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Actual car weight


Mike Rohaley

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What is the weight of your car (truely ready for the road, all fluids and full tank)? Also, what specifications (such as engine type, wheels and tires, CF parts). I have heard weights from high 1100's to high 1200's for a traditional chassis and nearly 1500 for an SV chassis.

 

 

 

Just curious, I will get mine weighed sometime soon here and add it to the list.     

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We should probably compare cars with all fluids, but empty gas tank, or full gas tank - (tank capacity * 8 lbs), so a car with a big tank does not get penalized. (Note: I *think* gas is 8 lbs/gallon, but I'm not sure)

 

 

 

My Rotus was 1670 lbs when I got her after the engine conversion. Since then she has lost some weight (I got rid of the steel gas tank, and some unnecessary engine components). She's about to lose some more weight when I go to cycle fenders.

 

After that, I'll weigh her again. I'm hoping to get into the 15xx range - still pretty heavy.

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That is part of the specification section, if you run your car without a spare or without a windscreen disclose it as such. Since you cannot run a car without gas we should assume full tanks or at least disclose how much was in the car at the time of scaling. We always used 7.5 lbs/per gallon when we scaled our karts.

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Caterham Classic

 

Clamshell fenders

 

1700 Crossflow (wet sump)

 

Type 9 'box

 

4-1 side exhaust

 

Std. (i.e. not alu) Radiator

 

Std. Rollbar

 

Windscreen

 

No heater

 

13" Minitors w/ 185-70R13 Michelin MXV (or something) and spare

 

Bench seats

 

no floor/tunnel carpets

 

Weather gear

 

~1/4-1/3 tank of gas

 

 

 

1150 lbs. weighed one end at a time on 4 bathroom scales

 

 

 

FWIW, the shockingly heavy bits:

 

 

 

Spare wheel/tire = 28.6 lbs

 

Bench Seats (2 bottoms + back) = 22 lbs.

 

 

 

Edited to say, aluminum is polished; i.e. none of that pesky, massive paint.   http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/biggrin5.gifxflow72006-09-25 18:44:21

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My 2004 WCM Ultralite was 1420 pounds, with about 8 gallons of gas. I went to a truck scale, and that was what it read. This is about 100 lbs over the advertised weight. I don't have a lot of faith in the truck scale reading accurately at that level, as it normally reads over 40,000 pounds, and likely has a rating of twice that.

 

That means my measurement was within 1 1/2 % of the capacity. Likely the friction in the scales is a significant number relative to the cars weight.

 

 

 

I am going to Run N Gun in October, and they will have a corner weighting seminar, so I plan to get a better reading at that time.

 

 

 

Regarding density of gasoline:

 

Water = 62.4 lb/ cubic ft or 1000kg/cubic meter

 

Gasoline = 737.22 lb/cubic meter

 

so gas is 73.7 % of the weight of water.

 

 

 

since 1 gallon of water = 128 fluid oz which is approximately 128 oz of weight, then 1 gal of water = 128/16=8 pounds

 

 

 

so, 73.7 % of 8 pounds is 5.9 pounds... or... gas weighs about 6 pounds per gallon.powderbrake2006-09-26 07:47:38

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When my Westfield SEiW was corner balanced with 4 gallons of fuel, it came in at 1238.5lb.

 

 

 

2.0L Duratec

 

Custom roll bar built for strength not light weight

 

Heavy 14” wheels (14lb/ea)

 

LSD

 

Type-9

 

Windscreen

 

MOG carbon fiber seats

 

No heater, spare, or carpets

 

 

 

-John

 

 

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We did a cornerweight session with 4 Sevens a while ago with following results (names anonymized except my own). Since all weights were taken originally with driver I deducted what I believe may be their weight http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/smile5.gif

 

 

 

Result was:

 

 

 

My own car (Birkin S3, Zetec/T9, 13" wheels with ACB10, no spare, 4 gal fuel, 20pound sump guard) :1338 pounds

 

Mr. C. (Caterham (Superlight ?), Duratec/T9, 13" wheels with ACB10, no spare, unknown fuel): 1310 pounds

 

Mr. S. (Birkin S3, Zetec/T9, 15" wheels with Toyos, with spare wheel, unknown fuel):1420 pounds

 

Mr. M. (Caterham SV, Zetec w/ supercharger&6-speed, 15" wheels??, no spare, unknown fuel): 1475 pounds

 

 

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Yeah, we were all a bit surprised and part of a possible error may be my >super precision scale setup but I calibrated it and it should be good to some 5-10 pounds per corner. Unlikely that all corners are off in the same direction.

 

 

 

But, after all it is not a pro racing scale, maybe the tank was full and maybe I underestimated the driver weight http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/biggrin5.gifhttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/biggrin5.gif

 

 

 

Gert

 

 

 

P.S.: a lot of the manufacturer's weight data seems to be anyway optimistic at best, bullshit at worst, measured with no fluid, etc.slomove2006-09-26 19:48:23

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Rotus did the same thing... I think they said 1320 lbs or something, but the lightest customer car I've seen is Joe W's car at 1525 lbs. And his car does not have anything unnecessary on it (dedicated autox car).

 

 

 

The color Rotus brochure quotes 1237 lbs dry with a Toyota 3T engine.

 

 

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

 

 

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Ordered it through QED (Quorn Engineering Development)in the UK. Picked it up at customs. No issues. They were pretty easy to deal with. They have a few different levels of tune to suit your needs or wallet. Engine was complete, with mapping and dyno sheet. It's a nice light enging for the 7. Makes pretty good power too.

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   I still have not run my car across a scale yet but I thought this would be interesting. The April/May 1997 issue of Sports Car International has a nice write-up of the Caterham Superlight Trophy Car. It came in at 946 lbs. (yes, 946)

 

 

 

Rover K-series (148hp, 115lbs.ft.torque)

 

Aluminum nosecone and standard fiberglass cycle fenders

 

Kart style fiberglass driver seat (no passenger seat)

 

No spare wheel

 

No spare wheel bracket

 

No windscreen

 

No wipers/motor

 

No foul weather gear

 

No paint (it saves 5 whole pounds!)

 

No heater

 

No lighting

 

Tach,fuel and water temp gauges only (no rockers either)

 

13x6 Panasports with 185/60R13's

 

On board fire system

 

Caterham 6 speed box

 

 

 

For me personally, that is a lot of no's. but if the goal is performance I suppose it would be worth it. I will not start yanking parts off my car any time soon to match as I kinda like being able to drive the car at night.....in the rain.....with a passenger (you know, performance robbing accomedations like that).

 

 

 

Mike Rohaley2006-09-28 16:07:54

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946 might be about right, as I have the windscreen,heater,paint,wipers,lighting,clams up front. MB wheels are alot lighter than the panasports. I'm still the heaviest item in the car. Although my K is tuned slightly higher with 196 BHP and 150 lb/ft torque. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/coolgleamA.gifyellowss72006-09-28 16:15:19

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