Black and Orange Track ZS - winter weight saving

[StragglaSteve]

Originally Posted by Witnes$

than fit the ½ cage which at this moment will be orange.

Interested in the half cage? how come your going for one of those?

only saying as i recently spoke to a guy from safetydevices about having a roll cage fitted to mine and his words to the effect of "a half cage will offer the driver no safety if the car is rolled".... he also advised me to not get a full cage until the car is ready for track as he said, when its in, even on normal roads, i will need a helmet as if i have an accident i will split my head open

[talkingcars]

Originally Posted by Quadcam24

....battery to boot will add weight because of the cables length....

The battery tray has some weight, an enclosed box and cable still may weigh less.

[Mark S]

Originally Posted by Quadcam24

battery to boot will add weight because of the cables length, just do what i did and get a varley redtop 25 battery, weighs less than half the o.e battery.

Originally Posted by talkingcars

The battery tray has some weight, an enclosed box and cable still may weigh less.

Its more about where the weight is on the car. The engine bay is already massively over weight, halving the weight of the battery (at a cost) may help, but moving that weight further back will likely help even more - talk to those who race the ZS's, they will categorically confirm this.

Yes, the cables may weigh a kilo, but if you are going to fit a kill switch (good idea in case you hit the kitty litter) or think you may go racing in the future (in which case you need one anyway) then you will have to add cables - with this in mind, you are adding a very small amount of extra weight if moving the battery and fitting a kill switch. Just something to have in mind.

You could always fit a light weight battery and move it, best of both worlds.
You don't need stupidly big/heavy cable like these people use for bass & amps, enough for the job is fine.


I assume you are looking at free/cheap ways for a faster lap.

If so, a balance is needed.

Weight is easy to remove, and in the main is free or of little cost.

Big power usually comes with a big price tag, supercharged, vagged or highly tuned nasp will run into the thousands.

One thing to remember, even a heavyweight nasp zs running stock power can be within a couple or few seconds per lap of a big power stripped ZS providing the car has been made to handle.
suspension, geometry and grip are crucial in carrying corner speed. Spend your money here, a decent tight fitting seat and proper harness and you will likely get the best lap time per £ of modding available. (of course there is a limit to corner speed and a point where you just need more power, but this is a great way forward)
And the thing that most people forget in the pursuit of power, is learning how to drive the thing in the first place.
£100 of tuition may be money better spent than £1000 on engine/power if the object is a quicker lap.

[Quadcam24]

believe me ive done it all , those who raced the zs used to ask me about my set up because i did it before them.!! ;-)
Yes the zs is front heavy but its also much heavier on the drivers side front compared to passenger side front.......thats why the battery is where it is !
This is amplified when the driver gets in even more and in a stripped car its even worse because the drivers seat is the only one left in. I had my car corner weighted and the front drivers side was by far the heaviest corner, you need equal weight at the front for best traction.
The battery tray weighs a little but by moving to the boot you replace that weight with cable, if you want to save weight, do as i did, get rid of battery tray but mount a new redtop battery in the same position as low as you can.
That way the tray goes and you save half the weight of the battery too.
I used to try to counter act the front end weight differences with my coilovers, i would go slightly different set up from right to left to counter it as best i could.

[stamford]

I fitted a battery box behind the passenger seat in the rear footwell and used a smaller battery, cable length wasn't too much. When I converted the zed back to road trim I left the cables under the carpet, just incase I had another mid-life crisis

[redzed]

Originally Posted by StragglaSteve

Interested in the half cage? how come your going for one of those?

only saying as i recently spoke to a guy from safetydevices about having a roll cage fitted to mine and his words to the effect of "a half cage will offer the driver no safety if the car is rolled".... he also advised me to not get a full cage until the car is ready for track as he said, when its in, even on normal roads, i will need a helmet as if i have an accident i will split my head open

Explain how a roll cage does nothing for safety??!

[Witnes$]

Cheers for the comments.

AC, all interior including door cards, rear wiper/motor etc, rear door locks/relays etc, bonnet lining/all other foam insulation, rear washer pump/piping etc have all gone.

Battery behind passenger sets and better seats are planned when I've got some spare cash, also need to resolve the srs for the mot.

From what I've read a half cages does offer more safety especially if you roll, what is dangerous about them?

[sneekyparrot]

U really don't wanna going gutting the front doors unless u have a full cage with door bars! It's up to m8 in the end but from a safety view I would not fancy it.
I would say having only a rear bar will do nothing to stop the front half of the roof collapsing on the a pillars ???

Depending how extreme u wanna go there is always the abs to dump and strip out all the none needed wiring??
Peter from Vulcan is looking at having a run of fibreglass stuff made so wings and bonnet would help to reduce the front end bias.

P.

[Witnes$]

Never mentioned or intended to do anything to the front doors only the rears. Need abs for the MOT but minimal wiring is a possibility, I've stripped what I can without getting in to the main looms.

If some FG parts are produced I could be tempted depending on costs. Getting weight off the nose would be nice.

[sneekyparrot]

Not sure on mot, I thought if something is fitted it has to be working like lights indicators etc but if it's not fitted then how can it fail??

P.