Lupo Spaceframe Build

[The subtle modder]

was just about to say dont take too much weight from the rear end but adam's beat me to it, we stripped out my mates mini rear end seats, whole tool kit (its a mini style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> ), seats carpets etc and it trashed the handling on roundabouts where youd normally be booting it round playing with the steering instead you were ending up the opposite way round and it was totally skitish and unpredicatble so we put it all back in and replaced all rubbers with polyflex and fitted solid mounts on subframes and it made it so much tighter and predicatble and more feely

crusoe remember that this 1 litre aint standard

wayne

[1 Litre Screamer]

The seats and sidemounts have arrived today, very nice too, and more importantly they only wieigh 6kg each with mounts!! Just have the long wait for the roll cage to come over from italy, the delivery date is christmas week so that not going to happen. The lupo has a party trick now that the rear is minus everything, if i hammer the brakes hard enough the rear end comes off the floor, very wierd to be doing stoppies in a car. this weekends work is mainly going to be the transfer of weight to the rear end, ie battery and other movable bits, the power steering will be coming off too.

[Babs]

we demand pics/video of said stoppies! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

[1 Litre Screamer]

we demand pics/video of said stoppies! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

i'll try to find a volunteer to stand in the firing line!

[Tigz™]

Any pics of the engine work yet mate?

Intrested to see how you did the cable.

A mate of mine is putting boddies on at the minute and doesnt really want to remove the dash if nessesery.

[1 Litre Screamer]

Any pics of the engine work yet mate?

Intrested to see how you did the cable.

A mate of mine is putting boddies on at the minute and doesnt really want to remove the dash if nessesery.

the TB's arent on any more, the manifold crack and melted a valve so to limp around i refitted the standard unit, TB's are sat in a cupboard again!, new plan for it though, 45dcoe weber carbs.. but engine repairs first..

[Tigz™]

Is the throttle mechanism off the car now then?

Could you not just take a pic of that?

[stevewp]

Aren't you going to defeat the object of removing so much stuff by fitting the roll cage? Obviously it'll stiffen things up oads, which is a good move, but they're not that light.

If you'd lightened it to make up for the cage weight I'd understand it, but you say you want to get it down to 600kgs. Is that realistic?

[1 Litre Screamer]

Aren't you going to defeat the object of removing so much stuff by fitting the roll cage? Obviously it'll stiffen things up oads, which is a good move, but they're not that light.

If you'd lightened it to make up for the cage weight I'd understand it, but you say you want to get it down to 600kgs. Is that realistic?

the primary aim of this is to take the car into competition next season, mainly hill climbs. They run the cars in classes dependant on engine cc so i shouldnt have a disadvantage over the big engined monsters. so thats why the cage is going in.. if i wasn't doing the competition then i wudn't bother with the extra weight of a cage but rules are rules.

Edited November 23, 2005 by 1 Litre Screamer

[stevewp]

And a better reason I can't think of!

Do you still think you can get it down to 600kgs though? I'd love to see you do it, but can't help feeling sceptical (sorry).

Kill climbs will be great fun though. Reckon the Loop will be cracking at them

Edited November 23, 2005 by stevewp

[1 Litre Screamer]

And a better reason I can't think of!

Do you still think you can get it down to 600kgs though? I'd love to see you do it, but can't help feeling sceptical (sorry).

Kill climbs will be great fun though. Reckon the Loop will be cracking at them

i'm hoping to get to 600kg's or less,i have already removed 160kg from it and thats just the interior and a few redundant wiring looms, stereo and speakers! i'll know for definate in two weeks when i get the car on corner weight scales and sort the balance out.

Edited November 23, 2005 by 1 Litre Screamer

[stevewp]

Cool. Really looking forward to seeing this done

[Dogwood]

If you can get it down to 700kg i'll be totally impressed.

[montythemole]

This might have been covered already, but have you considered exhuast, fuel tanks, glass etc? Perspex windows are a great weight save, and alu fuel tanks etc (presume the standard is steel?).

[1 Litre Screamer]

If you can get it down to 700kg i'll be totally impressed.

it's already at 786kg with more to come off, the Power steering pump and pipes are a chunky part of the front end. the battery mount/gearbox mount is fairly lumpy too so that will be modified once the battery is relocated.

i'll be so gutted if i can get as close to 600kg or ideally below. its my mission in life at the moment!

