ivai

I've been thinking about how heavy the 951 is and how much faster it would be if it were super light.. say, sub 2k lbs.

Has anyone ever seen/heard of a 951 using all carbon fiber for body work? Maybe with that, lexan glass, and other weight redux items, one could make the 944 turbo weigh little enough for it to compete with an Ariel Atom

Lorax

mpd47's car is one of the lightest street legal cars on this board I think. All fiberglass and lexan with some very nice lightweight goodies (kokeln rear subframe!!). something like 2400lbs wet I think.

Mike, how much does you car weight wet? I know you went over it recently, but I can't remember what thread.

Jeff, Sub 2k is asking allot without going to like tubeframe etc I would think...

mavfan

the lexan glass, while lighter, really sucks. it scratches easy and just looks horrible...

Lorax

From what I hear it just takes allot of TLC to keep it looking nice. Wouldnt bother me.

ivai

Mike's goal is sub 2500 lbs wet before this next season. I'm wondering if carbon fiber would be lighter than fiberglass.

ivai

Yes, I've heard that it fogs and scratches easily. You just have to buff it frequently with special plastic cleaner.

ivai

Maybe going to tube-frame would be called for then Imagine how much fun it'd be to redesign/rebuild the whole car while keeping it looking relatively close to a stock car from the outside!

Lorax

CF over FG? A few #'s maybe... not really worth the difference in cost, but if you were really serious then sure.

I would do it

Jeff we should both go on a weight reduction program for our cars while we rebuild. Just a friendly competition....

ivai

Lol. I won't be doing "serious" weight redux until I'm done with school probably.. I'll want to have my second 951 by then

Lorax

DD and project? Im not to into serious weight loss either with this car because I want to keep the interior fully trimmed (not that much weight anyway)

Im contemplating ac delete though......

ivai

Aren't you going to school in Florida next fall? No a/c is going to seriously suck if this is your daily driver :P

TRP951

I beleive last time I saw mike and we talked about it his car was ~2650# though carbon fiber would be lighter it cost alot more and there is probably better places to spend the extra difference between CF and FG. Maybe get FG and get other performance mods?

2bridges

I think if you do some research you will find only minor weight savings for Fiberglass vs carbon fiber. The real benefit of cf is strength - much much stronger than fiberglass. Of course this it at 10-40 times the cost of fiberglass. Even most dedicated race cars do not use carbon fiber - not available or not cost effective.

When I hit the lotto maybe I can give you first hand experience

Lorax

But if you were trying to specifically build a very very light car it might be something to think about.

I agree as to the cost/benefit not making sense over FG.

SoloRacer

How much did the 944 GTR cars weigh? The Kokelyn cars (Orca and Flipper) were probably getting as light as one could realistically be but I don't know what they weighed. I think that sub 2000 lbs on a 951 is going to be extremely difficult. For example my stripped out, fibreglass body 914 weighs 1400 lbs without an engine. I'm hoping to keep it under 2000 lbs with an engine and even that may prove to be difficult.