How much of Colin Chapman's ideology can be applied to the VR4 without too much compromise and expense?
The stock bonnet, exhaust, wheels, spare wheel, battery and autobox if you have one are all very heavy.
seats are very heavy.
remove all tools from boot.
Bye for Now!
You will never save enough weight without ruining the car, removing the little things makes no differnce at all. I have done 1/4 mile runs with no interior or anything in the back and it made sod all difference.
I would just leave it as its meant to be
The front brakes and the downpipes are very heavy in comparison to the replacment upgrades!
VR-4 #1 : Ernie, Pyreness Black, 98 Legnum Type-S, Leather, Moonroof & Stainless Sills, Fujitsubo cat back, Apexi RSM - Sold under duress
VR-4 #2 : Wallie, Finesse Green, 96 Legnum Type-S, Erebuni CF bonnet, Profec E-01 & EMB, TRE fuel pump, RPW Downpipes, De-Cat, Fujitsubo Super Legalis R, LC-1, NGK Iridium Plugs, SARD Radiator, Greddy Hard Rad Pipe, ATF Cooler, FMIC, Forge Recirc BOV, KAD 6 Pot 330x28 Brakes, HEL Braided Lines, 17"X8.0 Rota Torques with Wintrac Xtremes, Fully Synth Oils, Ultimate 102RON Fuel, Stainless Sills - Sold after 4 great years
Buy a Caterham R500
The boot floor weighs 8KG! you could make a sheet of carbon with some very thin carpet for about 1.5Kg and if you ever need to carry anything heavy just go home and plonk the old floor on but for the most of the time run with the light one.
You will see some MPG improvements and some performance if you manage to get say 100Kg off of the car.
Some guys are saying it makes no difference but i can feel the performance dull with just an 75kg person sitting in the passenger seat so i don't need a computer to tell me that it is hurting performance.
Replacing the front seats will save another 10Kg as they are very heavy. The rear seat lower cushion weighs nothing so leave it in. A really top end thinwall stainless exhaust i.e. not powerflow cheap stainless type, can save you 5-10Kg very easily but will cost a lot of ££
A smaller battery will have plenty of juice for the VR4 and plenty of CCA (cold cranking amps) but will save up to another 10Kg. Boot install batteries add a lot of weight in the cables but distrubute the weight minutely better. Only worth doing if you are needing space under the bonnet.
Depends how serious you are.
Side impact bars are really heavy and relatively easy to remove. If you're doing this, stuff like the strut brace and several parts of the chassis can be removed if you're adding a proper structural aluminium / titanium roll cage.
TBH, if you want lightness, you're buying the wrong car: these are all about a performance / luxury / practicality hybrid...and by hybrid I mean "compromise".
Mitsubishi make a very light, nimble and less practical car. It's called an Evo.
And for 5k you can get a very nice RS which is already nice and light, and doesn't have a monstrously heavy v6 up front.
That aside: the bonnet is stupendously heavy and needs to go.
The battery can be reduced in size for a minor weight saving, as can the various stuff mentioned above like exhaust etc.
You could remove the aircon?
This has all been done to the extreme already
It didn't give that much benefit either..
Have a Search for BigDaveAkers.. Or Enigma..
You'll find out how to strip a leggy for weight properly then
and eating less pies helps too
Kev
has anyone actually compared the weight of a stock bonnet against a CF one?
1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI Tommi Makinen Edition
only by feel.Originally Posted by White Lightning
the first time I opened my CF bonnet on the white VR I nearly threw it through the windscreen.
'07 Satin Black Shogun (Running), '98 Black Legnum VR4 Super (In Storage), '01 2.0 Silver Manual Galant Estate (Daily Driver), '98 Silver Colt (Dead), '97 Trigger Mauve Legnum VR4 Shell (Doner for Super)
Also in the family: '07 Mini Cooper, '05 2.0 Lancer Sport Estate
ha ha ha i do that all the time now, looks like im chucking the carbon bonnet over the roofonly by feel.
the first time I opened my CF bonnet on the white VR I nearly threw it through the windscreen
Still here somewhere........
Try doing that with The Vee's
the first time I opened my CF bonnet on the white VR I nearly threw it through the windscreen
Something that has surprised me about CF bonnets is the variance between them. I have seen CF bonnets that barely lighter than a stripped steel bonnet or GRP, largely due to the fact that some of them are just gelcoat with one layer of CF weave, and then a few layers of CSM behind! So not "real" CF at all!
TBH it would be a FORTUNE to buy a 'real' carbon bonnet for a VR4.
The ones I have for sale are FRP mainly with a skin of CF weave on the top.
Thats why they are so light.
Well just to put it in perspective.... My car now weighs in at 1500kg with a full tank of fuel. Thats with a cf bonnet, loads of engine bits thrown in the bin and brackets cut down, but retaining all stock trim and a ton of wiring. So i would say there is a good deal to lose in a sensible fashion.
It has to be remembered this is not all about 1/4 times, it makes such a better driving car if it can be properly balanced
Losing unsprung weight is going to be more beneficial than anywhere else, wheels, tyres, brakes etc. Add to that a lighter bonnet & wings, an aluminium radiator, lighter intercooler and possibly replace the side and rear glass for polycarbonate stuff. Remove redundant and not needed components and you might get 50kgs of the weight.
Also, fold your seats flat, only drive with a quarter tank of fuel and fill the air with helium.
The best things in life have to be lubricated
I must admit, I have got my (ultra lightweight) OZ Superleggeras fitted at the moment and these are so much lighter than the OE Evo VIII alloys!
Not sure whether I prefer the look of them or not at the moment though.
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