You planning on track use?

 

seats will lose you loads, spare wheel etc

 

It all depends on how permanent you want the changes to be - airbags weigh a bit, so does the radio, air con compressor, door panels & speakers, carpets, boot trim, headlining, parcel shelf... it's a long list.... :hihi

 

Track Preparing a 330i

I'm currently prepping a 330i for the track. I am trying to lose as much weight as possible. ( I weigh less than 12stone, so not much scope there, btw. )

So, I have stripped the entire interior, airbags, parcel shelf, carpets, most of the dash, glovebox, all the excess wiring that I generated from taking away the associated components, airbox, one of the horns, all the boot trim, CD changer, speakers, sound deadening, all the metal interior of the doors by using a grinder etc etc. Problem I have now, is most the stuff I have taken out, has come from the back half of the car.
I am therefore asking the general community what I can do, if anything, to get stuff off the front end of the car - foglights are gone, but weigh virtually nothing anything.
Car is never going back on the road so it can be butchered. Oh and I had an M3, which was excellent, but I wanted a challenge and keep the budget rock bottom ( until I start buying suspension and brakes Ha. )
Thanks.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention, all the window motors are gone, glass is now perspex, no sunroof, no a/c, removed the bonnet insulation and then put it back as it weighs nothing. Replaced the washer bottle with a tiny one, trimmed down the pollen filter housing as that is heavy, deleted the headlight washer system. Seats have been replaced, as have the seatbelts. I have even removed the window switches, the interior door opening latches and probably some other bits I have forgotten about...................

 

trimmed down the pollen filter housing as that is heavy

Massively heavy, I've never understood why :confused

 

How much weight have you saved up to now do you think?

 

sounds like u did do some serious stripping already!

carbon bonnet, roof...

here a good thread on it
e46 Weight Reduction Guide! - E46Fanatics

and unsprung weight (wheels etc) reductions count 4x?

 

Are you driving it to the track or trailering it?

 

Car is going to stay road legal and I have kept the drivers seat for the long drive to the Ring. Not sure how much has come out already in kg, but obviously a fair bit. I am running E36 M3 staggered wheels with R888's. The wheels are a 3kg saving each over stock road wheels, although I have kept them for getting to the tracks. Carbon bonnet eventually, but I am starting to get into diminishing returns now, as you can imagine. Agreed re pollen filter housing - ridiculous !

 

E36s have a shed load of sound proofing underneath in the transmission / propshaft tunnel. There may be a lot of stuff under there but some may help aerodynamics.

Boot lid could be cut down to single skin with 4 bonnet pins. Only need one fog and reverse for MOT so one f the boot lid lights could just be the lense painted silver inside and glued on.
Could reduce bonnet to single skin as long as leaving in sufficient inner skin for hinges and bonnet pin it. Then you can lose catches cables and handle etc.
Some people dump the viscous fan and go electric.
Maybe lighten the bumper internals?
How much of the heater do you need? All of it or enough to clear the windows?
Front arch liner removal may make you aerodynamically worse off

 

Battery!

I put a Powervamp race battery in my e36 race car and removed 8kgs from under the bonnet and it was only £40 brand new!!

I also cut the bracing from the middle of the bonnet and got out 2kgs from there. So the was 10kgs from the front of the car for hardly any outlay.

 

Bonnet skin - might have a go at that. Battery is in the boot, so it may as well stay there. I was thinking of relocating it to the rear footwell ( further forward and lower down ) - would that be worthwhile - free mod and would save a bit of cabling as well ?Already thought of the fan and thought that a permanently on fan might not be a bad shout - that would be an electric one - might free up half a horse as well..........

 

Bumper struts behind the bumpers must weigh a bit?

 

my E46 330i FL (Oct. 2001) is at garage now for maintenance etc.,

asked to remove aircon, as i (almost) don't use it anyways, and read it would weigh about 40 lbs

but the mechanic now says it's not that heavy, the compressor/pump is about 14 lbs (we're sure of that), then there's almost 2 lbs of fluid and a lot of hoses but they don't weigh much, so according to him that would total like -20 lbs

anybody here has got more accurate data on weight of the aircon?!

thanks

 

Well ,I have recently come back from Germany and I am well pleased with the results. Mods prior to going included new suspension all round, new Pagid discs with DS2500 pads. I managed to be 15 seconds slower than my mate in his E46 M3 ( we have all been there plenty of times ) I wasn't too interested in times, but with a busy track I was running consistently under 8.50's. Bearing in mind the whole setup cost me less than £1500, I don't think that's a bad pound / grin factor ratio. Since returning I have taken out the boot internals and the bonnet bracing. The rear box needs to go - that's massively heavy. Pollen filter housing will be modified and I am going to look at the bumper struts too.
Anyone else with any ideas, feel free to chip in !