Akina's build

[AKINA FC]

window look slick. Can you tint it like glass.

No, the coating they put on it that prevents scratches will not let just about anything stick. hell you can slide a razor on it like glass to remove overspray, pretty cool stuff. BUT you can have them tint it like factory glass for about 40 bucks more.

[1320king]

did you need to trim it to fit? and if so how hard was it? I heard cutting it is a gentle procedure or it cracks and I am nervous to buy one and start cutting it since I never did it before.

[AKINA FC]

did you need to trim it to fit? and if so how hard was it? I heard cutting it is a gentle procedure or it cracks and I am nervous to buy one and start cutting it since I never did it before.

Yes, it comes over sized by about a inch all the way around and its not hard to fit it. I sat the window on the back of the car, traced the area i wanted to cut with a black sharpie, cut it with a jigsaw and a 14  tpi blade - dont use any higher tooth count as it will cause problems - after trimming I block sanded the edges straight and sanded the corners to fit, just make sure to hand sand or use a orbital sander to strip the coating on the edges if you want to black out the corners to look like a factory glass. Cracking is not a issue, you have to completely fold it over to get it to split, but it will not crack. 

[Supe]

Acrylic will crack if you cut it wrong, lexan/polycarbonate should not.  As noted, too fine a blade is bad, as you will melt the lexan, which can induce cracking. You should also avoid using loctite or other thread sealants, as they can attack the plastics (which can play a part in radial cracks around the holes.)

[AKINA FC]

We'll here is the final weight for now but I am still trying to come up with ways to remove more and shift weight where i need it, especially on the front but I am out of time for a little while as the season has started and I needed to weigh in for class. This is full wet with 9 gallons of fuel.



with the nut in the drivers seat





Both doors gutted was worth 48lbs, rear window and such was worth about 40lbs and a bunch of little pieces in the car as well. Working out what sheet metal i can remove now and not doink my self in class points, relocating some things as far rear passenger side as I can.
I can still remove the passenger seat and brackets/belts which is worth probably 20lbs total but I have a lot of friends that like riding and I will be entering some other races here soon like the sand hills and silver state for fun, always wanted to do those.
Off to Gateway this weekend!!

[MPbdy]

So after a good bit of experience with both setups do you ever miss the blower?

[largeorangefont]

Good luck this weekend! You are really taking some weight off. I need to get mine back on the scales to see what my weight is these days. That is a lot of weight out of the doors!

I'm sure he will say the car is much better on track and easier to drive without the blower.

[AKINA FC]

So after a good bit of experience with both setups do you ever miss the blower?

I do, it was a lot of fun but always a battle to control it, lots of wheel spin, hard on parts. Ash is right its way easier to drive NA, 5-600 NA hp is about perfect for road course usage in a door slammer especially this light. The main thing in all actuality is the blower puts me into unlimited classing which to me isn't much fun, you're really just making laps at that point, not competing.

Good luck this weekend! You are really taking some weight off. I need to get mine back on the scales to see what my weight is these days. That is a lot of weight out of the doors!

I'm sure he will say the car is much better on track and easier to drive without the blower.

Thanks! I'm trying, still have some low hanging fruit to remove, not a ton though. I am debating on tube framing from the strut towers forward, bad thing is I get hit with a .4 p/w ratio addition for none production status so is it really worth it in the end. I can mod the rear floor area, cut the spare tire well out, trim some sheet metal in back and locate the surge tank and battery all the way to the passenger side (right now they're in the spare tire well) but its getting pretty light in the rear, I really want to take more weight out of the front but its going to take some thought.
Even with pulling all that weight out of the doors I am thinking about getting the supernow carbon doors or some frp ones, should be worth another 20 or so lbs. I don't drive in the rain and don't need reinforcement for safety. If you have any ideas of something to change I'm all ears!

[largeorangefont]

I do, it was a lot of fun but always a battle to control it, lots of wheel spin, hard on parts. Ash is right its way easier to drive NA, 5-600 NA hp is about perfect for road course usage in a door slammer especially this light. The main thing in all actuality is the blower puts me into unlimited classing which to me isn't much fun, you're really just making laps at that point, not competing.

I think you are talking WHP Erik?

I agree on that power number for a car like yours with a wide body, aero and giant tires.  If I had that much power in my car the way it is now I think I'd wake up dead.



