Anyone interested in FRP doors for their FC?

[StavFC]

No better way of making your car faster without having it off the road for any real time or making it less reliable, than removing weight from it, and as FRP doors for an FC weigh about 6kg each, its a good saving.

Reason I ask is I fancy some for the above reason (fairly bored of 350bhp and 1150kg already, on the road at least), and can get some made for about 500 a pair, which isnt bad, BUT the moulds will cost more like 800 to make.
But if someone else, or more than 1 person, wanted a pair, we can split the cost of the moulds, which would make it much more economical.

Any serious interest? Id like to get the ball rolling within a few weeks if there is.

Cheers :)

[h20490]

StavFC,

it might be worth noting that these would not be suitable for cars WITHOUT side impact bar roll cages as there would be no safety device using these.

I am not against these at all thats a very goo price £250.00 IMO

:-)

Ash

[pdtaylor18]

Also I think that a copy of a standard bonnet with a re-designed scoop for a FMIC will be better received and one which there may well be dozens of people wanting one. If you can get an EGI bonnet,design a scoop and get that copied for a perfect fit may well be a better option and you will save a tonne of weight of the front end. The thing is where do you stop? It may well be cheaper to add a bit more BHP than to save weight from something that may well save your life in an accident.

[StavFC]

My car has a cage with (albeit low) door bars, but I wouldnt reccomend it to a car without a cage, depending how much you value your safety in a side-on crash.

My car has fibreglass everything (inc F+R arches with the metal behind removed), only realistic extra options are plastic windows and doors, so they are next on my list.

Really want to not touch the engine till as late as possible. But im so used to cars with about 400bhp/ton im hard to keep amused in road use at least. (as realistically the cars used 80-90% on the road, where you cant take it to the limits of its handling)

[BlitzBoy]

Really want to not touch the engine till as late as possible. But im so used to cars with about 400bhp/ton im hard to keep amused in road use at least.

and what cars be those then, be intersting to see what cars you had?

a lot of these Jap cars out there claiming huge bhp eg 500-600bhp skylines, you then see them on the quarter mile strip doing cr*ppy terminal speeds of 110, a true 400bhp per ton car will do terminal speeds of 120 mph and up

[StavFC]

Not like its of any help to this topic at all, but...

Only personally owned one car that did 120+ terminals (and one more that I think wouldve, but never took it to the strip as it dont really interest me), but due to my job Ive been in and driven countless cars hard with over 400bhp per ton, hell, ive driven a car that did 160mph terminals.
Reason I say 400/ton is thats the sort of level where personally it stays pretty scary for me, but still achievable/affordable.
Only car ive ever driven (or even been in) that I thought id never get used to was the Dragon FD drag car, but thats at a bhp/ton level I'd never realisitically afford.
Mine should be a solid 350odd (Ported/T04E/1bar) and is 1150kg wet (confirmed) currently, and though it seems to scare passengers (who are used to fast cars), is nothing to excite me apart from away from straight lines, and as said, thats not a realistic prospect on the road.

Personally I dont give a toss about times etc, its just an adrenaline rush.


Now back to the topic, is anyone else in the market for some FRP doors? :)

[BlitzBoy]

cool one last note on that subject ,well its pretty easy to get to 400 bhp per ton on the FC, you only need 470 at the fly with the weight you quoted on your car. Spend 5k on engine porting and a bigger turbo and ya there, maybe abit too much money to spend on a FC I guess.

Back to topic

If you did went FRP doors you save 12 kilos taking it down to 1138 so your bhp would go up from 308 to 312 bhp per tonne, might be worth spending the money on something else

[StavFC]

12kg a door maybe.

The Super Now carbon FC doors are meant to save 23kg. FRP is no heavier in reality.
Plastic windows are meant to save 45kg on an FC if you include the front screen, so probably 35kg with stock front screen, as its rear hatch thats the most weight.

FRP doors plus plastic side windows and rear hatch should mean a good 50kg saving, maybe more.

That plus a smaller (ie not 5k worth) power boost would get me where I want to be. In scared land.

maybe abit too much money to spend on a FC I guess.

Personally id rather spend that on an FC than an FD, but its down to preference I guess.

[BlitzBoy]

Well I went the Lexan route with my side windows and rear hatch, I weighed the stock glass first, I have saved 8 kilos off the hatch and 3 kilos per side windows, so 14 kilos net, suppose it all adds up, I will propbably do the doors and rear hatch once my cage goes in to negate the effects of weight gained with the cage.

[Prof]

You could probably get rid of the rats nest, solenoid rack and a few other bits and bobs out of the engine bay and save a few kilo's there - without sacrificing reliability. All that pipework is heavy

[StavFC]

I havent anything like that in my car.

[FlikstRR]

im interested stav BUT i cant realistically afford it for a few months chap. :(

im still wanting to do lexan rear hatch and side windows first.. not sure where eric is with these..

[StavFC]

I would also prefer the lexans too, better VFM and less work, but Eric told me he stupid busy at mo to even think about doing more, so I wouldnt be holding my breath for them!

Ive asked someone else to do em, ill supply them with some spare windows to use as templates, but no reply so far...

Ideally id like to do both at same time, but whatevers possible.

[FlikstRR]

yeah .. same here chap. let me know how far you get with both. Im investigating some lexan stuff too.. if i geta price/lead I'll let you know.

may try and get a group order together if i can work a discount..