E30 Zone

Anyone weighed their 325 track car?

I've Just had my E30 325i track car on the weighing bridge at a scrap metal dealers and it came out at 1080 Kg's

The car has been stripped out and has two OMP RS seats in with harnesses.

The OMP 6 point cage that I'm going to put in weighs 34Kg's so it will weigh 1115Kg's in the end.

Any first hand advice on reducing weight further??

Cheers
Ian

Alright Lloydie?
You could fit fibreglass bonnet and boot, remove sunroof and motor, fit plexiglass side and rear windows, replace front wishbones for alloy ones from a Touring, start drilling holes in non structural panels - depends how far you want to go mate!


Taylor.

remove sound deadening from floor
replace bumpers with fibreglass moulds
remove electric windows

Cheers guys
The sound deadening is on the agenda for this month. As for the bonnet and boot does anyone know the costs and what weight loss they will give.?

The plexiglass is a no-no for me, as it's a road going car too and occasionally I use it for work (when my boss isn't looking or listening!)

No electric windows - or elec sunroof but electric mirrors so those motors can be binned. The sunroof will be on tilt only so a lot of the mechanism can be removed ready for the cage to go in....

Can't wait for the track day tomorrow - it's a real shakedown day for the car - and me too infact

Hi Lloyd

You could cut the dash in half.
I stripped a few kgs of wiring out of mine as well.
Remove the bonnet hinge (it weights a ton) and replace with bonnet pins.
Do the same on the boot
Obviously headlining etc.
Don't forget the sound deadening behind the dashboard
The supports behind the bumpers I believe can be removed

Failing that
Magnesium alloys

Hope the track day went well

1080 is about 100kgs off what the car would be, our E30 racecar topped the scales at 1075 with a driver of 17 1/2 stone so 960 for the car. To get to this weight you need lightweight bonnet, boot, bumpers (should be good for around 15-20 kgs saving) and lightweight exhaust, battery. I supply all of these bits.

Bonnet is £149 and the boot is £125 and between them they should save about 10kgs

Taffy wrote:1080 is about 100kgs off what the car would be, our E30 racecar topped the scales at 1075 with a driver of 17 1/2 stone so 960 for the car. To get to this weight you need lightweight bonnet, boot, bumpers (should be good for around 15-20 kgs saving) and lightweight exhaust, battery. I supply all of these bits.

Bonnet is £149 and the boot is £125 and between them they should save about 10kgs

Hi Taffy,
Isn't your race car the M3 with the 4 pot lump as opposed to my 6 pot?
I can feel a diet coming on for me as well as the car

Ian

It's a 325, with M3 bumper moulds. If it's the one i think it is.

Hmmmm so I need to spend £Â£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£ to loose Lbs?

A plan ...with approx figures:
OK - fibre glass Boot and bonnet = 10kgs reduction
Sound deadening = 3kgs reduction (approx)
Bonnet hinge 5kgs reduction
Sunnroof runners and lining = 5kg's reduction
Mirror electric motors = 1.5kgs
Total = 24.5kgs

If I reduce myself from 92Kgs to 86kgs = 6 kg saving

Saving a grand total of 30.5 kgs approximatly BUT...OMP cage to go in weighs 34KGS

Back to square one

Q. Remove the supports behind the bumpers? - this sounds like I need these in case it all goes t1ts up>..? Can I/How do I remove them??

Yes, remove all the supports and get lightweight bumpers they're just not needed.

My old E30 was a 325 with schrick cams and triple 45's, my current racer is an E36 EVO approx 360bhp and weighing 1110kgs

If you want lightweight panels I supply these and anything else you're going to need

www.xlraceparts.com

Also noticed it had the spare wheel well removed and just replaced with a flat sheet of metal. Must be a few KG there.

Also, drain your washer fluid. Mine's got the two bottle system so takes a good 5 litres +. 1 litre = 1KG.

Hiya Lloydie,

When I was at Mallory Park, I stuck my car on the 'race car weigh bridge' and it weighs 1049kgs.

Quite happy with that, however would like to get it under the big tonne!

Cheers

SS

You've still got a bit to go yet mate. My racer is 1030 with cage, metal bonnet and bootlid and 12st driver inside! You'll need to look around for some more bits to hack off it!

12stone is approx 76kgs I think, removed from 1030kg, leaves 954kg.

providing your cage is FIA 6 point spec, thats 32kgs (with doorbars) that leaves 922kg unladened weight.

with no lightweight panels, thats quite impressive.

can you post up pics of your car and let us know what you've done to it?

M3GTR wrote:You've still got a bit to go yet mate. My racer is 1030 with cage, metal bonnet and bootlid and 12st driver inside! You'll need to look around for some more bits to hack off it!

1030kgs...? You have put the wheels on have'nt you

That's impresive, pics would be good.

I'm down to 1070kgs with the sound deadening removed but everything else is standard, the magic 'TON' is looking a little far off at this point, Taffy from XL motorsport has been can do me a lightweight bumper and boot for £340ish (inc vat & del) which will shave off 10kgs approx.

As for myself, I need to stop eating deep fried mars bars

£34/kg

thought my £9.50/kg for a race battery was expensive.

Just leave the bumpers off.

Mine also has the original slide and tilt sunroof built by the boys at BMW to withstand..well everything really! The engineering involved in the sliding mechanism must weigh some serious Kg's, time for the angle grinder me thinks

Anyone know the weight saving on sunroofs?

mines been removed and welded/ sealed up however that was purely to accomodate a rollcage, not for weight saving so unsure how much it saved

I only have one picture of the inside I'm afraid, here it is:


and there's a couple more of the car before I prep'd it in an old post of mine in this section called "I must be mad" or something like that!

