I almost have the car completely gutted for the track, still have to do the AC and heater core. Currently have removed nearly 300 lbs of crap from the interior... I'll be cutting the stiffeners from the doors and then building the cage and painting the bars... Photos will be sad for those of you who love your interior.

Here's the first part.

 

I take it your keeping the car now.

 

I finally found a home class for the Crossfire with the National Auto Sports Association that has the Crossfire classed with cars that will allow it a chance at podium finishes... So, yes... it's going to stay...

I'm still buying a SRSCCA Sports racer though, so don't be confused...

 

Whew, that's a lot of money you throw in there!

Why can't you just get that Renntech upgrade for 330 hp or the 400 hp? If you count your losses, you're way pass the cost of the upgrades!

 

You're starting to sound like my wife.

Ah heck, it's a track car now... Why not have the fastest Crossfire Limited competing in the US ?

 

Glad you are sticking with the Crossfire Derek!

Shedding weight has still going to be much more cost effective than 'finding' more power. It's an all round increase in performance too - accelerate faster, brake faster, more nimble through the turns etc, etc.

I bet you will save a whole lot more once you junk the AC - that lot usually adds 50 KG. I would also fix the spoiler in the up position and junk the motor and gearing, that all looks like a couple of pounds.

Are you allowed Plexiglas side and rear windows?

How about FG doors, hood and tailgate? Or do you have to keep the stock metal?

Good Luck next weekend! I shall be on the track too, but I'll still be riding round in leather clad air-conditioned luxury.

 

Simon: I figured "what the heck" now that I found a competitive class for the car, I can have fun being the only Crossfire racing in TTD. I can shed as much weight as can be safely done, so FG body panels could be used as well as lexan windows.

Bare in mind, I'll end up having to put about 70 lbs of steel pipe in the car to build the roll cage.

The AC unit is a beast to remove. should have it out today, but need to plug the coolant and heater pipes at the engine. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet.

I'm trying to figure out how to lighten the rear hatch. It weighs 48 lbs.

Keep me posted on your ECU project and the brake ducts...

 

It's good to hear that you can now just push forward and develop the car.

If it were me I would be thinking of ditching the hatch altogether and, seeing as most of it is glass area anyway, doing something like this:



Just a note on the AC - you will probably find that the OBD with throw some codes once its all disconnected.

Good Luck!

 

small... but ...would relocating the battery to the rear help to balance?

j

 

It could well do. You could also swap it for a small lightweight gel type as you won't be needing all that capacity to run all accessories anymore.

There's also a gallon or so of washer fluid in the front end too (assuming you run with it full)...It all adds up!

 

It's already throwing unusual codes... BAS/ESP light is illuminating (I'll figure that out later) I've gotten most of the passenger side heater fan, filters, casing etc. removed. And the darn passenger side airbag unit must have weighed 20 lbs with the nitrogen bottle...

This is going to take me a good week to remove everything then snug all the wire looms and clean it up. I might have to take it over to my friends shop to get the AC / heater unit out and remove the AC clutch assembly as well as re-routing (plugging) the heating and cooling plumbing and removing the compressor unit.

Nice sketch. Not sure I want to spend $ having a composite hatch made, but may remove the rear glass and install lexan.

Good call on the battery (xfire1) and washer fluid. I might want to convert that to a BEER tap... LOL.

PS: I'm expecting a set of headers in the next few days. Not sure if they will work as they are designed for the C320. Looking under the bonnet I have noticed that our headers have an 02 sensor tapped into them and these do not. I may have to fabricate something after the flange.

 

talk about weight loss with bigger intake scoops...and maybe some new ideas... i just found this new post at a slk320 thread


It is a Carbon Fiber (RENNtech replica) airbox with V6 w203-type filter housing (housing and intake scoops on it are bigger than the 320 SLK.'s)
- high flow GREEN-Filters, Matching size SAMCO inlet hoses, Custom air-scoops up front... heat insulating material under air-box.

Even though Renntech won't sell these air boxes to the SLK320 ...they claim it will not clear the hood... however with a minor modification to the mounting points, the hood CLEARS!!!

CFintake002.jpg
__________________
drive em' like u stoll em'

 

Simon: Strange thing, the BAS/ESP light went away after a quick drive. But now the electric radiator fan motor is running at full speed all the time. It must have a sensor attached somewhere in the looms of wires I disconnected in the cockpit. If I can't figure out where it is being activated from, I may just install a toggle switch inside the car to turn it on and off as needed.

Other than that the car is working fine. I still have a lot to do, but should have most of it done before my race next weekend... It's ugly as hell inside, but once I have a chance to install the cage and paint the interior, it will look pretty good for a track car...

I'm going to try to find a place to have it weighed... If I can get it down to 2,600 lbs I'll be really competitive...

 

Try any truck stop. "CAT Scales" are best. You can find one near you here...

http://www.catscale.com and http://www.catscale.com/cgi-bin/locgen.cgi?state=CA

I noticed they have one near Buttonwillow where you race...

 

Thanks for the hook-up... There are two near Buttonwillow Raceway and one about 15 mins from my house. How accurate do you think they are ? Because a friend of mine has them for his racecar that are accurate down to the 10th lb. but I won't be able to get to his shop for awhile.

I started weighing the parts I removed from the car on a regular bathroom scale... But now want to weigh the car...

Never mind, I answered my own question... The CAT scales are accurate to +/- 40 lbs. Charge is $8.50.

 

Alright, here we go... after removing a few truck loads of interior crap, I had the car weighed at the suggestion of (BEN47). I took the car to the CAT scales nearest my house. I was told that these scales are only accurate to +/- 40 lbs. So until I get the car out to the track to have it weighed on a Longacre System this is the best I can do...

The big question is what was the original weight. I have seen everything from 3,010 to 3,300 lbs. in the searches I've done. All I know is that when I got the car classified through the SCCA and had DC deliver the manufacturer specs. the dry curb weight was listed by the manufacturer as 3180 lbs.

Now bare in mind I had exactly 3/8 of a tank of gas in the car when I weighed it today, which would be about 36 lbs of gasoline.

So since I'm going with the SCCA specs. of 3180 lbs, I have removed appx. 440 lbs from the car. Now does anyone have the equation that relates hp to weight ? In other words, if I have a 215 hp car that weighs 3,180 lbs and I have a X hp car that weighs 2,740 lbs. what is the equivalent hp of car X ?

I always sucked at algebra... But I get an equivalent HP of 249.5 Can someone check me on this ?

Granted I removed a lot of stuff, but 440 lbs ? And I still haven't gotten the AC unit out yet...

 

~ nice job... that's a huge amount of weight to drop.

 

Good job on the weight reduction.

Just think another 440 lbs off of that and you will have the same power to weight ratio as a stock full interior srt-4.

 

LOL...

I've run many times with SRT4's... They were tough... But still have not been beaten by one yet... Now Mini Cooper S is a pain in my A$$... So are 350z's and a few A6's...

I'll keep you posted how the car does now that it's been nearly gutted... I'm running Willow Springs next weekend with the National Auto Sports Association, SOCAL division...

 

I don't quite believe this weight... I wish I had taken the car to the same place before and after... Even though I have the printout, I still think 440 lbs is wrong...

BEN47... can you go have your car weighed at a CAT scale so we can compare ?