Im new here take it easy!!

[Dobby]

Hi all!
Before I start on the questions I am a fully qualified aircraft engineer and motor vehicle technician, it just a case of this is my first nova and even though thay are basic cars to start with :lol: they have a lot of potential!! My car is now a 1.4 SR block 1.2 head with a 1.4 cam of some description and a weber 32 dtml carb. Lowered 60mil astra GTE brakes and no interior as such :D . Its now coming off the road for the winter for a major rebuild ready for the spring and dry tarmac but i need some pointers:

I need to lose some weight! The front end will be fibreglass and spaceframed but what dont i need elsewhere- i dont like metal!

Whats the strongest standard valve springs that will fit or do double springs actually help on these top ends?

Whats the best g'box to fit for low end (i.e., acceleration and ton and a bit top end) with no serious gear jumps? my current box is very low first not to bad 2nd and 3rd, a usable 4th and 5th i never hit!!

Any help would be much appreciated and i hope i can assist in some way in the future- i learn quick and find out lots of useless info a lot that may br somebodies godsend- just ask robb!

[Rach]

Hey,

Well i doubt i'd be any help at all with any of those things... sorry

But welcome to NL anyway

There are plenty of people on here that will happily give you advice

:D

[J4MES]

welcome mate....

to lose weight::

carbon fibre roof skin, fibreglass boot, perspex windows, no dash :twisted: , etc....

sure somebody will help with the rest.....

[Dobby]

Thanks for the welcome!

Ive just been reading through the tech forum lots of useful stuff and you lot appear to know your stuff makes a nice change from some of the supposed trade forums i have tried in the past :lol:

[Dobby]

Carbon fibre roof!! I wanna keep a sunroof it's to useful for flicking the fag butts out of whilst going down the m'way :D i wanna lose some of the floor pan and put fibreglass or ally sheets in if i can. I know theres minimal stress in most of it but some laces need the torsion effect to keep it handling right. I don't mind welding some braces in but it's all to easy to remove a piece of steel weld in a bar to keep the strength but by the time you've dobne that and filled in the hole you've ended up either adding weight or it weighs the same and ain't worth the hassel

[Dobby]

Carbon fibre roof!! I wanna keep a sunroof it's to useful for flicking the fag butts out of whilst going down the m'way :D i wanna lose some of the floor pan and put fibreglass or ally sheets in if i can. I know theres minimal stress in most of it but some laces need the torsion effect to keep it handling right. I don't mind welding some braces in but it's all to easy to remove a piece of steel weld in a bar to keep the strength but by the time you've dobne that and filled in the hole you've ended up either adding weight or it weighs the same and ain't worth the hassel

[novamadcars]

hi mate welcome 2 novaload

[GT-Dub]

Carbon fibre roof!! I wanna keep a sunroof it's to useful for flicking the fag butts out of whilst going down the m'way :D i wanna lose some of the floor pan and put fibreglass or ally sheets in if i can. I know theres minimal stress in most of it but some laces need the torsion effect to keep it handling right. I don't mind welding some braces in but it's all to easy to remove a piece of steel weld in a bar to keep the strength but by the time you've dobne that and filled in the hole you've ended up either adding weight or it weighs the same and ain't worth the hassel

Start off removing all the Interior, which sound like it has been done. Strip the Door cards off and change the front windows to perspex, This will enable you to chop pretty much most of the metal of the door frame away - Both sides Or buy FibreGlass replacement's Unsure what they weigh. Remove all rear seating mounts etc from the rear. remove Spare wheel well and replace with either Carbon sheet or Thin Ally (not sure on Mot for that tho) Also Fiberglass Boot lid and bonnet.



Get your exhaust looked at too, Remove and Baffles etc Bar Back box, Thus saving weight, Shouold still keep some back box pressure tho.

With regards to removing weight from the chasis, I'd personally be looking at strengthening it.

