Time to put the coupe on a diet

Took the car to a weighbridge today. Weighed in at 1300kg on the dot with a 1/4 full tank (non air con).

I'm going to try and shave off a few kg here and there starting with swapping out the seats for fibre glass buckets. The front seats weigh about 18kg each. Then removal of all the obvious items ie spare wheel, jack, tools, rear seats etc.

this is something that ive been considering doing for a while, but until I get a family car, as the coupe is our family car, the bhp per tonne is great on these cars, and there is a lot you can shave off them, I try leaving my 2 kids on the drive but the other half frowns up on that for some reason

I say don't bother.

if you still have the OEM rad ,you can buy an aluminium one
with adapted cooling fans(you need to protect them from heat)
then you have to change the flywheel with the aluminium Fidanza (around 3.8kg vs 8.5!) remove the balance shaft (3.5kg)
buy the aluminium kit pulleys and carbon fiber o fiberglass bonnet
place the battery in the boot and you will notice better handling

i did it only 2 mods of the above in my N/A 16v and the car
was totally different, much faster in the corners and easy to drive

did you tried a lightened coupè? it's a waste of time why?

I haven't. If you're building a track only car them it's probably worth it, otherwise it's a lot of £ for not much gain. It'll always be a nose heavy grand tourer.

I keep adding stuff to mine....

I reckon I could save 40-50 kg without spending too much money. I've always been a stickler for sourcing value for money parts!

50kg will make a noticeable difference I reckon.

I used to take about 150 kg out of the car for Ten of the Best - it was definitely noticeable, but it made the car unbearable to drive on the road for any distance

Reducing weight can give "free" performance gains (although losing weight often costs a fair amount of cash)

However, it's often a lot easier and cheaper to add the power - I reckon you need to add about 20bhp to give the equivalent bop/tonne figure of a 100kg weight drop - very easy on a turbo car

indeed but i tried the N/A before and after with little diet
and the 16vt, the last is very heavy on the front
i think a Fidanza flywheel,new aluminium rad and no balance shafts
are both a gain in performance and weight-driveability without selling a kidney

not less important,less weight in rotating mass is less load on conrod bearings
the 16v weak point

instead of ALu FW get CrMo.. higher safety and reliability...

but you can take offsome weight out of engine:)

Lighter rods, pistons, FW, replaced balance shaft pulley, removed balance shafts.. it makes worthy 10-12kg only on rotational parts (an also mass of car) but ist sometimes expensive:)

fiber bonnet is one on the TOP
lighter battery (EG 42Ah, or in extreme from motorbike 8-10Ah)
-removed sound deadening from firewall and under the carpets
-exhaust system made from 1,2mm thick tubes instead of 1.5mm and thicker:)
-seats/interior
-wheels (possible smallest teadm dynamics, OZ, or known lightweight...)
-rear calipers replace with Al. ones.. if they aron not yet fitted...

I take it you'll use this car only as a track weapon..? (Otherwise no need to bother, obviously)
Make up new doors i glassfibre, adding to the fibre bonnet. They are VERY heavy! Also swap all glass bar windscreen for perplex of course.

Very fair points there. I don't use the car on a track but I do intend to. The coupe is not my daily driver and I want to put it to good use. I've been meaning to get hold of some buckets for a while as the leathers are just terrible at keeping you in one place. So theres definitely a weight saving there. The rear seats rarely get used (leave it!) so they may as well go.

If there's a free gain I may as well take it! If it doesn't work out I can always put all back again. Either way I've satisfied my obsession to mess with the car

Why not go the whole hog?

Modded fiat

Mod 2

How do you remove the balance shaft(s)?
I always thought that you have to keep the bearings installed as they are part of the oil-circuit ???

Thanks, Jochen

There is loads of unnecessary stuff on the Coupe, just start at one end and go over the car.

I've a garage full of bits that I've not missed after removing from the car, if you do miss them, stick em back on.

As Nigel says, the more you remove the less pleasant the car will be to drive though. If its a road car I'd keep carpets and some sounds deadening and it should be at least tolerable.

OMG.... looks to me as if it is on steroids