weight saving.

[fleksnes]

Anyone have any weight saving on their car ?

i have c280 Aut. with custom exhaust since the original exhaust is shit hevy , and removed the spare wheel og new wheels and bolts.

Exhaust components that was removed weigh 28 kg
old wheels weigh 25kg a piece new about 20 kg. i bought new wheels because the old was trash, and bough the rims i wanted insted of the most lightweight.
spare wheel 17.5 kg
new wheel bolt weigh half the weight of the old oem.

i am going to weigh the car some day soon ,and hope its not 1500 kg any more :)
I also found dealers selling carbon fiber hood and trunk, but i cant afford it right now.

sorry for bad english, im from norway.:cool:

[jc1kz]

post pictures of your car...and your English is fine, and welcome to the fourm....

[fleksnes]

thanx,the kid on the picture is my son, later i want 2 swap engine or tune the 280 motor and convert 2 manual gearbox. http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5298/20130609105135.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img35/9031/20130609005026.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img33/2818/20130609005139.jpg

[jc1kz]

NICE....Great looking car...are you losing weight to race? You might consider using recar seats (or simuar style non electric seats as the electric motors weight a ton in these MB's) while you race then re-install the regular seats for everyday driving....

[fleksnes]

:) it looks ok i think. I lose wight for every day performence because its my work/everyday car,main reason i loose weight is because a lot of my money go 2 family things and kids so not enough money for engine swap or tuning :( i am thinking about selling it for the moment but i know i will miss it and regret it.

I want 2 change seats but i have electrick and with air stuff to change the back and sides and they are the best seats :) but would save propably 30 kg on only swapping seats.

i think my car weighs 1450 now and would be nice to lose 100 kg in total and bring it down to 1400.

[RemoLexi]

My 97' C36 weighed in stock at 3450lbs with 1/4 of fuel.

I've removed so far:

-spare tire and tools
-sunroof tray assembly
-manual trans instead of the heavy automatic
-race one piece bucket seats

I am hoping I can be down close to 3000lbs as possible, but I can tell you getting lightweight seats and getting rid of the sunroof made a very big difference especially in handling since any weight on the top of the car is extremely critical.

[fleksnes]

hi , you should weigh your car :) maybe its around 3300 now.
When i cut of exhaust i had pieces weighing 30 kg/ 66 lb and thats massive :) these where replaced by pieces weighing maximum 8kg/18 lb

[RemoLexi]

I would hope for much less then 3300lbs,

Each seat I'd estimate at least 65 lbs, plus at least 45 for the sunroof assembly. I will weight it again ASAP,

[fleksnes]

it would be good start at least, you should buy lightweight wheels you could save as much as 40kg / 88 lb :) and acelaration will be better.

[RemoLexi]

Yea lightweight wheels are something I know I need! Though they are either too expensive or really ugly.

I have a lightweight flywheel too haha,

My new mods are a euro center console and I want all 4 manual windows instead of power!

[fleksnes]

agreed on the wheels.. i bought keksin because many others were just ugly.picture of your car ?

[RemoLexi]

http://www.club202.com/forums/showthread.php?18428-Some-pics-from-a-recent-w202-meet

Mine is the only blue C36 in those pix.

I want some BBS CH-R in silver

[fleksnes]

nice :) actualy looked cool with the seats in your car :) thought it looked ok, but was cool ;) im thinking my next move is to switch battery to gel or wathever it is, but light weight,bbs are realy light arent they ?would look realy nice go for it !

[Dearlove]

my battery is heavy as fuck, but it will be the one of the last things i worry about due to it's position in the car

[John Jones Jr.]

Welcome Fleksnes. This is a very good thread you have started as I too will be looking at lightening my car but there won't be a lot I can do.

I've no S/roof or electric seats. I have lighter front seats & alloy wheels (might use Toliman's from W208 CLK as these are really great value if not great looking) on the list to do also, the complete exhaust system (have already deleted the very heavy centre box). I'm aiming for 1300kg/2860lbs which should be real easy to achive. BTW, your car looks good.

Dearlove, that's a good point about the battery, mine is a heavy duty one (100amp) and it must weight the best part of 15kg but since it's new it will be staying for the winter and I'll consider a lighter one next year.

