This seems to be the best place for this topic with the emphasis on reducing front weight and giving something like a genuine 50/50 weight distribution at the very least, preferably 45/55. Lots of these conversions have been done but I've found nothing at all road course orientated. The crucial question I have is if the engine is mounted as far back as possible without major mods to the firewall what weight distribution will result?

 

There have been quite a few made for Road course work and even ST1 and TT1 racing.

Bryan Settle is the first name that comes to my mind (Guy who runs ZDayZ)

 

This was pre-corner weighting. I have an LS3, with T101a transmission, RHD conversion, 18x12 wheels, 350mm rotors, 12 gallon fuel cell. and me in the car

 

I did remove the false firewall, and i trimmed the corner off of the right head to get it this far back. I also made my own mounts

 

I am running the C5 Z06 batwing oil pan (another reason for the RHD conversion) and i put a 0.125" piece of stock between the oil pan and cross member to get it as low as possible.

 

The sway bad and OEM crash bar in stock location for position reference.

 

 

after paint, better contrast

 

Side view of the money to noise converter

 

hit me up if you have any more questions.

 

Thread turned into car **** pretty quick. That's hot!

 

thanks

 

Last month at Charlotte Motor Speeday

 

Bloody hell, that's brilliant plus the pics give a very good indication of how far back the engine is. At this stage it's just an idea for me, I do have a near new LS3 sitting around doing nothing. Have you any ides why there is so much variation with the corner weights?

 

well it went from LHD to RHD and i didn't re-balance it, that measurement was to get an idea for how much new springs i needed, since i am now 335 square.

 

Back on this, how does the car drive on the track compared with using an original engine? Power is of course important but how does the car sit, how does the balance feel, how does it change direction and so on. Any negatives?

Thanks for your very helpful pics and info, hope yours is still in one piece and you are still having fun.

 

It's very difficult (compared to the rear) to cut weight over the front end but here are a few things I've done to cut weight over the front wheels.

There are really no big / slam-dunk ways to remove weight like there is in the mid or rear chassis (like a passenger side seat, spare tire, swapping exhausts, carbon hatch lid, etc)

You have to shave a few lbs off many items to get results ... off the top of my head:

front strut tower brace - the OEM isnt bad (I think around 7lbs??) but GT-Spec and Cusco make variants around 5lbs. There was a company making carbon fiber variants but I dont know if those were actually lighter? (2lbs)

battery - drop down to a 10-20lb light weight battery and relocate it to the passenger compartment (15lbs)

hood - you can remove 5 - 7lbs by gutting the OEM hood ... the latching mechanism is surprisingly heavy and made out of steel while the remaining hood is made out of aluminum. I think my hood is down to 15lbs range (5lbs). Some might say a carbon fiber hood - a wet carbon fiberglass is around 25lbs and is heavier than an OEM hood. A dry carbon hood is probably around 10lbs?? but at $2k money may be better spent elsewhere.

Trim headlight buckets - you can trim the OEM headlight buckets to shave a lbs or so. (1lb)

Headlights - if you dont need headlights (ie daytime event or you can reinstall your functional headlights) find a donor set of headlights and gut everything but the lense and the mounting points. I think this is a 7lb savings (7lbs).

The wiper motor, assembly, wipers, arms is sorta heavy. I think around 10lbs - 15lbs. If you're at an event and not expecting rain this assembly removes pretty easy with a two or three 10mm bolts. I wonder if this would help the car from an aero stand point? (10lbs)


plenum - the OEM plenum is pretty heavy - if you can go with an alternate design (think CJM coffin style) you can shave 10-15lbs. (10lbs)

fans/radiator - The OEM cooling system is relatively heavy. You can swap in an aftermarket solution and the radiator may weigh the same but you can eliminate the OEM fan shroud and OEM fans and replace with a single 10" to 14" spal fan (which will provide plenty of cooling capacity). (10lbs)

HVAC - if you dont need AC you can remove quite a bit of weight between the lines, compressor, condenser. Furthermore, if you dont need heat you can remove quite a bit of plumbing/lines/cores/fans/etc. It should be noted that the defroster works off the HVAC - so it may not be applicable to everyone. (30lbs)

Trim the secondary fire wall - only a few lbs but every-ounce-counts (1lb)

front bumper support - I redesigned the OEM front structural bumper support to incorporate a radiator bracket and IC bracket. (5lbs)

The OEM engine mounts are relatively heavy ... I had a set cut from aluminum and dropped 5lbs. (5lbs)

The OEM suspension members are heavier than coilovers (typically / can be?) I dropped a fair amount of weight when I went to coilovers. I think it's mostly the OEM springs vs. coil over springs. (20lbs).

Assuming you have OEM front wheels - aftermarket wheels can cut a few lbs (10lbs).

If you remove AC you can eliminate a few idler/tension pulleys, eliminate the AC belt, and go with a smaller serpentine belt along with a few brackets nissan made out of steel that could have been made out of aluminum. (5lbs)

Probably ok for drag-racing (but not for road course) but some people have removed the power steering setup. between the pump, reservoir, fluid, etc it might be 10lbs (10lbs)

so it's possibly to cut 120 to 130lbs from the front end depending on the circumstances.

 

It drives great