the end of the day ;)