Corner weighed my S52 E30 tonight--

[asubimmer]

euro bumpers are very light compared to diving boards or plastics.

[ldsbeaker]

euro bumpers are very light compared to diving boards or plastics.

Unless you have the ones with the metal "supporting" plates... HEAVY!!
Nothing a dremel can't handle, though.

[Jonny Cash]

Gotta wonder how much that whole sunroof assembly weighs. That might possibly take some weight off the front.

Im really curious what my slicktop will punch in with the S50. With a cf hood, and removing the AC, Id hope to be somewhat close to 50/50.

[JGood]

Gotta wonder how much that whole sunroof assembly weighs. That might possibly take some weight off the front.

The sunroof assembly, including tray that is spot welded to the roof, motor, cables, etc... is about 40 lbs from what I've read.

[rThor432]

^^JGood is right, the sunroof assembly is in the neighborhood of 40 lbs. I was thinking of completely stripping my car and removing that too, but now I dont really know if I care to do it. I dont really need to lose much weight, but having that much up top is kind of a bummer.

Between those bumpers and the weight of my roll bar, I guess that explains why your car isn't that much heavier then mine, rThor.

I was actually thinking about that at work today. I bet that's the reason, honestly. Roll bar weighs what, ~40-45 lbs. minimum without door bars?

Idsbeaker is right, the bumpers really are that light. I've even compared a Euro bumper to a plastic bumper (with the fiberglass core) and the Euro bumper was 1/3 the weight. I was debating whether or not I was going to do plastics on this car at the time and had the front bumper off my 323i.

Unless you have the ones with the metal "supporting" plates... HEAVY!!

Ha, I know those very well... I've had them on two federalized cars. Mine were all made of boxed iron or steel and weighed ~25-30 lbs. each. Honestly, they arent even a good design for a crash. They are really just weight, haha.

[rThor432]

I also wanted to mention that I missed posting a little bit of info on another E30 that was weighed yesturday--

'87 325is with an OBD-1 converted X5 M62 (dont know if it is the 4.0 or 4.4), A/C, P/S, roll bar, no trunk tar, and felt for carpet/interior covering.

Weighed ~2680 lbs. without the driver and ~2910 with the driver. I dont remember the corner weights, but another tech at work that was checking them out said that they were almost perfect. As far as F/R balance, all I know is that the owner said that the nose was 60 lbs. lighter than the previous M20 turbo setup he had. The weight is farther back with the all aluminum V8, so I think it was probably transferred to the rear.

Just a couple more specs. I'm very impressed with that car, so I had to mention it :).

[ldsbeaker]

Just reading this thread motivates me so much. By no means am I going to strip my car, but it gets me thinking about the small things that I could do without or replace with lighter stuff.
It also is pretty sad how rare such a light car is on the road nowadays. Not very often you hear about ANY car under 3k lbs anymore. Not surprising that most r3vs are because some fatass, over-optioned, living room couch with wheels taps our cars.
Then there's my mini. hehe. That car is LIGHT.

[rThor432]

That's the great thing about E30's, they dont have to be seriously stripped to be light. I dont have everything, but I do have a driver seat and rear seat with carpets. I even have a minimal sound system.

I bet the Mini is awesome to drive. I clocked ~2 hours today at work and spent the rest of the day working on my 2002tii. It is such a blast driving that little car. Factory manual lists it at 2200 lbs, iirc (I've got the manual less than a foot from me but I'm too lazy to check). Great, great driving car with ~140 hp, the 5-speed, and the 3.91 limited slip. Mmmmm... I should have driven it home this afternoon so I could cruise in it tonight...

[hoveringuy]

I have to admit I'm completely clueless about the euro bumpers. I have the '90 facelift plastic bumpers. I thought those were light. What is it that makes them heavy? How heavy are they? How are the euro bumpers different and how much less do they weigh?

[ldsbeaker]

Picture this:
Hardboiled eggs.

Okay, so you break one in half, and check it out. If you cut it exactly in half, you have a yolk, white, and eggshell. That's your typical US "diving board" bumper. Ugly, and heavy.
Now take the yolk out. Now it's a little prettier, a little lighter. That's your plastic bumper.
Now, scoop the white out. That's your Euro bumper. Just a shell of a bumper. MUCH lighter.

[hoveringuy]

Picture this:
Hardboiled eggs.

Now, scoop the white out. That's your Euro bumper. Just a shell of a bumper. MUCH lighter.

I assume the white can't be scooped out of my bumper?

[erik325i]

I assume the white can't be scooped out of my bumper?

It's possible. You'd have to come up with some clever way of mounting the bumper skin to the car though. The stock bumper cover is mounted to the bumper core (white part) which is bolted to the shocks attached to the car. Without the bumper core, you need to make brackets to mount the skin.

Or, if you want to lose some weight and still have the structure of the bumper, get a hole saw and swiss cheese your bumper core.

Erik

[rThor432]

I assume the white can't be scooped out of my bumper?

I thought about doing this, but after looking into it for about ~5 minutes, I decided I'd rather spend a few hundred bucks on a set of Euro bumpers and brackets. I prefer the look of the little steel bumpers too, so that was a big factor in my decision.

[JGood]

I never thought about just fabbing some lightweight brackets to mount the plastic bumper skin without the support. That would be mighty nice for a track car...

[hoveringuy]

I can see from the diagram where the weight comes from, I never thought about what's behind the plastic. #22 should be labeled "ballast" instead of "reinforcement".