Or maybe you could go to the Extreme, Totally Space frame it.

[nam]

welcome mate....

as for the fibreglass front wings, dont quote me on this but i am sure there not much lighter if any than the std wings. You could save alot of weight by buying some light race wheels etc.......

http://www.eurorallye.co.uk/ sell fibreglass bonnets, tailgates and are quite good on price.

hope this help you.

Nam

[-Bruce-]

hiya mate welcome to NL. i chat to robb abit and im guessing your just as mad!!

all this weill depend on money and how much time you have. there are so many possibities when talking about weight reduction of a nova. but i would personally just FULLY strip interior and get some light weight buckets in there with a cage aswel. and get some fibreglass panels like bonnet and tailgate.

you will need to do some strengthening i think as probably said before novas were designed to go to the shops and back, with some small improvements. but im sure your knowledgable on alot of mechanical subjects but if in doubt on some stuff ask away.

bruce

[a11ova]

hi, thanks for the life story :lol:

the best rule to go by when making it lighter is replace evrything feezablw with carbon fibre!!

[Barn]

dont get a carbon fibre roof skin, prob cost mega bucks, get a fibreglass one.

strip out everything, cage it up and away you go

[Dobby]

Thanks for the advice and it's all pretty much what I was thinking! By caging it I will keep/ increase the strength of the shell and therfore boot lid doors and 90% of the front end becomes excess metal, my only concern is how much stress do the rear chassis legs actually take? Looking at the setup in order to lose the boot floor and plate it I will need to put a lot of braces in even with a cage so I'm wondering if it is just a cosmetic issue rather than a weight saving/ performance thing? Has any1 tried it already? How did it go was and it worth the hassel or am I better off keeping the rear as standard and just cutting and plating the centre floors?

[Dobby]

Bout time this went to the technical board so look out for a few questions there! By the way robb I don't wanna see any pictures of it stripped all just look on your drive and laugh!! :lol:

[robb]

That's ok stu, I remember just crippling in laughter when I hear yours go by!

As for strength in the rear chassis legs that GTE i got has no chassis legs left really, and it is still stood, felt fine on the way home and kept up with tom. But I suppose the rear end of the shell is taking the strain for it now.

As for bracing the wheel well you only need metal that is strong under tension as a x brace from front to back of the legs will do fine. (If it has any)

[Stuart]

i cut my boot floor out and then put an xbrace in between the rear chassis rails. and a strut brace was welded in between the shock turrets. and there is a rear cage in place too. so im thinking that will be rather stiff.

the hole is being filled with 2mm polycarb. as will the windows (appar from the drivers side one as that will be 4mm.

just caut any mounts you dont need out, re run the brake lines with one to feed both rears (ok not much weight gone but hey every little helps)

apparently a kevlar roof skin costs exactly the same a a metal one and its 2kg lighter lol.

i dont think a space framed fornt end will be any lighter to be honest. but it could allow you to run some trick suspension and maybe a proper ARB that does something positive.

[Aragorn]

as for the gearbox an F13Cr cluster with 4.18 or maybe even a 4.29FD will give u plenty accelleration and a top speed of around 115mph at 6800 with the 418

[robb]

That sounds perfect for him, but then again he used to a very noisy car with a 1.4/1.2 running the 1.4 manifold that restricted it alot, good torque though.

Hey stu, take a look at the boxes that tom has before he scraps them, you need to look for this:

http://www.trekitt.co.uk/gearbox_identification.gif

[Dobby]

Cheers Robb why didn't you just tell me Tom may have a box whilst having a pint? Cheers for all the help so far the work is starting within the next cuople of days with the disc cutter a Oxy acetylene torch and enough alcohol to make me not have to worry bout how much I'm cutting out- watch this space piccys available soon and knowing me they will make you cringe :roll:

[robb]

Ooooohhh Nooooooo!

Get a scrap shell before you cut parts from it! Yours is good!

If it works then do it on yours.