I don't know that there is a ton of weight to take off the front. The suspension is pretty light and I would not cut much weight there. All your body panels are composite.. I think you (and I) are to the point where we are going to remove 1oz 1000 times taking weight off every little piece you can and see where the weight ends up. In the end I think it is better to move as much as you can to the back. Interestingly enough I was at 51.8% on the front tires with me in the car as well,  but we are trying to fix something that is already pretty damn good as is.

I was at 2908# total with a full tank of gas and me in the car a couple years ago.

[Supe]

As someone who has a very, very minimal tube front end, I would make it the very last thing you do to the car.  As was said, if you have all glass panels, you've addressed most of the weight, and the car is really susceptible to crash damage.

[Supe]

Doors will make a HUGE difference though.  Even my gutted doors weighed a f-ton (didn't actually weigh them, but they're surprisingly heavy).  I only run door skins, but I would get the carbon over FRP if you can afford it.  The top of the window frame area can be really flimsy on the FRP doors. 

[65imp]

Thoughts for weight reduction:

braided lines swap for the nylon ones
stainless hardware for non bearing bolts
drop powersteering, lose serp. belt and go alternator tension only from BMR: http://www.bmrsuspension.com/?page=products&productid=248
fixed seat brackets (not sure if you have these - but sliders are heavy)
Ditch pass seat
Fixed seat belts rather than inertia reels
Shorten exhaust, exit behind front wheels
change remaining exhaust to aluminum/ti
change bracing/supports/subframe to Al, Ti
fixed headlights
lighter driveshaft
lighter flywheel, clutch
lighter engine components

Most all of this comes with compromises you prolly don't want to make.  But in case you had not considered...

[AKINA FC]

I do, it was a lot of fun but always a battle to control it, lots of wheel spin, hard on parts. Ash is right its way easier to drive NA, 5-600 NA hp is about perfect for road course usage in a door slammer especially this light. The main thing in all actuality is the blower puts me into unlimited classing which to me isn't much fun, you're really just making laps at that point, not competing.

I think you are talking WHP Erik?

I agree on that power number for a car like yours with a wide body, aero and giant tires.  If I had that much power in my car the way it is now I think I'd wake up dead.



I don't know that there is a ton of weight to take off the front. The suspension is pretty light and I would not cut much weight there. All your body panels are composite.. I think you (and I) are to the point where we are going to remove 1oz 1000 times taking weight off every little piece you can and see where the weight ends up. In the end I think it is better to move as much as you can to the back. Interestingly enough I was at 51.8% on the front tires with me in the car as well,  but we are trying to fix something that is already pretty damn good as is.

I was at 2908# total with a full tank of gas and me in the car a couple years ago.

Yeah not much left but 1lb here 1lb there, I did get a few ideas this weekend wondering around and looking at the prototype cars a little closer, I think i can get down to the 2780 limit

[AKINA FC]

Doors will make a HUGE difference though.  Even my gutted doors weighed a f-ton (didn't actually weigh them, but they're surprisingly heavy).  I only run door skins, but I would get the carbon over FRP if you can afford it.  The top of the window frame area can be really flimsy on the FRP doors. 

As someone who has a very, very minimal tube front end, I would make it the very last thing you do to the car.  As was said, if you have all glass panels, you've addressed most of the weight, and the car is really susceptible to crash damage.

I wish we had numbers on the composite doors but i guess we will once I get some. I don't know if the budget will allow the carbon onese this year but even if I have to wait a while i'll probably do it.

Yeah I think i have given up on the idea of a tube frame front for now as it adds .4 to the power to weight ratio, i already have a +.1 for sub 3k lbs, the next mark is 2600 so i'm a ways from that.

[AKINA FC]

Well the weekend went awesome!  1st place in TT1, set the track record for TT1 by .035! 4th fastest in the whole field, were starting to get somewhere finally!
I went up 50lbs in the rear and added the tanabe sway bar back, car is rotating nicely at lower speeds again, putting power down is about perfect. No more bottoming out, car transitions wonderfully. The driver was completely the reason it wasn't faster, I really need to get my g2x in the car to start working harder on myself with data.  I am almost afraid to put the big splitter and wing on it and upset the balance of the car!
One big thanks to Ash for telling me what to torque the front bearings to, it worked perfect and got rid of a TON of pad knock back. I'm going to install the bearing spacers in the next few weekends that I bought from Eage8 in hopes that will improve things a little more.
Feels really good to be heading in the right direction.