This might have been covered already, but have you considered exhuast, fuel tanks, glass etc? Perspex windows are a great weight save, and alu fuel tanks etc (presume the standard is steel?).

the fuel tanks are plastic and wiegh practically nothing, my exhaust is thin wall tube and only has the cat fitted, no other boxes, its not too loud either! perspex rear windows are a thought but i'll see how the saving is upto that point.

[montythemole]

Ok what about carpets and melting off the sound insulation like they do on Mk1 Golfs?

Lose the passenger mirror?

Cut the dash in two to keep the half you need, and fit a skinny airbag-less wheel, and ditch the centre console.

Ditching the heater would be good too except in winter!

I've seem some where they drill large holes in all the interior non-structural metal to save more but probably going too far.

Ditch the bonnet and boot struts (makes Tesco trips interesting) and maybe the heat blanket on bottom of bonnet (can't remember if loops have them?)

I was gonna go lightweight on the Golf to make the most of tiny 1.3, stripped the rear and was gonna do alu or something like that in the back, but 'found' some galvy 3mm steel from work. Looks good but doubt it's lighter than the seats I binned. Ended up with a weird rat/race look hybrid and have Mk4 GTI seats to fit if I can't sell it which look pucker but have the side airbags so weigh a fair bit too.

border="0" class="linked-image" /> border="0" alt="IPB Image" />

Edited November 23, 2005 by montythemole

[stevewp]

Remember, perspex windows aren't legal on the road. Of course, it never stopped me in one of my minis!! Just make sure you wind the driver's window down before the officer taps on it!! Lol

[1 Litre Screamer]

Remember, perspex windows aren't legal on the road. Of course, it never stopped me in one of my minis!! Just make sure you wind the driver's window down before the officer taps on it!! Lol

if i was going to go that far then i would only do the rear glass. I like to know i can break the glass to get out if the doors are crumpled!

[Dogwood]

TBH once you get the big lumps out, its pretty tough finding the extra kilos. To give you an idea, I hillclimb a mk3 Polo (lighter shell than a Lupo). It ran with a cage, one race seat and harness, no carpets, doortrims, side impact bars etc. Plastic windows all round with no winder mechs. No headlights, fibreglass bonnet, all excess harness removed. Lightened rear drums, alloy front 4 pots, light 14" wheels. No heater, rad fan, lightened flywheel, lightweight clutch etc etc. The car weighed 726kg.

[Tigz™]

The car weighed 726kg.

With how much power? style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

[Petrified]

How are you weighing the car?

I've had mine on a weighbridge now and it's at 855kg, so almost 100kg's lighter than standard.

It's a 16v Sport though. Still have everything from the front seats forwards. Still a lot to do.

Took my golf gti on the same one and it's 1270kg which is not bad as standard they are 1350kg. This was without the rear seats, spare wheel and toolkit.

James.

[Dogwood]

Weigh it on corner weights. Not sure about the accuracy of weigh bridges but should be ok for measuring any changes you make.

[1 Litre Screamer]

Weigh it on corner weights. Not sure about the accuracy of weigh bridges but should be ok for measuring any changes you make.

i'm using corner weight scales which we use for setting the racing cars on, basically an individual scale under each wheel that shows the mass distrubution. it shows each wheel and overall weight along with a balance ratio. i'm going to try and get it as equal as possible but for a front wheel drive car thats hard to do. normally end up with a 60/40 split biased to the front.

[montythemole]

Weigh it on corner weights. Not sure about the accuracy of weigh bridges but should be ok for measuring any changes you make.

Weighbridges should be very accurate. I walk on the one at work and it weighs me pretty accurately, and I don't weigh nearly as much as a Lupo. Of course they might be out by a few kgs but if calibrated should be no more than that.

[The subtle modder]

mate if you visit The Mini Forum you will see the problems the bike engined mini owners are having getting the weight down on theirs and thats without dash's half a floor etc as said above not meening to piss you off or offnd but getting close to 700 kgs is gonna be a major push and getting below is doubtlful sorry but you may prove me wrong

wayne --good luck