[Mk2] [Turbo] Weight saving.......Best material for t bars????

[2Crooky]

Hullo chaps/esses

I am shedding maxo weighto from my tubby to track prepare it......

Looking at perspex windows and getting the t bars changed from heavy glass to a lighter material.

What would be best??? Perspex, aluminium, carbon??????

Cheers

Alex

[as8133]

Change of heart with the selling then

Some people on here have some CF ones iirc

[2Crooky]

Ive been bombarded with PMs telling me to stop being stupid lol and keep the car mate........

These are pipeline plans i am making for the next 2 years. If it turns out i have a fat MOT bill that needs addressing then i will still be selling.

Carbon fibre t bars are hard to come by and very pricey which is why i suggested aluminium but don't know if this is sufficient..... Would this be capable of sustaining any chassis flex or twist without them mishaping or worse

[mrfil13]

i wouldnt expect the glass to deal with body flex as it is, thought it was mainly the huge bar in the middle and really the things that hold the tbars in.

[2Crooky]

Fair point

I also prefer the idea that if i crashed the car and ever had the situation where the car rolled over, that i would have metal tbars rather than glass that could penetrate my head lol!!

[mrfil13]

The glass on the tbars wont shatter into big spiky bits so dont need to really worry about that, if they do shatter it will be into tiny little bits.


Might be worth weighing the t-bars and some aluminium thats about the same size to see how much weight you would save.

[2Crooky]

I imagine a fair bit as the tbars are pretty heavy items!!

Every kilo counts lol!! I'm going for 1 tonne kerb weight with an empty tank of fuel. But i want to keep my dashboard and front speakers for a little driving luxury lol!!

I think it should be quite possible with the list of things i have to do......

I know jonb has his car at 1150kg with a heavy exhaust system and no carbon fibre.....with the edition on CF and perspex his car could be feather light!!

[mrfil13]

i did see something somewhere someone had written what they had removed and what it weighed bit by bit. Not sure if it was the jekleandhyde or somewhere else.

I think a CF bonnet is a good price/weight mod.

[mrfil13]

here we go

http://www.jekylhyderacing.com/weight.htm


They saved nearly 7kg with CF t-bars.

[skipp123]

theres a uk distrubutor for the carbon t-tops im sure they are on flee bay

[2Crooky]

Cheers for the hep peeps

[cantfindausername]

Would be interested in seeing some of the ebay t-bars...

[2Crooky]

Yea carbon fibre and ebay aren't things i would like to put in the same sentence but i haven't seen any of the quality......

If i buy any carbon parts they will be from madpsi most likely or seibon.

[cantfindausername]

just seen on ebay a wiper cowelling like the madpsi one, but for RHD MR2s. Could be interesting.
Also found this statement at the bottom of a listing for a CF engine lid "YOU ARE BIDDING ON A HOINDA DEL SOL BC 92-98 SIDE SKIRTS MADE FROM FIBRE GLASS"

I have messaged them to ask what it means.

[Ed]

Ant

The RHD CF wiper cowling that is on eBay is made by a user on here called chopshop-1.

There's a group buy for them going on Here

Could always PM him and see if he would consider making CF tops.

HTH Ed

[cantfindausername]

Gotcha. I'm so far removed from whats going on here lately.

[SW20Paul]

Sell it and buy a tintop

I think fibreglass would be the best option. Light and not to expensive plus you can paint it the same colour s the car easy enough

[rookie-racer]

or if hes going down the weigh saving rought hes obviously wanting a stiffer car, in which case a tbar is better as MR T's men reinforced the ar$e end of it to compensate for weekening the roof - however I have heard that you can see the roof flexing on stripped out tin tips. (maybe uk spec sunroof models)

what about welding in sections from a tin top roof where the t bar locks are and fiber glassing over th whole schebang? or better still carbon it? - ebay has a seller who does scraps of carbon kevlar cloth cheap - sells them as avation carbon.