decreasing weight = increasing power

I constantly hear other brand drivers bagging out hondas, especially nissan drivers and the v8 drivers, calling them econobox grocery getters :thumbdwn: BUT, if you think about it if a car has twice the torque BUT also twice the weight in comparision to our "grocery getters" they would be equal in power. well according to physics lol :D

My point being that if we decrease our weight we should increase power duh :rolleyes:, so much so that if we half our weight we would double our power output, cut a qurater of our weight increase power by 50% etc. Well after surfing the net i came across some surprising info, but i wasn't so sure if it was in fact true or even practical so i came on here to ask it to you guys

well according to some website, this is what worries me about its reliablity, that 1 pound of aluminium used in cars weighs 2 pounds of steel used in cars. So far it doesnt sound too farfetched but then it also said that:
28% of the vehicle's mass is from the chassis
28% of the vehicle's mass is from the powertrain
27% of the vehicle's mass is from the body-in-white
thats 83% of the vehicles mass made from steel

I was wondering if it was practical to convert some of those parts from steel to aluminium, obviously the chassis would be out of the question unless your gonna rip apart the car and create 1 all over again but how about the body-in-white and powertrain?

now the price question comes, I know with enough money anything can be done but compare this to a custom turbo plus custom internals etc which would set you back round 10k+ for a outcome of about a little below double your initial power output. But with that 10K could you replace the powertrain and/or body-in-white with aluminium. If both can be done that would decrease you vehicle's weight by 28%, which in the end increase your power by approx 50%, sure its not as much as that custom turbo would give you but save up later and then add the custom turbo and you got urself one fast "grocery getter" :eek:. Imagine the possibility, a 650kg crx with 450HP :thumbsup: but time for your input if its possible

well firstly i disagree with less weight giving a car more power as such.. if u dyno a car, then strip it out of interior, etc. its not gonna be going and pulling all these bigger figures.. however it does increase the power-to-weight ratio which will make the car quicker...

as for converting pieces to aluminium, that would be a mission! but i guess wat ur saying sounds like its logical anyway, do it and find out! or use carbon fibre.. also how strong would aluminium be compared to the steel? i dont know much about this area...

edit: oh and a 650kg 450hp crx would need a very big set of front tyres! :thumbsup:

nic

hahah civic13. bro some people get really bored. or is really stupid

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Originally Posted by civic13

Imagine the possibility, a 650kg crx with 450HP :thumbsup: but time for your input if its possible

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http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/member....ails&userid=95

:rolleyes:

700kg/700hp fook me deaD

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Originally Posted by tRipitaka

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/member....ails&userid=95

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and that crx does have big tyres... ;)

quick question: is there a point to this thread...?

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Originally Posted by civ_sik

quick question: is there a point to this thread...?

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i think the question is how much steel can be converted to aluminium for weight reduction and the saving on that compare to a custome turbo set

moved to the tech section for some general chit chat.

its called the general "power to weight ratio" that compares cars methinks...
the stats you quoted are by far not accurate to every single car out there ~ but as a basic guide peopel start by either removing unneeded parts or accessories ( such as rear seats , interior trim , rear spare tyre etc) then move into the more hardcore areas of replacing body panels and other parts with ligth weight counterparts ( such as carbon fibre or fibre glass etc)

Mind you , replacing or removing ANY part of a car runs the risk of unbalancing it , and any half serious tuner/modder would take that into relation to other parts to compensate ( like suspension or ADR's etc)

Like ben said, power to weight ratio is good but you need a balance. You will note that in most of the performance models of honda, honda has tried to reduce weight, i.e plastic screw, thinner panels etc.

The only way to get more weight reduction is to remove things completely.

I rem there was a Honda-tech on weight reduction where the guy actually removed all the car's parts.

Also i had a Best Motoring mag or vid can't rem where they stripped the car to make it faster. They even cut the roof!

Depends how hardcore you wanna be. Most parts are there for some reason or another.

I once read from MOTOR magazine and it was saying that when a car's speed reaches 3 digit, the weight of the car doesn't really play a major part anymore, rather it's the actually power and torque. Can anyone one tell me how true is that statement?

also at higher speeds, a lighter car will become less stable...which is a big key

also, it would be greater affected by inconsistencies in the road etc.

but on the other hand...to a certain degree...reducing weight carefully is the BEST way to performance tune a car because it is beneficial to acceleration, handling and braking distance

like i'd rather be in a heavy ass gtr rather than a 600kg crx on the nurburgring...i'd prefer to live =)

thanks for the replies, I actually got the idea for massive weight reduction after discovering the Ariel Atom :D .

Lighter cars don't become unstable at high speeds. Cars with bad aero become unstable at high speeds.

And if weight doesn't matter once the speed gets over 3 digits then why do race teams spend so much time on losing weight when there cars rarely dip below that?

Of course weight matters. the problem is that losing weight is fairly affordable and easy up to a certain point, then it gets messy and expensive! We just put one of our formula cars on a diet after last season and figured out that it cost about $800 per kg!

If you keep the power variable constant then the more weight you remove from your car the better your power to weight ratio will be. Decreasing the weight of any car will increase acceleration, improve braking as well as making your car more fuel efficient. P/W ratio = Kw/Kg

losing weight probably has got more to do with balancing the car, improve car's handling and braking power, quicker acceleration out of a corner.

I have also noticed fast na hondas's quuater mile trap time is way lower than some of the turbo or big displacement cars who run the similar time.

Less weight = improve braking and acceleration. But you need to keep balance of car's weight.

In race cars even if they have a class weight requirement they strip as much weight out as possible so they can corner weight the car for the best possible handling. ie. shift the weight to where they want it. Even adding lead weights / balast.