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It was great meeting all the DFW-area B-Modders at the Tour last weekend - Keith, Kenny, Damon, John, Eddie, Janis, Dakota, Stuart, and Tommy.  Thanks to all for the help and advice you provided Christopher and I.

We obviously need to make some changes to the car while we continue learning to drive it.  Since the car's over the minimum weight before either of us get into it, weight reduction is high on that list.  As I'm in Hawaii for a week , it's a bad time to start a diet so it'll have to come off the car.  We'll be removing the halon bottle and the oil/water heat exchanger and replacing the golf cart battery as soon as I get back.  What kind of battery do you run with?  Are the lightweight batteries worth the money or is everyone running motorcycle batteries?  Our ZX-10R still has its generator (I know it too weighs a ton) and we've installed an electric fan to keep the water temp in range as summer approaches.

The next targets will be the 3/8" particle board splitter, 6 gallon fuel cell (foam-filled bladder), and roll bar/cage.  Are the weight savings worth the expense and effort involved in replacing the bladder with a much smaller (one or two gallon) fuel cell?  If so, what cell(s) would you recommend?

The Ackermann on the car looks real good, with forward linkage points and the "dotted lines" intersecting right at the driver's helmet.  Knowing that, what toe-in would you recommend starting at for the front and rear?

Tommy - since you've already got a "Winner" mask, maybe we should go with "Lucky"?

Thanks again,
Mike

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A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.

Mike,

I run a very small gel type battery and have had great results. That is definitely a place to cut some weight. While pulling the alternator and the other associated charging parts will save some weight and allow you to rev up a little quicker it is a trade off for the convenience of keeping the battery juiced up.

I have run my car both with and without the alternator and have seen very little difference. I also run a fan, so having a charging circuit is beneficial in my view. I did not have a fan when I was running without the charging circuit. I could easily run the car for a two day event with two drivers with no apparent electrical issues. I don't think that's the case with a fan though I have never tried it. If you have access to a battery charger I would bet you could charge it between days and be OK. My car needs ballast so it's less of an issue with me.

I went from a 6 gallon cell to a 3 gallon cell when the original cell started leaking. I like to run cells fairly full to prevent slosh and weight transfer so you figure the extra 3 gallons or so are about 18 pounds of extra weight. The three gallon cell is more than adequate for two drivers at 3 runs each on my R1.

 
If I recall on your car, the cage was seriously overbuilt. Taking some of that out (especially up high on the car) would be very helpful in many ways.
 

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Joe Gonzalez
1979 Legrand DSR- B Mod
Gilbertsville, NY

Having also had to ballast my CM Swift, I was going to add an alternator.  Tiny little lightweight ones are available.  Had a hard time finding a fan that would fit in the chassis though.  I was looking for ways to put a WOT cut out switch in it too.   Sold it before I got around to all this stuff.  Very nice to be able to manage your engine temps!!

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Patrick Washburn
STU Evo
www.winghats.com

I'd also look at the seating in your Mk18. It looks like a previous owner built the current seat on top of, and in front of the original seat. You may be able to remove it, the thick bar behind it that's not part of the rollbar, and lose some weight. That may also get the driver further down and back in the car.

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Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio.