Where do you usually shave some weight out of an M3?

[housemaster]

phatgixer said:

panic said:

I'm new of the M3 territory...I'm waiting my new M3 coupe' for end jan. Where are the areas where is more commonly possible to shave some weight out of an M3? Who are the (lightweight) part builders with better reputation among the marque enthusiasts? Thanks for the infos and support/Giuseppe

I'm giving up pies.

Yup, me too

[panic]

I'm giving up pies.
[/quote]
Yup, me too
[/quote]

I'd love to 'give up pies' too...(if i knew what it does mean)

[housemaster]

Not eating these in any volume greater than 1

[panic]

housemaster said:

Not eating these in any volume greater than 1

...I must have lost, along the years, my introspective virtues but really i can't see how such a disgusting recipe could be connected with the M3 thread




















(unless you're not talking about a diet...)

Edited by panic on Friday 28th December 18:42

[iguana]

panic said:

I'd really appreciate if any of you had some site with a good write up detailing what and where to shave weight...For your info i've shaved, up to now, more then 800lbs fm my C3 vette going from 3.600lbs down to 2.770lbs.
i'm a big fan of lightweight, unfortunately these new high tech M3's seem to be the heaviest of the series...

Got no site for you but its all about the little weight losses from all over that add up to a larger cumulative total.

Stuff like lighter seats & removal of the soundproofing is the big ones, can be 150kg just there on some cars easily, after that its all a few kg here & there, all depends how far you want to go, for mega light weight obviously lightweight panels & plexiglass, but sometimes panel wise you can get a smilar weight loss via extensive drilling & material removal, rear hatches on hatchbacks can be an example of this. Then stuff like heater, can be 10kg easy, underseal, dash board, lighter exhaust system/manifold, lighter wheeels- often using small diameter so the tyres are lighter too, harder spring rates not heaver thicker arbs, lighter starter motor, etc etc.

Using that martin bell e36M3 example the feature states, 102kg just in soundproofing & underseal, 19kg form the loom, 18kg off the engine.

You have to be really really obsessive to loose a lot of weight, as an example I used to share a track car, it had a dashboard & heater still, but that was pretty much it inside, full strip, race buckets, cage, plexi windows all round, noisey, hot & not ideal on road, no bumpers. Couldnt really see how there was more than a few kg more to loose.

However another fella same car was 130 kg lighter! but it was utterly mega obsessive to achive it, no real one area of big loss but little stuff some a good few kg like carbs not injection, race battery not regular road car one, fuel cell not road tank, thiner plexi glass, siliconing the plexiglass in place not using original window rubbers, no heater, no dash just an intrument binacle.

Then the tiny stuff like completely gutting the doors inards, same with the tail gate, drilling anthing not structural, removing spare wheel well & plating over with ali, even stuff like removing the steering columb stalks & using tiny switches insted, using number plate stickers not plastic regular plates etc etc, & as it was lighter = smaller brakes so another saving.

But its often about compramise, on my own old track car I decided to leave in the headlining & front carpets in, & 'leky windows, so ok a fair bit of weight not saved, but when driving on road to track days it was a far nicer place to be, my other car far more stripped & its like sitting in bloody wind tunnel above 60mph, not my idea of real fun when doing 1600miles return to a euro trackday! happy to be that tenth slower for that compramise.

[rassi]

It is your car, so you can of course do with it what you want, but... Why would you want to buy an E92 M3 and then strip it down? If it is a dedicated track car you are looking for, then buy one (i.e. the likes of Caterhams, Westfields, Radicals).

Stripping an E92 down would result in zero resale value, and you would still have a car that would be heavy on brakes, tyres and suspension.

Anyway, good luck with the project.

[panic]

rassi said:

It is your car, so you can of course do with it what you want, but... Why would you want to buy an E92 M3 and then strip it down? If it is a dedicated track car you are looking for, then buy one (i.e. the likes of Caterhams, Westfields, Radicals).

Stripping an E92 down would result in zero resale value, and you would still have a car that would be heavy on brakes, tyres and suspension.

Anyway, good luck with the project.

You're right, in a car like this i must keep its resale value and can't effort to make a track car out of a 50.000 pounds vehicle (for a start...), also this is supposed to be my family weekends driver

I'll go for carbon race seats, lightweight exhaust sistem and lightweight wheels, for a start (and keep all originals in custody into my garage for fixing them back when time to resale) and i think just there i'd be able to shave a good 50 kp 70 kg...