All Things Mk5 > Performance Modifications
Ways of reducing the weight of our cars
the bruce:
Some ideas:
1. hood, fenders, doors, hatch
made of glass fiber or carbon fiber from Becker, Seibon and others
- 12 kg to - 35 kg
2. suspension
H&R, Öhlins and others make aluminium struts and dampers
racing coils are also lighter
arms and hubs from S3 or TT
- 10 kg to -20 kg
3. front bar behind bumper
Golf: made of steel; A3: made of aluminium
- 10 kg just 1.8 kg (so just drill and cut the stock one)
4. no DSG
- 40 kg
5. front seats
GTI 32 kg
GTI Motorsport: 22 kg
Recaro PolePosition: 12 kg
- 40 kg / pair
6. battery
stock: 16 - 20 kg
eg Braille: 8 kg
~ - 10 kg
7. damping
I suppose not worth considering for most of us
~ - 5 kg to 10 kg
8. wheels
from 8 kg to 15 kg per piece, stock are 11 kg and 12 kg
~ 4 kg x 4 = 16 kg, but these are ROTATIONAL masses !!
9. tyres
between 8 kg and 12 kg per piece
save up to - 16 kg (rotational masses as well)
10. luxory options
sunroof, leather, stereo and many gimmics more
up to - 100 kg possible
11. interior & rear seats
rear seats about 50 kg
airbags not worth considering for street use in my opinion
save 50 kg
12. brakes
~ - 5 kg
13. car jack + spare wheel
there's an aluminum jack from Audi (half the weight to steel one)
I removed the spare wheel and replaced ist by a tyrefit kit.
- 5 kg to 15 kg less
14. windows
replace side glass by Lexan or Macrolon
saves 25 kg and lowers center of gravity
:wink:
So from 200 kg to 300 kg is possible. What's realistic just depends
on the ride comfort you still need and on your budget.
:driver:
marka87uk:
--- Quote from: Snoopy on April 02, 2011, 12:12:43 pm ---You know the funny thing is alot of the people that go this route and strip the cars right down to save weight when you see them or a photo of them it often makes me PMSL.
Because they never look at themselfs and think, hey i could do with loosing quite a few KG myself that may help :grin:
--- End quote ---
I also find this quite funny!
Unless you strip a lot of the car to save a lot of weight I don't really see the benefits... say you save 15kg on an Ed30 - that's the equivalent to increasing the power by 2bhp/tonne which isn't going to make any real-world difference. Even 100kg is only going to increase power by about 13bhp/tonne.
the bruce:
When I replace the bumper bar, the bonnet and the battery I will loose 30 kg
of weight on the front of the car. That will help cornering.
No horsepower of this world will do the same. :wink:
fuscobal:
marka, The bruce is right. It's not about being faster on a straight line. Loosing weight helps cornering much more than increasing power. Today I've learned something new : the bar behind the bumper and Lexan instead of the side glasses ! Bruce, can you give me more details about these ? What's the cost for both ? Do you have a part number for the bar behind the bumper ? Are you talking about all 4 side glasses ? Lexan website is down now :(
marka87uk:
Thanks, that makes more sense! :happy2:
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