Lightened flywheel

[BIG COL]

Just a thought but is there any merit in lightening the flywheel on a 4.0 chimaera, it seems bloody heavy, would this make it rev easier, just a thought

[BIG COL]

Any idea how much can be shaved off

[shpub]

How much do you want to spend? The ultimate is a small custom jobby with a triple plate clutch and special starter motor that weighs in at around... 3.7 KG. Bit expensive and not really suitable for a road car but possible.

Lightening flywheels is not for the unwary as get it wrong and they can explode. John Eales Developments do them which can save a couple of kilos yet are standard. They also do the superlight version I mentioned at the top.

[V8 Kieran]

Just a thought - apologies if this sounds daft, but.....

Chimaeras have two springs attached to the engine end of the throttle cable, making the accelerator very 'heavy'. Take one spring off and much easier to rev/blip throttle etc.

Probably not what you meant, but thought I'd mention...

[BIG COL]

shpub said:

How much do you want to spend? The ultimate is a small custom jobby with a triple plate clutch and special starter motor that weighs in at around... 3.7 KG. Bit expensive and not really suitable for a road car but possible.

Lightening flywheels is not for the unwary as get it wrong and they can explode. John Eales Developments do them which can save a couple of kilos yet are standard. They also do the superlight version I mentioned at the top.

Steve, thanks for the reply, in your opinion is it worth it on fast road/track car (heads, cam, induction etc) have the thing in bits so I guess it could be done, any idea how much could be safelyremoved ?

GC

[GreenV8S]

Lightening the flywheel releases slightly more power (the power that would have gone into accelerating the flywheel can go into accelerating the car instead), but the disadvantage is that it becomes harder to control the engine revs when pulling away from standstill and during gear changes because the engine speed changes so much quicker. That's fine for a track car, but depending how far you go it can be a pita for a road car.

[aerospoke]

Hello Gordon

I´m driving a 4lChim that other than a blueprinted engine with polished heads and a lightened flywheel had no other mods. The garage where the previous the owner had the engine rebuilt said that flywheel had been ground down from 12 to 6 kgs. When i bought the car i did not know this. But as i had not driven any other TVR except a Cerbera 4,2 i didn`t notice it, mainly because the car behaved absolutely faultless also below 2k revs. Ofcourse the car revs freely up to the limiter.
For me the car is still torquey enough and as long as everything is set up perfectly enginewise i don`t see any problems at all.

Cheers Jens

[brummiewedge]

Why will a lightened flywheel give less bottom end grunt?? It will accelerate faster not slower. More inertia means it will "snap" less readily as V8 suggests. Heavier flywheel will also cruise more efficiently. My big valve 4.6 has a lightened flywheel with no probs. Incedentley have you guys ever felt the weight of a crank!?