[fleksnes]

my battery is heavy as fuck, but it will be the one of the last things i worry about due to it's position in the car

i want 2 change mine because its an easy swap and wuld do a big differance :) would take me 10 minutes to change it :)

[fleksnes]

Welcome Fleksnes. This is a very good thread you have started as I too will be looking at lightening my car but there won't be a lot I can do.

I've no S/roof or electric seats. I have lighter front seats & alloy wheels (might use Toliman's from W208 CLK as these are really great value if not great looking) on the list to do also, the complete exhaust system (have already deleted the very heavy centre box). I'm aiming for 1300kg/2860lbs which should be real easy to achive. BTW, your car looks good.

Dearlove, that's a good point about the battery, mine is a heavy duty one (100amp) and it must weight the best part of 15kg but since it's new it will be staying for the winter and I'll consider a lighter one next year.

hi and ty , there is always alot you can do if your willing to sacrifice a little, what engine you have ?

[John Jones Jr.]

hi and ty , there is always alot you can do if your willing to sacrifice a little, what engine you have ?

Mines, C230K so a little lighter than a C280. Yes, I realise there's a lot I could do to make the car lighter but I'm not really interested in sacrificing too much or spending too much either. I think if I get the car down by 50-80kg, ideally 100kg that will be good enough for me. Adding lightness has it's disadvantages too.

BTW, I met a few guys from Norway in Berlin last week, good fun, plenty of beer and they were all into cars & turbo'ed too - Nissan's, Volvo's, BMW's etc.

[fleksnes]

Mines, C230K so a little lighter than a C280. Yes, I realise there's a lot I could do to make the car lighter but I'm not really interested in sacrificing too much or spending too much either. I think if I get the car down by 50-80kg, ideally 100kg that will be good enough for me. Adding lightness has it's disadvantages too.

BTW, I met a few guys from Norway in Berlin last week, good fun, plenty of beer and they were all into cars & turbo'ed too - Nissan's, Volvo's, BMW's etc.

nice ;) we actualy have many talented people who build sick turboed cars like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piU9BmY_efs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wFjgmIVYDk

[RemoLexi]

I'm tracking my car today, the track has a long flat almost 180degree turn where you can really get to feel weight transfer, and losing the sunroof + the all the other weight I can hardly get to feel much weight transfer at all! Just sticks hard through the turn, flat and doesn't even twitch! Getting the car pretty close to its edge as far as engineering. Valve train doesnt seem to get proper lubrication ect and I really need to run an oil cooler / temp gauge.

Always something to add every track day!

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m478/remolexi/5251D4D7-BF0A-410B-B271-85AFD6230B7B-5595-000002E9B4D31383.jpg

[vixen_w202]

Cool!

I too am going to track my car tonight, but it's at the drags. Probably will get molasses slow times, but that's not the point.

[John Jones Jr.]

Valve train doesnt seem to get proper lubrication



Wow RL, that's not good putting it mildly and expensive to go down the path of fitting a dry sump system. A custom baffled sump & an Accusump might be the way to go.

[fleksnes]

Cool :) i got 2 weigh my car today :) i cant belive what it said ! 1380 kg / 3043 lb.. weird, i dont get it.
The registration papers for the car say originaly the car should way 1500 kg/ 3309 lb.

Edit :how mucht does other members 280 weigh ?

[John Jones Jr.]

Not much help Fleksnes but a standard (without optional extras) C280 V6 weighs 1430kg which includes fuel tank @ 90% + 68kg for driver + 7kg luggage. Can't imagine the M104 engine being anymore than an extra 20kg.

[RemoLexi]

John Jones,

I did baffles in my oil pan when my motor was out and rebuilt, I am running ~.75 qts over max right now and it helps, but I do have a bad lifter so it may be just that one lifter. Also my oil temps are getting really hot I can tell by the lack of oil pressure @ idle when really hot.

[John Jones Jr.]

RL, good to hear about the baffles and it's very possible it's only a lifter rather than a lubrication issue. Iirc, your car is a C36 so I'd consider fitting an M103 oil filter housing plus sandwich plate, this should allow you to fit cooler lines & oil temp gauge etc.

[Vetruck]

What are you refering too when are talking about a sunroof delete- the motor assembly? because my sunroof a very thin metal panel with a very light weight vinyl liner under it -my parts are not hardly relevant to weight loss to dramaticaly improve the way this car handles.

