Stripping For Trackday

13th August 2010, 23:03

Well im doing a track day next monday and obvi with a saxo its power to weight whats the big factor soooo im thinking the less i have in my car the better it will handle. What can i remove quite easily?
Eg: rear seats, parcel shelf etc etc

Cheers
Mason

13th August 2010, 23:09

Everythings easy to remove, just depends how much time you got.

front carpet, and plastics, front doorcards, floor underlay shiz, rooflining, abc pillars.

13th August 2010, 23:48

dont bother... do you have bucket seats to put in. the amount of sliding your do over standard seats will be your main factor slowing you down not the weight

14th August 2010, 00:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by masetw

What can i remove quite easily?

seats are probably heaviest thing you will remove. if you can get a set of harnesses, remove the seatbelts. they are surprisingly heavy, and it is very awkward to remove the rear cards without removing the seatbelts. all the plastic pillar covers come off with a few screws. rear wiper/motor is easy to remove. do you really need spare wheel? then there are other little bits like the soundproofing and odd plastic bits such as glovebox cover. all easy to remove and it all adds up.

warning though! it is very easy to lose weight from the back end. but there is not much that is easy to remove from the front. this will make the car more front heavy. and therefore reduce some grip to rear wheels. but depends how good your suspension/tyres are?

14th August 2010, 00:58

You want to be careful and try and see how the car reacts differently over the weekend if you strip all the weight from the rear. Car becomes more likely to have the back end kick round.

As long as you have decent tyres and the suspension is decent then you should be able to manage it. I found out, cold track, cold and rubbish tyres with no weight in the rear is not good. So please dont crash like I did.

And enjoy the track day! Where is it?

14th August 2010, 01:01

Ok so if you want to strip for a track day i presume there is no time for a strip tease. Just whip off your clothes, you will barely save any weight mind, then then wack on the heater to avoid hypothermia. You will notice a massive difference in your self conciousness as everyone looks at you.

You could also rip out the boot carpet, rear bench, and all the mats.

14th August 2010, 01:45

Not worth the hassle imo. Took mine on track with no weight loss, it even has the spare wheel.

Severely altering the weight balance of the car without adjusting the suspension to suit is a bad idea. They're only 900+ kg to begin with.

14th August 2010, 11:55

Well its been lowered by 40mm all round anyway so handles quite well. so by the sounds of it i might just whip the back seats, spare wheel n parcel shelf out so it dosent alter the weight too much but just enough to give me a slight boost.
Its at brands hatch only a taster session its on the 23rd of august. You lot should come down

14th August 2010, 16:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by masetw

Well its been lowered by 40mm all round anyway so handles quite well. so by the sounds of it i might just whip the back seats, spare wheel n parcel shelf out so it dosent alter the weight too much but just enough to give me a slight boost.
Its at brands hatch only a taster session its on the 23rd of august. You lot should come down

That's all rear weight...did you not read the above?

The rear seats, parcel shelf and spare wheel are likely to lighten the car by 25kg which won't make much difference to your power to weight ratio, but will lighten the rear a lot thus making it a lot more lively...

If it was me I'd leave everything in there, spend your timing giving the car a good service and inspection, that will help more than losing a few kgs

James

14th August 2010, 17:15

rip it all out

best thing you can do with a saxo

much better when all stripped

never ever ever had a problem with it being stripped, back end never came out

14th August 2010, 17:37

re-locate things to the rear if you strip it out to even the weight out a bit more

14th August 2010, 20:55

take the engine out its not too important and will loose a shed load of weight

15th August 2010, 08:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reechard

I found out, cold track, cold and rubbish tyres with no weight in the rear is not good. So please dont crash like I did.

That.

If you're intent on stripping it, do it with plenty of time, so you can get used to it, the back end is so much more lively, you have to make big differences to your driving style.

15th August 2010, 13:26

titch makes a good point.

Mine felt very solid on track with no weight loss. Best bet might be to do a track day or two with the full weight in, and gradually strip it from there.

15th August 2010, 14:24

back bench weighs fuck all mate, theres no point unless your doin the whole lot ie: front seat, door cards, sound proofing etc

15th August 2010, 16:50

Strip rear seats, parcel shelf, spare wheel. As said the backend is more lively but it won't just kick out for nothing.

I only notice the problem when braking heavy where the rear starts coming out.

The plus sides of stripping is that everything is much louder which is more exciting on track, you can hear everything thats going on