The car is notoriously light even withint he championship. It has no underseal, sunroof, sound deadening etc etc but also has the GRP bumpers from www.xlraceparts.com

It also has an ally fuel tank and runs on carbs so there's lots of weight saved around the engine bay.

edit: I just remembered that there's a few more pictures of my cars on www.xlraceparts.com in the lightweight panels for the E30 section. Infact you can see the lighter car the background of the picture for the front bumper which is now fitted to the car I raced last year (with gold wheels). Not the best of pictures as both cars were in the bodyshop mid way through being prepped, but you get the idea!

Ahhh I spy a single seat,,,, there would be uproar in my house if my two lads were'nt able to go out on to the track in the 'the white one'

I have to say your motor looks a totally focus machine in comparison to my occasional road driving model - horses for courses I suppose but I would imagine that is one bag of fun on the track weighing 1030kgs inc cage, driver and with it cammed ta boot

1030-1085 is what you can get down to and that includes the driver so the car is capable of being about 980kgs on its own. Lighteight parts is the only way to get this low.

Cheaper than fibre glass etc bumpers is to stick some steel bumpers on from a prefacelift car and remove all the old bumber dampers yours has- that weighs alot and the steel bumpers weigh very little

In my continued quest for loosing weight(car only - I'm not giving up chips EVER) , the sound deadening has gone and I've given it a couple of coats of 'White Smootrite' which looks better that I thought (see pic1)
I have also just taken out the following:

Interior roof lining, metal rods foam stuff
Front Speakers
Rear handles
Passenger seat
Passenger harnesses
Front fog lights
Total weight removed 17.5 KGS

Note: Not the door cards as it;s still a road going car so they are useful - sorry


So now the car's down to 1052.5 kgs with half a tank of juice

Then I had to test it out of course and removed the nearside main beam to get lots f cold air in but I'm not parking on that grid again..

Noticable quicker and responsive with the cold air coming straight into the air induction area.
Need to remove the sunroof track which could weigh a few KG's by the look of it.

Mid week days off are the best

Mine (PBMW 320i) was weighed at Mallory the other weekend, 1060 kg with half tank of petrol. Race weight is car/driver combined, so I can lose about another 25 kg and stay legal. First 5/10 will be easy enough, still got all the standard bonnet opening stuff, headlight wiper motors etc to come off after that not too sure. Probably losing power steering pump, stuff like that. Still has the ABS pump, although it has been disabled. Need to get some brake pipes made up before that can go tho. Sunroof cage well worth doing but its a pig Have done a couple so can PM the destructions for doing it with the least damage if its helpful.

Cheers
Brian

Brian - thats where I weighed mine!

Lloydie - now you've removed your inner full beam light, i'll do the same, I was putting it off for ages because of Mr.Policemans!

Looking good mate, I want to shed more off my 1049kgs!

Hi

I guess you are on a budget, so a CF sunroof is out. Gut the sun roof take it down to one panel and bond it back in with some polyurathne windscreen glue.

Move a small washer bottle to the boot. Make/Fit soem perspex widows and junk the entire winder mechancism

Fit a fiat uno wiper motor to make a single wiper conversion.

Cut out any surplus brackets, i saved 4kgs by cutting out the seat brackets on my e21 race car and mounting them to the the floor.

Loss the power steering, if any.

Also if you have the time you could cut a lot of the wirring harness down, also the late 325i cab starter motor is 1 kg lighter than the early ones.(there might be others but that were i got mine from)

Jason

unless you are racing i dont think it is worth spending loads of money just to save a little weight. use the cash to buy some proper instruction - that will make you go faster. Also get decent tyres as they make a huge difference to lap times.

JCB wrote:unless you are racing i dont think it is worth spending loads of money just to save a little weight. use the cash to buy some proper instruction - that will make you go faster. Also get decent tyres as they make a huge difference to lap times.

Hi Jonathan,
On the shakedown day I had an experienced rally driver sit in with me which was really helpful and I'm sure increased my times around the track. I would like to get some additional tuition perhaps on one of the UK circuits.

Tyres - What do you use on yours? I still have a mental problem shelling out serious cash for tyres for a track day but if you have any bargain tyres ideas then let me know

On the shakedown track day 02.04.06 I used an old set of worn road tyres which in the wet were...interesting / OK. I have a set a Maxsport RB5 tarmac rally tyres which are for the dry days - not used them yet, the next track day here is on July 9th so may get to use them then.

Cheers
Ian

i have got kuhmo v70a on the front and yoko A032 on the back. kuhmos were ex race tyres bought for £20 each and yokos came off ebay for £70 for the pair. Just keep looking on ebay and buy them when they come up - even if you dont need them. I have got a stash of about 10 tyres - various kinds. I even bought a set of slicks for £150. I am not brave enough to use them yet - need to get my driving up to a better standard and my confidence int eh car much higher.

I would like to get some toyo r888s eventually but they are about £80 per corner.

if you wnat used race tyres contact protyre

http://www.protyre.co.uk/PTMS2.html

they often have used tyres from things like the clio cup and porsche cup. i bought 8 from them last year for £140-£150. they can do mail order or will deliver to a track as they often cover many races. I met them in a lay by near my house on their way to cadwell !!!! (i live 30 mins from cadwell). they will probably not have any yet as the season has just started but give it a month or so as they will probably have some.

Incidentatlly - the yoko A032s are really sticky. wish i could justify the cost of A048s as they will be even better. they have stopped making the 32s now though!

hope this helps
jonathan

You got our old ones didn't you Jonathan, I meant to get them back but by the time I remembered Protyre had packed up and left!

Our E30 was a 325 on triple carbs, came 2nd in Class C Kumho last season and is now sold and we now run an E36 M3 in Kumho and Britcar