Wht I am sensing possibly these cars need badly to handle well? solid rear suspension subframe mounts. My car is giving me a weird highside wobble in the chassis when I press it quickly close to 1 g into a corner and I have to get back out of it to about .8g. It is rather unsettling how the chassis fails and I am gonna go throw it testing bushing deflection with little jigs to try and find out just what gives way. I am not even getting close to race car standards in cornering loads.

[RemoLexi]

Vetruck- what I did was remove the headliner and unbolted the complete sunroof assembly tray with the motor, glass, everything. It does weight quite a bit man!! Especially where its placed up top I hate to sound like I'm over exaggerating but that was the most noticeable mod to handling improvement, I swear by it! (along with cheap race buckets)

I got a metal sunroof lid off a very early 202 which didn't have glass and just found a way to bolt it in place & paint match it.

You run autoX correct ? I never tried that, looks a bit abusive to me to jam on the brakes and gas with both feet no? I could see in that case soft subframe mounts are shifting back and fourth, I don't think Ive felt that problem on the circuit since its mostly about carrying speed through the whole thing and its funny to watch kids with really nice new M3's 370z's ect not be smooth out there and completely lose their balance and off to the fields they go.

[Vetruck]

Vetruck- what I did was remove the headliner and unbolted the complete sunroof assembly tray with the motor, glass, everything. It does weight quite a bit man!! Especially where its placed up top I hate to sound like I'm over exaggerating but that was the most noticeable mod to handling improvement, I swear by it! (along with cheap race buckets)

I got a metal sunroof lid off a very early 202 which didn't have glass and just found a way to bolt it in place & paint match it.

You run autoX correct ? I never tried that, looks a bit abusive to me to jam on the brakes and gas with both feet no? I could see in that case soft subframe mounts are shifting back and fourth, I don't think Ive felt that problem on the circuit since its mostly about carrying speed through the whole thing and its funny to watch kids with really nice new M3's 370z's ect not be smooth out there and completely lose their balance and off to the fields they go.

Definately makes sense on the heavy glass units up top. you are in fact correct in stating that the roof weight is very vritical place to loose roll weight becuase it is highest from the roll axis and will aid in positive roll rate of the chassis. the more weight you can loose above the roll axis the better for "roll positive roll weight" but is bad on unsprung weight and ride quality if too much chassis weight is reduced and not unsprung weight reduction also.

Polar weight is where focues should always be. anything centered in the car not only for and aft, but up and down also is minimal importance. A transmission is generally not something you want to lighten because it is negative roll weight 9generally below the roll axis) and counters the positive roll wieght. Netral roll weight would yeild a result in no need of swaybars- but vitueally impossible expecially in a sedan type street car.

As for my racing experience? Far beyond autoX, yet AutoX is in fact the most demanding and most technically type of racinbg there is. Road racing is far more dangerous, but alot easier. Here I am in my Vette blasting down the front straight of California Speedway back in about 2003 with the San Diego Ferrari/Porsche Club private event. I am doing a aprox 165-170mph crossing the start finish line.
1497
This car runs the 1/4mile on a raod race setup at 10.89 @ 134 mph. 0-60 in about 3.2 seconds. It will outrun those high priced Ferrari's and Lambos I get paid to drive clients around in. Iws als a NASCAR Supertruck crew chief for several years as well as have run many different type of NASCAR series cars on Toyota Speedway shaing them down and testing. basically I have done a whole lotta things in life and have ran a few large course tracks like Wilow Springs (big track)and Laguna Seca as well as all the little ones locally in So Calif.

When I talk about my w202 handling, it is a far cry rom me taking it to an autox track. I would honestly be embarassed to do so with the way it still handles right now (rather poorly) but its getting there little by little as I will get time to develop it. It will always be a designated street car and a grocery getter- so setting it for an autox track is not the agenda- he agenda is it handling the occational kick in the ass I give it getting around some asswipe on the road and the occational embarassing of some yahoo in a 100k+ exotic that can't drive. I sometimes can't retrain myself when I see someone thinking their shit don;t
stink.

[RemoLexi]

Exactly what I was showing my wife riding along while passing up any car in my sight, yea that Evo MR may be faster in the straight, but if you don't know when to brake before a turn and when to throttle out, your just causing traffic for me. Your car is only what it is if you can drive it. Not to say a little C class is anything much but hey- I find it fun to see what it can actually be.

People choke when I tell them I'm in 5th gear 85% of the lap, the gearing on the 6-spd is really short especially with a 3.69 final.