is there a optimum weight?
Turbo Mini Forums

As title... say a standard mini is 700/800kg ? And what i say is the easy stage where you can get down to 600kg and after that is where you have to spend money and get creative... ive felt the difference losing best part of 100kg and now roughly 600kg,

what im asking to you lightweight boys is.. do you carry on feeling the difference losing the weight from here? Or does it get to a point where the big difference is done.. and anything from here say down to 500kg and below is only small gains?

I can't believe your asking this ,lol

So I'll give you an easy to understand example of weight reduction and its effect on energy needed to move it ,

Your at a local village fate and they are having a piggy back race, you step forward as the carrier, and the big fat village slapper offers here ample poundage as the cargo ,
you subsequently come last as other contestants have slimmer lighter chicks on board, this pisses you off a little as you've never come last at anything in your life up to now, so you decide to have another go with a slightly slimmer lass a couple of dress sizes smaller and you were pleasantly
surprised how much less effort it took to haul here along the course, so to satisfy your curiosity you go find a small girl who is nothing more then a slip of a lass and once again she takes even less effort to carry along the course and you find you have extra energy to run a little faster,
to finalise your now insatiable appetite for physics you run off home and on top of the mantle piece is the ashes of your great Aunty fanny who at here prime weights it at a stout 18 stone and a size 20 dress, but now she's confined to an urn she weighs bugger all and you hardy notice her under your arms as you can know sprint the course,

do you get my drift,

carl

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

Hahaha nice explanation!

I was just thinking like maybe theres a point where the first 100kg saved you 1 second, but then the next 100kg saved you 0.5 second the next 0.25... that make sense or am i having a really bad blonde moment??

Whilst being innovative to save weight you also engineer things to work a bit better at the same time so weight loss isnt the only factor to the going faster, but the gains do get smaller since there is still aerodynamics to consider aswell as the velocity that the humble A series can ultimately propell us at

I seriously doubt it!

If you think about it, the lighter it gets, the bigger percentage you save every kg.

1000kg - 10kg = 1% loss
500kg - 10kg = 2% loss

So the lighter you go, the less weight you need to lose for a higher percentage loss.

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Im just waiting for the weight loss craze to turn into the aero craze. Should be fun!

Im just waiting for the weight loss craze to turn into the aero craze. Should be fun!

Hmmm ive never thought about it like that...

Brute force is more fun than aero anal ising.


carl

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

While reading this... i can't find the list back with weights that i once found on here. What would a standard shell lexan windows ( exept front) stripped out doors ( only lock Mecanisme frame and outerskin) and turbo engine weigh ( suspension fully standard exept all is adjustable ) ??

you can do anything if you set your mind to it...
i rather blow it up winning than keep it together losing.

finish date set for project 1... march 2018

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That page rammie?

I don't know Rob, it looks quite streamlined to me, no sharp edges,
lol

On 17th Jun, 2015 robert said:

On 16th Jun, 2015 fastcarl said:
Brute force is more fun than aero anal ising.


carl

OUCH!!

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What's the balance on the mini

Is it like 70/30?

Quality

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

Haha

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Jop that one ( can't believe i missed it) 😳

you can do anything if you set your mind to it...
i rather blow it up winning than keep it together losing.

finish date set for project 1... march 2018

Repeating some of what has already been said (and just focusing on your original question about weight);

In my opinion, all else being equal, lighter is always better

What you wrote seemed to be along the lines that do you get to a point of diminishing returns, I'd say no, lighter is better

At it's most basic level, Force = Mass x Acceleration, therefore, Aceleration = Force / Mass

The Physics involved doesn't know or care about whether you saved 100kg or 100g previously, reduced mass = higher acceleration/s.

Caveat - As long as you don't screw something else up in the process, such as:

(Not an exhaustive list but these are all under the banner of "All else being equal")

> Inappropriate weight distribution for your intended use of the car

> You make a lightweight component or remove a component which results in reduced stiffness or strength which results in reduced performance / failure

> The tyres available for your car remain suitable within the loading they achieve (aero loading or 'mechanical' loading)

> Downforce and drag are unchanged

> Great Aunty Fanny's ashes don't spill and blind you while your running the course

So I would say "optimum" weight is the minimum weight you can achieve without undually effecting any of these sort of factors.

The thing that will probably diminish is the amount of weight saved versus money spent, depending your areas of skill.

As far as being able to actually feel a difference from weight saving, again it depends on your intended use, if it's a road car going from 600kg to 590kg, probably not, but for competition whether you feel it or not reduced mass = higher acceleration/s.

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 17th Jun, 2015.

http://automotivethinker.com/chassis/stop-...is-not-optimal/

What about this then? You can't lighten whole front end and not so the rear and so on

something else to bear in mind ,and i have just been talking about this to my caterham 7 chap , who now has the 280 bhp duratec in there , at a certain point i imagine the lighter the car ,the less the tyres warm up , and so its possible to get to a point where the tyres are colder than best grip would require ,so the car goes slower .

ergo , the lighter the car , and the wider the tyres ,they softer they need to be to work well?

f1 wets anyone ?

Edited by robert on 17th Jun, 2015.

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Yes. If your car is lighter you will use a softer compound tyre to account for that effect

And with a lighter car you need less grip as the force exerted by the car in corners is less.

There is a good thread on this on Uphill Racers.

http://www.uphillracers.com/showthread.php...=downforce+grip

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