985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

[novarally]

Looking good Colin. I mat be interested in the diffuser, I'd need some measurements though as it may catch on the arb and as you say not much point using one if you have to cut it up !

Update with measurements of the diffuser, mostly for James........

Length 92cm
Width 104cm

[Jonlem]

Thanks Colin, I'll have a measure up tomorrow

[novarally]

Just getting the car ready to go off for another hillclimb at the weekend, and with the new wheels now fitted, I thought it high time it went back on the corner weight scales to see where we are with it...........





And the results........



562kg (or 561.5kg if you want to be pedantic).

That's with a full tank of fuel, and all fluids on board, so ready to race (without the driver, obviously!!).

I'm pleased enough with that, and it means I'm still on target for close to 550kg with the next phase of weight saving tweaks.

As a useful comparison, and whilst I still have it, I put my Westfield on the scales as well;





Not bad at all at 486kg, although whoever built it has paid scant regard to weight saving, so there would be loads to come out of that figure if I was keeping it.

[paul james]

Cool that the Nova has much better matching weight distribution between the wheels than the Westfield. I'd never have thought looking at the car that theres 41 kilos difference between the two front wheels! Any ideas what the cage in the Nova weighs? And are you going to give any clues on whats going to make the next 10 kilos of savings?

[novarally]

Cool that the Nova has much better matching weight distribution between the wheels than the Westfield. I'd never have thought looking at the car that theres 41 kilos difference between the two front wheels! Any ideas what the cage in the Nova weighs? And are you going to give any clues on whats going to make the next 10 kilos of savings?

Indeed, the Westfield needs some proper setting up, it's a worry that people race cars that are so far out. The Nova was actually slightly better than this (within 1kg) before I changed the springs, so I can get that a bit better as well.

I don't know what the full cage weighs, but I'd bet it's 40kg or thereabouts.

The next 10kg of weight loss goes something like this;

Lose the windscreen rubber and bond the screen in directly -1kg
Fit the solid front brake discs in place of the vented ones -3kg
Cut out more metalwork behind the rear wheel centres (est)-4kg
Composite passenger door (if I can find a nice fitting one) -2kg
Composite drivers door (again, needs to fit properly) -2kg
Fit the 4mm windows in place of my illegal 2mm ones +2kg (boo!)

There are other things I can do to go still further, but they all involve lots of cash. The main ones there are;

Titanium tie bars
Titanium anti-roll bars
Titanium driveshafts
Alloy or titanium flywheel
Even lighter weight wheels (Force Racing split rims are on my wish list)
Alloy bodied front struts

[calibra-keith]

plus when a driver gets in the westfield there is even more weight on that side,

are you still planning on putting rad in rear ? few more kg to add with extra pipe and water, or transferring a little weight to pas side to balance it out for when your in the car ?

when i checked what cages weight there about 40-50kg for most weld cages

[novarally]

plus when a driver gets in the westfield there is even more weight on that side,

are you still planning on putting rad in rear ? few more kg to add with extra pipe and water, or transferring a little weight to pas side to balance it out for when your in the car ?

when i checked what cages weight there about 40-50kg for most weld cages

I'm still considering the rear radiator, but it will add a little weight as you say. What I need to decide is whether the weight penalty is made up for by better weight distribution (it's very light at the back end as you can see). There's also the potential to improve the airflow to the turbo and the intercooler design at the front end with the space taken up by the current radiator freed up.

I'm going to be chatting to one of my Mini driving rivals at the weekend to see what he reckons, as he moved his radiator to the back end last season.

[paul james]

Is that an oil catch tank/breather in the passenger arch? and is it still there? perhaps a weight saving to be made if it is, you can get little light weight motorbike ones.

[scott.parker]

Well surprised about the difference in weight distribution on the Westfield, and love the nova's new mk2 front end, quite like the white look to.. new color maybe?

Scott

[Mieran]

Colin, do you choose spring rates based on the axle weight after corner weighting the car? If so, is there some sort of formula behind this?