Lightweight Front Subframe Ideas
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: The Race Track & St Pete FL
Posts: 638
Total Cats: 57
Lightweight Front Subframe Ideas
I want to pull more weight out of the front of my Exocet. The NB subframe weighs about 31.5 lbs. So, I've looked into doing all aluminum like a lot of new factory cars are doing. But the issue with that is Alum Infante fatigue strength, meaning that if the Alum bend any deg. that eventually it will crack. I have worked in the Aviation and or Composite Industry for over 20 years. I could take the time and make the subframe out of some type of Carbon structure, but that is some time to engineer a mould. I currently work in the Aluminum industry and work on carbon part on the side.
The Upper/Lower control arms push their load horizontally into the subframe, so I could design the load to go through the engine mounts and into the engine block/ the other sides suspension.
I'm asking for your input. If some pushes back on the idea, give your input in a scientific/Engineering way and I will take that into account.
I haven't corner scaled the car to know how much load will go through the suspension, but the Net weight of the car with me is 1718lbs. 1475 lbs empty
The Upper/Lower control arms push their load horizontally into the subframe, so I could design the load to go through the engine mounts and into the engine block/ the other sides suspension.
I'm asking for your input. If some pushes back on the idea, give your input in a scientific/Engineering way and I will take that into account.
I haven't corner scaled the car to know how much load will go through the suspension, but the Net weight of the car with me is 1718lbs. 1475 lbs empty
#5
Cpt. Slow
iTrader: (25)
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Oregon City, OR
Posts: 14,232
Total Cats: 1,149
Went through that phase too. Really pissed so threw away perfectly good 90-93 carpet, and with constant tender use, they’ll last. It only takes one no-start episode for me to wish I had a bigger battery. Most of the racing I do is enduro or class limited, where light weigh batteries and subframes won’t win races, but broken suspension or dead batteries will lose them. SoI should probably step out of the lightest-Exocet-ever chat, but thought I’d share my opinion.
#6
I want to pull more weight out of the front of my Exocet. The NB subframe weighs about 31.5 lbs. So, I've looked into doing all aluminum like a lot of new factory cars are doing. But the issue with that is Alum Infante fatigue strength, meaning that if the Alum bend any deg. that eventually it will crack. I have worked in the Aviation and or Composite Industry for over 20 years. I could take the time and make the subframe out of some type of Carbon structure, but that is some time to engineer a mould. I currently work in the Aluminum industry and work on carbon part on the side.
The Upper/Lower control arms push their load horizontally into the subframe, so I could design the load to go through the engine mounts and into the engine block/ the other sides suspension.
I'm asking for your input. If some pushes back on the idea, give your input in a scientific/Engineering way and I will take that into account.
I haven't corner scaled the car to know how much load will go through the suspension, but the Net weight of the car with me is 1718lbs. 1475 lbs empty
The Upper/Lower control arms push their load horizontally into the subframe, so I could design the load to go through the engine mounts and into the engine block/ the other sides suspension.
I'm asking for your input. If some pushes back on the idea, give your input in a scientific/Engineering way and I will take that into account.
I haven't corner scaled the car to know how much load will go through the suspension, but the Net weight of the car with me is 1718lbs. 1475 lbs empty
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: The Race Track & St Pete FL
Posts: 638
Total Cats: 57
From your first quote, I've looked at the V8R kit and pretty much I have the same response that I had to curly. But I've talked to V8R about making more aerodynamic control arms, since round tube or squares aren't very aerodynamic. (I am in a open wheel car). I have plans to do 2 venturi tunnels on the car. I am running a 11lb Braille battery, since they are right around the corner from home.
I think mine weighted 31.7 lbs. My plan is to drill holes and cut metal off of it to save weight. I think I can get 15-20% of the weight off of it without changing the strrength much. To get 30% weight removed I would loose a lot of strength doing that I think. Still, I bet it would be stiffer than the aftermarket ones I've seen that look pretty flexy.
I could also 3D print moulds and make a carbon intake manifold, since the car won't be boosted. The walls could be 3-4 layers of 5.7 oz. My biggest weight loss but would be more expensive, a k20 engine swap (about 32 lbs off the 1.8vvt)
#11
Stock reinforced subframe is going to give you the best stiffness to weight ratio and fatigue life. The V8R subframe is a noodle. That's isn't speculation either.
IMO, subframe is not the place to look for weight reductions on an Exo.
Brakes
Battery
Wiring harness
Driveshaft
IMO, subframe is not the place to look for weight reductions on an Exo.
Brakes
Battery
Wiring harness
Driveshaft
__________________
#13
Having done a kswap... I think you may be surprised at just how close the kseries is in weight to the BP after you bolt on all of the required accessories to it to work in the miata chassis.. I dropped 43lbs from BP4W to K24 (while doing a lot of other weight reduction measures at the same time as long as I was in there). From the best documentation that I took for myself, of that 43lbs, 25 was for a lightweight battery, 5 was for removing OE seatbelts, 5 was for OE charcoal canister setup, 2 was for a lighter steering wheel setup (no airbag), 1 was for removing power antenna, 1 for various front end sheet metal, 8 for OE wiring that was trimmed out... If you do the math in adding all the sub-component measurements up, that comes to 47lbs, which is different than my measured 43lbs at on the chassis scales. I'd imagine the 4lb difference between my component sum and my measured chassis weight is likely due to not being 100% accurate with my fuel level between chassis measurements (I scale with ~1/2 tank).
In summary, I don't feel that I truly realized much of any weight savings with the kswap specifically.
In summary, I don't feel that I truly realized much of any weight savings with the kswap specifically.
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