Leave your wife or husband at home? :dunno:

 

the girlfriend only weighs 110, but the idea has definitely crossed my mind....

 

You could get a carbon fiber hood and trunk.

 

Do you have a moonroof?

 

You could get a carbon fiber hood and trunk.

I'd wonder how much weight that would actually save, especially for what it would cost for an actual CF hood (not one of those cosmetic ones with a steel core)? Need to start with a lighter car to begin with (no moonroof, manunal seats). Heck, if weight was a concern, you shoulda bought an Elise.

 

I'd wonder how much weight that would actually save, especially for what it would cost for an actual CF hood (not one of those cosmetic ones with a steel core)? Need to start with a lighter car to begin with (no moonroof, manunal seats). Heck, if weight was a concern, you shoulda bought an Elise.

Ah seats...yeah, maybe he could get lighter seats??? Not sure.

EDIT: Aftermarket racing seats...

 

Strip out the interior carpet, headliner, and sound deadening. Take out the sound system. Remove the glove box. Toss the rear seats and passenger seat. Replace the front seat with a race shell. Remove the airbags. Remove the A/C. Take the trunk liner, spare, jack, and tools out. Take all of the plastic cover crap out of the engine bay. Replace the bolt-on body parts, like hood and trunk lid and fenders, with CF or aluminum parts. Pull the dash - it's very heavy. Replace the wheels with forged light wheels like Fiskes or Volks. Hollow out the muffler. Replace the windows with plastic. Take out the sunroof glass and motor, and weld it shut.

That's a start...

 

I have a jet black 330i ZHP that of course has already had some engine and exhaust modification to supposedly gain 10hp from the 3L inline-6. Because of this, I know that there is not much that can be done to the engine short of forced induction to improve performance.

I am trying to think of ways to reduce the weight of the car to improve the power/weight ratio and get better acceleration numbers. I know that the 18-in wheels add some weight, but I like them too much to get rid of them.

What are some other ideas besides the wheels? What parts can be replaced with carbon fiber? Where can I order carbon fiber parts for BMW OEM replacement?

Thanks

I don't think there's anything you can do to make enough of a difference to justify the expense.

Even the M3 that's sold overseas, I forget what it's called, but it's the "lightweight" one, costs an arm and a leg more than the regular model. It loses quite a bit of creature comfort in the process and, though I forget the actual numbers, the weight-savings, to me, are not all that impressive.

What we need are more lightweight materials in the manufacturing stage. Many materials exist that are stronger and lighter than what typically goes into today's cars.

Unfortunately, these materials are also expensive, so, until they're used in large quantities, we're stuck with increasingly heavier cars.

Too bad as heavy, in addition to being less efficient, is murder on handling.

Most folks don't get this last part though. I was talking to a friend who recently purchased a Honda Element, he was proud of the fact it was heavier than the CRV...

Oy...

Ed

 

What we need are more lightweight materials in the manufacturing stage.

What we need is less crap in the cars. But Americans want feature-filled, insular cars.

 

I guess lighter wheels, exhaust, light racing seats, toss the spare tire, maybe some CF body panels but I'm not sure how big a diff it would make would be the easiest stuff to do. Beyond that it gets more extreme (like the stuff Roadstergal mentions). If you did all of that you might lose about 130 pounds.

 

Remove the A/C.
That's a start...

A real answer.

Either the car is a racer or lux mobile. Can't have it both ways.

 

A real answer.

Either the car is a racer or lux mobile. Can't have it both ways.

I second that. You're 330 is perfect just as it is. Leave it alone and let it be good at, what it's good at. Start saving up for another car. A race car. One that lights you on fire. If it's too harsh for your wife or girlfriend to want to ride in it, then you know you probably picked out a good one.

 

What we need is less crap in the cars. But Americans want feature-filled, insular cars.

R,gal, you'd have been much happier growing up in the 70's.

My first new car, a 1980 VW Rabbit (purchased Sep 6th, 1979) was the simplest car I've ever owned.

Yes, it did have fuel injection, but it also had NO power steering, no AC, no pwr windows etc.

It also had a simple FM radio (a nice mono Blaupunkt built like a tank), Side vent windows which opened, a five speed manual tranny, fixed rear windows, two doors and a hatch.

It produced about 90 bhp, got 36-40 mpg on the highway and weighed-in at a whopping 1800 lbs.!!!

I did all my own mods on this car, eventually replacing the stereo and installing a Cibie lighting kit as well as lowering the suspension and installing Bilstein shocks. It still had a nasty tendency to pick up its inside rear wheel under high speed cornering.

The thing eventually suffered reliability woes so I sold it in 1983 and bought a new Accord. It had more "stuff", power stuff, and weighed-in at about 2200 lbs......

I no longer work on my cars, I don't even change the oil. Partly because I no longer have the time, but also because of the insular nature of the design, one can't even "see" the engines these days with all that plastic crap in there.

I've lost interest.

Ed

 

What we need is less crap in the cars. But Americans want feature-filled, insular cars.

sez you

 

Strip out the interior carpet, headliner, and sound deadening. Take out the sound system. Remove the glove box. Toss the rear seats and passenger seat. Replace the front seat with a race shell. Remove the airbags. Remove the A/C. Take the trunk liner, spare, jack, and tools out. Take all of the plastic cover crap out of the engine bay. Replace the bolt-on body parts, like hood and trunk lid and fenders, with CF or aluminum parts. Pull the dash - it's very heavy. Replace the wheels with forged light wheels like Fiskes or Volks. Hollow out the muffler. Replace the windows with plastic. Take out the sunroof glass and motor, and weld it shut.

