Body panels, weight distribution.

[anonymous-user]

As I posted elsewhere I am building a Caterham race car in Malayasia, the old way, I.e. sourcing all the parts, ( no 170% import duty). I have a new caterham Chassie, Supersprint 1700 running gear, and buying all the rest as I see it, wide track suspension from Demmon T, alloy uprights, R500 wheels from DT, etc, body seats etc are all carbon fiber, no instruments except digi rev counter, disks all round, with no hand brake, will run without a silencer, and I am aiming for a very light car. So to the questions.
Does any one have experience of using light weight thinner panels for the body, if so what gausge have you gone down too? The regs specify the wieght of alloy for the fire wall around the driver but nothing in the regs to stop me using alloy baking foil for the passenger side and the rear.
Does any one have advice on weight distribution, we are mounting the engine 4 inches back, battery, fuel tank and fire E will all be in the passenger footwell but I'm unsure whether to put these down at he foot end, to centalize the mass, or put them along side the passenger seat to better counter the weight of the driver.
Driver weight is 47 Kilo so 30 liter of fuel battery etc will almost exacly balance acroos he center line, giving a good left to right balance.

[Gingerbread Man]

You can get Carbon Fibre panels.

[anonymous-user]

I know but at what price, I can buy buy flat sheet carbon fiber fairly cheap from China, also I don't know what strenght the panels give to the overall structure, many of the panels are stressed. I currently have a carbon fiber dash in my Sylva that is just flat panel, the dash on the Caterham will be CF

[HustleRussell]

To an extent you don't have to worry too much about weight distribution because it means little in a dynamic situation anyway. You can flat-floor the car afterwards to perfect the handling balance if you want to.