Respray progress

[Peter Empson]

ORIGINAL: 944Turbo

you going for a horizontal spare or a can of sealant / recovery?

Not carried a spare for a few years now, I just keep a can of foam for emergencies.

ORIGINAL: 944Turbo
And will the be a massive diffuser in there?

Oh yes [] Not for a while yet as I need to work out what to do with the exhaust (a side exit is a strong possibility but ground clearance becomes a major issue unless we route it through the car/sill.

But even ignoring any possible benefits of a flatter floor and diffuser, it's quite a decent weight saving (an FG panel is going in its place), I'll see if I can get the removed part onto some scales.

 

[Diver944]

Ooooh, plenty of room in there for a huge fan like the Brabham BT46B fan car back in the 70's []

 

[Peter Empson]

Well I did look with interest at the the addition of the diffuser fans on the Ferrari 599xx, there's plenty of room for such ideas now but if I do anything I suspect it'll be for gearbox cooling purposes. Now I think about it, the area between the lights could go and be replaced by mesh if we need to channel a lot of air, I guess the number plate could be relocated somewhere else...

I forgot to mention that the battery bracket is going too, partly as there was some rust under there which was inaccessible otherwise but also because the battery is being relocated anyway.

Apart from the driver [], the next area of weight loss will be the dash and I've been putting off tackling that for ages!

 

[Peter Empson]

I went to see the car today, and as ever Alan is doing a first rate job.

A fibreglass panel has been bonded in where the spare wheel well was, and to be honest I think it looks like it was done at the factory.

The battery bracket has also gone and the rust beneath removed. The smaller battery is being mounted behind the passenger seat.

Total weight loss so far (including battery) must easily be in the 20kg region (and there's more to come when I get round to fitting a thinner battery cable), plus there are a few more brackets and the like that will be cut away before Silverstone.

 

[Big Dave]

Hey Pete.
I thought , as we hadnt heard much from you lately that you had finished your "project".. Obviously not....
Stupid question, how you getting on with the SC kit, ??
A couple of brackets that i can see that can be removed are the brackets for the inetia reel rear belts, The 968CS,s dont have them...[][]

 

[Neil Haughey]

....and the rear seat retaining mount/brackets.

At this rate Peter you will probably be down around 1000 Kg. I was amazed that my race car came out at 1130 Kg as there is a load of easy weight savings that could be made on that car.

Do you have a race battery? I have a Powervamp PVR25 that hasn't been used with an alloy retaining bracket. The race car has I believe the battery from a metro (looks like it to me) in a battery box mounted in the factory location for RHD, predominantly for weight distribution reasons.

 

[Peter Empson]

I've not driven the car for ages due to work, but the SC setup was working well last time I did (especially considering it's still a work in progress), the only issue is it's not too happy in heavy rain - an issue I must try to get to the bottom of this year. There's still lots to do (bigger oil cooler going in badge panel, seal off underside of engine bay, have a side exit exhaust made, add diffuser, proper remap and then the new engine sometime next year hopefully as the rings are well past it on the current one).

Those rear seat belt brackets are going, but I'm not sure if the mounting point for the rear seats are too - I don't think Alan is planning to paint that far forward this time.

The battery I'm using is a small powervamp model, I'm not worried about the weight distribution at the moment, if I believed everything I heard my car should handle like a dog with a 35kg supercharger right in the nose, but it doesn't. I'll get it on a proper set of scales when I'm 'finished' and see what the weight distribution has ended up at, I'm not expecting the car to be that light as there are quite a few heavy additions (brakes, wheels, SC etc) and we didn't dip the bodyshell before starting (probably my only small regret).