Extreme weight reduction on a 1997 Civic!

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Back in the '80's Hot Rod magazine had a series of articles where they stripped weight from some otherwise stock car, ultimately ending up with no body whatsoever; IIRC just the firewall and dashboard. My cousin did that to some heap he had access to and I'm told nobody, NOBODY could touch him in a drag race.

Are you thinking of the Sport Compact article where they chop up a Sentra until it's a floorpan with wheels? (I had a link to it, but it appears to have died). IIRC, they reduced the 1/4-mile time from something like 17 seconds to 14.

Hot Rod did a Duster drag car with significant weight reduction, replacing body panels with fiberglass, etc. They dropped nearly 600 lbs and included cost per pound lost.

[Bicycle Bob]

I hear that some of the "stock" cars racing at Goodwood have been "strategically rusted" from inside so that you can put your hand through flawless looking deck lids. For super-light fenders and other panels, you can pull a fiberglass mold from the metal part, and then build up a thin fiberglass skin, with a layer of foam and then another thin skin, and a few extra layers where needed for the bolts, etc.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

For super-light fenders and other panels, you can pull a fiberglass mold from the metal part, and then build up a thin fiberglass skin, with a layer of foam and then another thin skin, and a few extra layers where needed for the bolts, etc.

It's often reported that some Brazilian DKW racing cars had their body replaced with fiberglass ones which were so thin to the point of being translucent.

[Bicycle Bob]

All fiberglass is translucent unless heavily pigmented.
In the Kinetic Sculpture Races, there was a replica 1960s Cadillac convertible that weighed about 110 lbs - 50 kg. It would churn serenely across the water on its 2" styrofoam chassis pan, with four riders.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

All fiberglass is translucent unless heavily pigmented.

I forgot it, but even with some pigmentation those were reported to be quite translucent. Well, presumably such a thin layer of fiberglass won't stand to a lot of pigmentation...

[Fat Charlie]

Reminds me of one of the silly project articles Car & Driver did about a million years ago. The premis was that one of the writers ran into someone about to spend $$$ on a Civic to get it to some really low 1/4 time.

They framed the article along the lines of "I said I could make it get that time, spending under $XXX" and the storyline was "look at what we tricked this kid into letting us to to his mom's car".

They mainly went with weight and frontal area reduction. With a sawzall. And recouped most of what they did spend by selling the OE rims and getting steelies from a junkyard.

And ended with "Here- we got that 1/4 time you wanted for dirt cheap, just like you wanted".

[Ecky]

I believe an Insight shell weighs only ~250-300lbs. It's a much better candidate for weight reduction than a Civic.

Just pull the batteries out and replace the glass with plastic and you're probably close to 1000lbs.

[freebeard]

Speed holes everywhere.


https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...jzd2eihqoc.jpg

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Makes me lurk about the aerodynamic impact of all those holes, and if an approach similar to the golf balls could actually fare better.