Light weight track battery

[jlevie]

Do you still have Power Steering? That's about 14lb that can be removed.

[p0cket penguins]

Yup thats all out

[Massive Lee]

One trick I used on my own e30 H23 was to move the engine back by about 3/8" by using V8 motor mounts. This is a cheap handling upgrade and it transfers a lot of weight to the rear axle, improving handling.

Lee

[p0cket penguins]

One trick I used on my own e30 H23 was to move the engine back by about 3/8" by using V8 motor mounts. This is a cheap handling upgrade and it transfers a lot of weight to the rear axle, improving handling.

Lee

motor mounts from which car?

[!kid]

my work uses these guys for our drag cars they have batteries that weigh 5 Lbs

http://www.batteriesareus.com/

[Massive Lee]

motor mounts from which car?

If I remember, they arte e34 V8 mounts.They are offset, so you just twist them. It was a populat trick a decade ago. The only drwaback is that the back of the engine head is closer to the firewall. Not much room to tilt it if you want to do a clutch job. So you have the slightly lower the subframe for such task. No biggie. The improvement in handling is major because not only the engine moves back, but also the heavy tranny...

Lee

[p0cket penguins]

do i need to modify anything else down the line of parts.... or just tighten the two halves of the drive shaft together?

[Dyno4mance]

FWIW: a lot of Spec E30 racers have been going with larger, heavier batteries... tractor batteries. Because once you've gutted the car, you need to add weight (anywhere from 15-45 lbs) so we're trying to get more weight in the rear (loop hole in ballast rule). This may not apply to you application. Just thought I'd share....

Will it help the handling a lot if you put wieght in the trunk of a stripped out e30?.....mine is awful and wants to rotate all the time...what tire pressures do you use in the rear of your race car cold?

[p0cket penguins]

i fixed the weight floating rotation problem in the rear with some aggressive rear aero... works like a charm for me.... then again my car is a weekend warrior track machine.

[Massive Lee]

do i need to modify anything else down the line of parts.... or just tighten the two halves of the drive shaft together?

Never tighten the two halves of the driveshaft. You should keep it sliding.

Nothing to modify.

Lee

[JGood]

After gutting mine down to 2380 lbs via removing everything from the interior/trunk, I had some serious traction issues... To the point where I was running 3-4 seconds a lap slower then before, and I even had better tires. The trick that brought it all together was dropping rear pressure about 6psi lower then front. I usually set my cold pressure to 30f / 24r (r comps - v710's and c50 z214's). I'm still getting lower then usual temps, surprisingly. I'm also still working on getting the car more neutral, as it still has unwanted rotation tendencies. And it's snap oversteer, so it's really a handful.

[JGood]

One trick I used on my own e30 H23 was to move the engine back by about 3/8" by using V8 motor mounts. This is a cheap handling upgrade and it transfers a lot of weight to the rear axle, improving handling.

Lee

Any reason this wouldn't work on a normal m20 e30? I'm definitely interested...

Would the shift linkage be OK? Is there enough room in the grooves in the body for the trans mount bolts to slide back? Swaybar/oilpan/exhaust/subframe/etc... clearance OK? Rad hoses stretch ok? I'm assuming 3/8" isn't that big of a deal to any of this stuff.

About how much of a weight distribution change does this provide? I'm not very good with math and geometry ;)


EDIT:

I'm guessing you're talking about grinding the center stud off, and putting the stud near the edge of the mount into the hole of the subframe?

[Massive Lee]

Grind the small bolt, and orientate the top one to the rear. I am sure a little ggogling could show several altrnatives for the mounts. But the excentric V8 units were the ones I picked. They are oiled-filled and much, much stronger than stockies.

No mods to perform. When I did it, I had stiffer Hartge springs. After the swap, the gap at the front wheel was bigger, while the rear one was smaller. And it was not subtle showing the obvious weight shift.

[matt]

Here's another vote for the PC680. They last FOREVER and are plenty powerful to start my motor over and over and over and over...

Just gotta keep them topped up if you aren't driving the car.

[2002maniac]

On my 318is I had a 9lb Braille battery mounted up front with the rear cable removed. The stock battery cable weighs a ton.