Weight saving...how?

[home7271]

As I read about the exciting news of these new cas coming in, I had to wonder about the possibilities of the new CSL.

Specifially, what kind of weight savings can we reasonably get? I thought a Carrera S vs. GT3 may be a good parallel, ie, M3 vs. M3CSL. Looking at the Porsche website, the weights for Carrera S and GT3 are 3131lb and 3075lb so the saving is only less than 60lb!

With the new M3 at 3704lb, I am not sure if the new CSL can even go below 3500lb...unless of course the car is total stripped of creature comfort or basically become a "racing machine" rather than a street-able sports car.

Really curious to see how the M division is going to address the weigt issue.

How much weight do you think they can reasonably save and how?

Regards.

[lucid]

You can save about 30lbs with lighter weight wheels. They most likely will not be as strong as stock wheels though, but should still be acceptable. That's like ~$3k I'd say although it's been reported that the Breyton wheels that will sell for ~$300 a piece will be right around 20lbs each. Stock 19" are supposed to be around 28lbs I think.

Titanium exhaust would most likely save you around 30lbs for ~$5k.

Those are the obvious things I can think of. Then you can start paying mega bucks for lb for things like CF trunk lid and so on if you really care. Nothing major there though.

If you don't mind replacing the seats, I am sure there are significant gains to be had there, too.

To the best of my knowledge, fenders are plastic, so nothing there. But I think the (external) door panels are sheet metal, which could be replaced with CF parts, which would need to be painted and cost a good deal.

[JoosyJoos]

Im not gonna start with the whole arguement about whether there will be a CSL or not but keep in mind there is some debate.

As far as reasonable amounts of weight that could be taken off I would say somewhere in the 2-300lb range.

Heres a list of what they could lighten
-wheels
-carbon ceramic brakes (pray to the BMW gods)
-exhaust
-bumpers-- more carbon fiber
-AC delete (optional)
-Radio Delete (optional)
-seats-- recaro-esc seats for the front and optional deletion of the rear.
-carpets,extended leather, headliners all replaced with lighter materials.
And if you really wanna stretch your luck you could think about the possibility of a plexiglass rear windshield like the GT3 RS uses... but that would never make it stateside.

Things that would add weight
-beefing up the susepension components
-larger brakes (ceramic material might negate the weight gains)
-M DCT

So those are some of the things just to name a few. Personally I would guess the CSL will come in around the high 3400-low 3500 mark realistically--- if it even gets built at all.

I dont think its really fair to look at the Carrera S versus the GT3 because there are substantial areas where the M3 could have weight reduced, whereas the Carrera S has much less optional weight to reduce.

[skierman64]

Don't forget replacing all but the windshield glass with plastic, I beleive the GT3 has that.

[schnell325]

I could stand to lose 50 lbs......

[jtown]

Hit the gym.

[rai]

6MT is the easiest and cheapest way to save 50 lbs

can probably save more than 50 lbs with light weight seats

[ArtPE]

Originally Posted by home7271

As I read about the exciting news of these new cas coming in, I had to wonder about the possibilities of the new CSL.

Specifially, what kind of weight savings can we reasonably get? I thought a Carrera S vs. GT3 may be a good parallel, ie, M3 vs. M3CSL. Looking at the Porsche website, the weights for Carrera S and GT3 are 3131lb and 3075lb so the saving is only less than 60lb!

With the new M3 at 3704lb, I am not sure if the new CSL can even go below 3500lb...unless of course the car is total stripped of creature comfort or basically become a "racing machine" rather than a street-able sports car.

Really curious to see how the M division is going to address the weigt issue.

How much weight do you think they can reasonably save and how?

Regards.

the M3 weighs 3570 with fuel...as weighed by several sources...
sportAUTO iirc had it at 3540 in a recent comparo with the C63...

I'm guessing they'll be able to get 250 lbs off...

the Porsche weights aren't accurate...I've seem 997S's weighed close to 3300