Anyone know the breakdown of a typical car of the relative masses of different 'bits'.

 

What's the heaviest 'bit'/section/component ?

 

The engine ?

 

The chassis ?

I think the problem is noone knows because noone has done it,

 

why don't you be the first on the board to seriously delve into this pratcise, im sure local weighbridge will give you a good price to use their scales

OK BUT what about if you replace the driver of said car with an auto pilot ( the one in the film "Airplane" could only weigh about 3 grams!) then u could save anywhere between 20 kilos (Timmy) or 500 Kilos (Macca):D

Originally posted by SRRAE

The only reason to talk about mass is when you are talking about different gravitational pulls and the earths is constent. Unless you want to get into the whole granet/volcanic magnetic gravitational pull thing, but I really doubt that we will be driving out Z'd up a active volcano.

 

OK I was trying to stay out of this as it seemed to be another Nelson "poke a stick in the anthill and see what happens" thread but I have to make 2 points.

 

1) You're all right - if we are talking about a constant gravity gradient (i.e. staying on the same planet) than mass/weight are directly linearly related.

 

2) driving a Z up an active volcano? Done every day in Montserrat by Jon Duberry - who needs a price for a new rad - pics in previous forum!

So where is this weight reduction going to come from? It would be great to loose loads of excess baggage but I wouldnt be prepared to loose ABS, leccy windows,power steering or any other luxury item, nor would I want to drive in something with an interior that looks like you have been parked in the middle of a bonfire and all of the above would have to go if you were serious about racing and if your not going to loose all of that stuff then sticking a couple of carbon fibre panels on isnt going to make any noticeable difference. Speaking to a couple of lads who are right into drag racing with the yank V8's they say you will have to shed quite a bit of weight on a road car to make it really worthwhile and you will be a bit dissapointed if you are expecting a big kick in the pants of extra acceleration. So if all you want to do is a few RWYB's at the pod then you have to seriously decide if its worth the bother.

Originally posted by paulg

So where is this weight reduction going to come from?

 

That's why I started the thread - hoping some people would have some info./answers for me.

I am considering more the 200SX for mass reduction for 2 reasons - it's lighter than a 300 for starters and doesn't have all the fancy air con, HiCAS, lecky seats, cruise control, etc. . Also, as I have decided to INITIALLY only mod the 200, I want to maximise the potential of the car any way I can.

 

The 200SX has a heavy bonnet - that can be replaced with carbon-fibre. Lose the spare tyre, replace front seats with light but comfortable racing ones. Lose the toolkit and rear parcel shelf but keep rear seats for convenience (giving lifts to hot chicks:D ) as I also don't want to build a large speaker enclosure as I plan to in the 300 (when I get round to it. I will look into possible lightening of rear seat tho'.

 

Most of you have already reduced mass a little already - if you have a performance exhaust and have taken the cats out, and air filter upgrades usually reduce mass don't they ? Also - wheels - most aftermarket alloys (esp. lightweight ones) save some mass.

 

After hearing how heavy the 300 seats are, at some stage I may look into replacing them. Electric adjustment is handy and posy, but it's not that useful if you are the only driver of the car. I would want to keep them leather tho'.

 

Glass - not worth changing as polycarbonate has to be a lot thicker and weighs not much less as a results, is easily scratched and probably looks shyte.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

At the end of the day, if you are happy with the car, ignore what I am saying and carry on modding the engine. I'm not trying to persuade anyone to reduce mass if they don't want to - I was just explainaing my thinking above. I would love to find out the mass breakdown of a Z or 200SX but don't know where to look.

:confused:

Why dont you just go over to the 200sx forum and find out all the info on the 200sx?

Why do you kep on comming on here and bringing up the same question over and over and over about weight /power ect, and then Argue (debate whatever you want to call it) with the people that reply to your question, and then after all that answer what you asked yourself in the first place? (seriously would like to know?)

 

im not being sarci or anything, but you must have asked this question in a different format mabey 10 times now?

The car was not intended to be what you want it to be, so why did you buy one in the first place?

Have to agree with warren, why not buy a Caterham Super lite?

Bacause a Caterham or similar doesn't have,....

 

a. good top speed

 

b. good aerodynamics

 

c. ICE

 

d. air con

 

e. comfort

 

f. safety

 

g. etc. etc.

 

 

why does everyone stick up for Warren - is he in a wheelchair or a black belt karate or something FFS ?!!

 

:confused: :mad:

And most of these are the things you're gonna have to get rid of to lose weight ...

 

People agree with Warren in this case because he is factually accurate. Had you been round a while longer, you would be aware that there are VERY few (if any) long term members who have not disagreed with Warren ! But that's what this place is about - expressing a view and then listening to and respecting the answers. World War III WILL be started by Warren, I assure you.

 

He is right though - you HAVE started a huge number of threads about this. As you will probably recall I defended you asking these sorts of questions initially. It was a new angle to performance and an interesting discussion - for a while. However, it's now getting tedious and you don't seem interested in views which oppose your own. Certainly in my case you refused to answer a specific question on one of your threads.

 

I intend no offence by this post - just trying to explain the views.

i think the problem with what you propose is that to get any real significant performance increase out of lightening your car is that you need an all or nothing approach. its no good removing the ashtray & the padding out of your seats, you need to gut the whole car, getting rid of what makes a Zed a nice motor.

 

just think, no A/C, no interior comfort, stereo sys, hicas etc, hell to get any real results junk the whole body & replace with a plastic shell!!

 

it just doesnt seem worth it to most, but if you really want to do it, let us all know how much difference it makes

 

ps

why does everyone stick up for Warren - is he in a wheelchair or a black belt karate or something FFS ?!!

 

i am by the way (a black belt in karate, not in a wheelchair). is anyone else in here into martial arts?? (no, not marital arts!)

I agree with Warren and Little Roy,Ask on the 200SUX board David.the 200sux is a womans car;).

Originally posted by Paul C

i think the problem with what you propose is that to get any real significant performance increase out of lightening your car is that you need an all or nothing approach. its no good removing the ashtray & the padding out of your seats, you need to gut the whole car, getting rid of what makes a Zed a nice motor.

 

just think, no A/C, no interior comfort, stereo sys, hicas etc, hell to get any real results junk the whole body & replace with a plastic shell!!

 

it just doesnt seem worth it to most, but if you really want to do it, let us all know how much difference it makes

 

ps

 

 

i am by the way (a black belt in karate, not in a wheelchair). is anyone else in here into martial arts?? (no, not marital arts!)

 

 

I fence (yes it is a martial art, one of bruce lees favorite infact :p) I used to do karate but it was not for me really, I am going to be starting aikido in a few weeks, that really interests me.

done a bit of aikido myself & like to include it in my lessons now & again.

 

:)

what sort did you learn?

 

I want to learn it but not the original style really, i want to inflict some pain at the end if need be, its all well and good putting someone on the floor but if they get up each time then its gonna be a long night

I didnt learn any actual style, I used to train with a few other guys that done aikido & trained with them, I used the bits i liked & experimented with my own ideas. I like to use nice simple effective stuff, wrist locks, arm locks etc that dont take too much time or effort to implement. some aikido moves are just too long & fancy to be effective IMO & can usually be replaced by a faster simpler move.

 

looks very nice when done properly tho.:)

Originally posted by Paul C

IMO & can usually be replaced by a faster simpler move.

 

looks very nice when done properly tho.:)

 

Yes Paul Its called a right punch,works a real treat :DI had one guy out for over 30 min with one of mine! :D:D:D

been there, done that !!!!!:D

 

trouble is, you dont always want to knock someones head off!!, dropped some guys nicely with a reverse punch to the body in the past (why does every one hit to the head?? the skulls so hard & has horrible sharp teeth, seen some nasty injuries to hands in the past!)

was at a party once where someone was pissed & lost the plot with a large kitchen knife, one quick armlock, took him to the floor & took the knife from him - no-one got hurt.

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

why does everyone stick up for Warren - is he in a wheelchair or a black belt karate or something FFS ?!!

 

:confused: :mad:

 

Well the answer is

A: Perhaps because im right?

B:NO

C:NO

 

have you ever considered there are members on this forum who are handicapped? and perhaps they might find that offensive?

Originally posted by Paul C

been there, done that !!!!!:D

 

(why does every one hit to the head?? the skulls so hard & has horrible sharp teeth, seen some nasty injuries to hands in the past!)

 

He he never take a fist to a gun fight bwhahahahahahaha

(well at least where i come from lmao)

you never win lol

 

I believe Craig was a champion Kung fu man (hell based on that haircut in hairys AVATAR:D) he could be a stunt double for some of the actors in KARATE KID :D

lol!!

 

i guess this is as off topic as it gets now :rolleyes:

Originally posted by 300z

and then after all that answer what you asked yourself in the first place? (seriously would like to know?)

 

----------> I asked what the mass of different parts of the car were, it was OTHERS who turned it into a "the 300ZX can't/shoudn't be lightened debate again" !

 

so I never got an answer to my question at all, nor did I answer my own question !!

 

 

im not being sarci or anything, but you must have asked this question in a different format mabey 10 times now?

 

---------> Not true

 

The car was not intended to be what you want it to be, so why did you buy one in the first place?

 

----------> WTF does this mean?!!

:confused:

 

 

You start off with a "I have a question" but my question has not been answered. All anyone had to say was NO, WE DON'T NOW FFS !!!

I wasn't trying to persuade anyone only justify my position when people tried to argue against it !

 

So get it right Warren !

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

:confused:

 

 

You start off with a "I have a question" but my question has not been answered. All anyone had to say was NO, WE DON'T NOW FFS !!!

I wasn't trying to persuade anyone only justify my position when people tried to argue against it !

 

So get it right Warren !

lol i answered that, yet you never answered what i asked you, your consistently good at twisting the tale.

My question was simply "does anyone know the masses of different parts of an engine?", NOT "should a 300ZX be lightened?" !!

 

So you didn't answer my question; instead you simply answered a question you wanted to answer which had not been asked. This was simply to try and impress people by starting an old argument, but instead you prove you are the rude, churlish prick you really are.

 

Your suggestion about visiting the 200SX board is fine - I will do that. Hope there's no-one like you there ! LOL.

 

Also, don't you know how to spell horse ?

 

I used to have a boss like you - he would pick on one person at a time. He did that to make himself look powerful/clever. He chose me to pick on - BIG mistake ! I made him look like a prick in the end.

:D ;)

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

My question was simply "does anyone know the masses of different parts of an engine?", NOT "should a 300ZX be lightened?" !!

 

Actually you asked about the weight of different aspects of the engine and chassis and the rest of the bits

 

I know you all got annoyed when I went on about mass reduction previously, but if the car shouldn't be altered, how come so many of you are keen to mod the engine ?!

There's more to go wrogn there than reducing mass surely, and it's more technical.

The engine AND mass of the car are BOTH important areas to work on if you want to make the car better.

 

 

Then you changed the thread into the possibilities of what can go wrong when reducing mass and increasing BHP, this changed the debate.

 

 

How long did it take you to make your boss look like a prick :)

You are being pedantic.

I was trying to pre-empt the obvious response which is typical of this place and make a new point which hadn't been made before !

 

So what's your point Mike ? What about my boss ?