That's a start...

yeah, a start I guess

but when you start to get serious, there's always:

 

What we need is less crap in the cars. But Americans want feature-filled, insular cars.

Amen to that. I wish there was an option to drop items like power windows.

 

This is what I have DONE to my car in an effort to reduce weight while keeping my car drivable

- No floor mats
- Removed trunk sound dampening, liners, plastic, etc. this was about about 20 lbs worth
- Removed rear seat sound dampening, under rear seats and on the sides of the wheel arches (next to the door sort of) this was another 20 lbs
- light weight battery, 40 lbs weight savings
- no spare, 50 lbs weight savings
- no jack, 5 lbs
- re mounted the rear amp to remove bracket, maybe a pound (it just pissed me off)
- UUC TSE1, 20lbs or more?

There could be a couple other things, I don't remember. I did take the manual sport seat apart trying to see about removing some of the crap to make it lighter. I had some cool ideas, but it wasn't really worth the time, I would rather just get sport seats from someone (besides the cost). The manual sport seats are 50lbs each, so that would be a huge gain.

I will say that it does make a difference. I am sure some people will disagree but that is their problem. Besides looking in the trunk the modifications are not noticeable and the sound dampening didn't make jack difference for road noise.

Tim

 

- No floor mats
- Removed trunk sound dampening, liners, plastic, etc. this was about about 20 lbs worth
- Removed rear seat sound dampening, under rear seats and on the sides of the wheel arches (next to the door sort of) this was another 20 lbs
- light weight battery, 40 lbs weight savings
- no spare, 50 lbs weight savings
- no jack, 5 lbs
- re mounted the rear amp to remove bracket, maybe a pound (it just pissed me off)
- UUC TSE1, 20lbs or more?

How bout taking stuff out of the front half of the car, considering that half is already heavier to begin with?

 

Amen to that. I wish there was an option to drop items like power windows.

Are you serious about that? If you are so concern about weight, I assume you did not opt for the moonroof. That alone would have saved you about 50 lbs and $1k. My ZHP is about 100 lbs lighter than most ZHP's. I don't have a moonroof (-50 lbs), took out the spare tire (-30 lbs), jack (-5 lbs), I have Toyo T1-S tires (-20 lbs). Since your girlfriend weighs 110 lbs, if you think there is a significant difference in performance with and without her in the car, then the above weight savings would give you similar effect, and you don't even need to spend a penny to achieve that. Well, you do need to pay for the tires. Sell your RE040's or Pilot Sports to recuperate some $$ for the Toyo's.

 

throw the spare: - ~45lbs
lighter wheels: ex. mine (-7 lbs per rim -3 lbs per tire)*4 = -40lbs
lighter battery: 14-50= -36 lbs
--------------------------------------------------------------
-121 lbs of static weight. but the -40 lbs of unsprung weight is worth a greater reduction than the sprung weight. so the dynamic weight loss is much more than 121 lbs.

and go on a diet and even better! :thumbup: and switch to 323 rotors.

 

Anyone weigh stock seats?

 

nobody buys a carbon fiber hood to save weight, it's for that hardcore, street racer look.

what, spend hundreds of dollars to save a couple dozen lbs... i remember someone weighed a stock honda civic hood and a cf hood and the difference was ~30 lbs. :rofl:

 

Are you serious about that? If you are so concern about weight, I assume you did not opt for the moonroof. That alone would have saved you about 50 lbs and $1k. My ZHP is about 100 lbs lighter than most ZHP's. I don't have a moonroof (-50 lbs), took out the spare tire (-30 lbs), jack (-5 lbs), I have Toyo T1-S tires (-20 lbs). Since your girlfriend weighs 110 lbs, if you think there is a significant difference in performance with and without her in the car, then the above weight savings would give you similar effect, and you don't even need to spend a penny to achieve that. Well, you do need to pay for the tires. Sell your RE040's or Pilot Sports to recuperate some $$ for the Toyo's.

i feel a difference w/o my full sized spare.

 

What we need is less crap in the cars. But Americans want feature-filled, insular cars.

Well, lets be real for a second.

Why would you buy a BMW if you want a race car? A race car is nothing like a road car... oh sure, it has 4 tires, it has a steering wheel, an engine. But a BMW isn't a race car.

If you want a race car, buy a race car. Its going to be murder to drive on the road, because it won't be relaxing, enjoyable, and all that good stuff. Its going to be designed to go as fast as it can period. And it may punish the driver, but that's okay, its supposed to win races.

A road car is meant to be an efficient, enjoyable way to get from point A to point B. When I'm sitting in traffic today, yes, I'll want air conditioning because I don't want to be soaked in sweat when I get to work. And yes, I want the satellite radio or CD changer to enjoy in my hour long commute. Of course, I want those nice wheels because they look nice. And why would I want the booming of a loud engine for 2 hours a day. I'm tired enough from work, I don't want to just aggravate myself (and everybody else) because I think I'm playing racer down connecticut avenue.

We can fantasize that our ZHP or M3 is really a race car all dressed up, but that's all it is... a fantasy. BMW's just aren't race cars no matter how much money we spend or how much we want to pretend. Just enjoy a car that's a joy to drive and will go pretty quickly when we need it to.

 

Simple answer to complex questions!

If you want the car to go faster, learn how to drive it. Take a BMW Club drivers course.