fibreglassing my ae101

[.:O4AGTZ:.]

I still have some Bomex style front bumpers & side skirts in the shed which we would sell at knockdown prices.

And they arent bad! I got one off you through Dene for my old GTZ, and the friend that owned it before me as well

[RS13]

Instead of chopping bits of car off, if you're after a couple of km/h at the end of the straight, I'd try and make it as slippery as possible perhaps?

Try and exclude as much air as possible from underneath the car (cars act as a wing of sorts, which creates induced drag) by getting a deeper/well designed front kit, maybe even wax it (we get good gains from waxing aircraft, I don't see why waxing a car would be any different!), if it were me I'd even go as far as taping up bumper/bonnet/panel gaps to see if it makes a noticeable difference. I guess thats' all you could do cheaply!

As was said fibreglassing can get incredibly expensive, a couple of guys at work have made decent vented bonnets but it was still several hundred for materials.

[loudstealthGT-Four]

this is why you'll never be a mod cogent, thats adding weight

yea but it'll get him his 5kph down the straight though

[touge_ae101]

Seeing as there is SFA in the back half of the car maybe look at removing anything nnnecessary from the B-Pillars forward? Maybe gut the inners of the dash / centre console area. Though even then are you going to gain much performance vs time and effort spent

yeah this is a bit of a shady area for me as i am still wanting to keep it as a daily and like the power windows, i don't want to strip it too much in the 'living' area of the car.

but things will definately be taken out/trimmed that aren't needed when i pull everything apart to put the cage in.

[touge_ae101]

Instead of chopping bits of car off, if you're after a couple of km/h at the end of the straight, I'd try and make it as slippery as possible perhaps?

Try and exclude as much air as possible from underneath the car (cars act as a wing of sorts, which creates induced drag) by getting a deeper/well designed front kit, maybe even wax it (we get good gains from waxing aircraft, I don't see why waxing a car would be any different!), if it were me I'd even go as far as taping up bumper/bonnet/panel gaps to see if it makes a noticeable difference. I guess thats' all you could do cheaply!

As was said fibreglassing can get incredibly expensive, a couple of guys at work have made decent vented bonnets but it was still several hundred for materials.

this is the plan! i was hoping someone knew this guy chris i met last weekend. he had done a lot of testing of front kits on manfeild and reckoned he went about a second quicker with a slippery kit of the front with a splitter.

hmm panel gaps might be a cheap way of reducing drag but i think more than anything, i need a front bumper/splitter that doesn't sit so high!

[Truenotch]

A second from a front splitter? That's pretty impressive!!


More seat time will still be the best value when it comes to corner and straight line speed. You could save 50KG and not notice any difference, but each day on the track will teach you something new.

[touge_ae101]

yeah that was with blanked off side ducts on a toms style bumper and a splitter. definately worth while.

seat time is a must but at the end of the day i want my driving to be the thing holding me back, not the car as days at the track don't come around too often and i can't afford them all the time.

[Flannelman]

Rule of thumb 10lb weight loss is worth 1hp. Or metric terms 6Kg is 1kW

60kg = 10kW

Weight loss doesnt just affect accelleration, its also deccel and cornering.

For loosing weight from a car look at things like carpet and sound dulling material. The dash weighs about 15-20kgs alone. Glass is good to get rid off, either lexen or perspex be good alternatives. However they arnt cheap, yet saving upwards of 20kg all ads up. Useless steel tags and odd n ends can be cut off, the rooflining and steelwork can go too.

Externaly all things unboltable can be fiberglassed. The expence is in the mold yet once made it only makes money. As for weight, boot and bonnet can be made to weigh very little yet it depents on how you want it to be attached. Going to four locking pins can make way for a very light skin with enough strenth to resist the urge to be ripped off at over 160km/h isnt too hard. As for guards, there is no point in just making replicar stock guards. Mine are going to be changed to look lower and swallow wider rubber. Thats the plan next year at least.

Till I do, go hard and remove as much useless matrial from your car. Remember, if is not making you go fast then its only slowing you down.