Fiberglass body parts, how far to go with my 6 conversion Options

[billd]

I'm moving the oil cooler on the front of my 914-6 conversion and started a dangerous train of thought that is likely to keep my car on jack stands for months longer and empty my wallet (even emptier than it already is).

Rather than cut a notch in my existing steel bumper and valance I thought, why not buy a fiberglass 916 bumper (or a 914GT bumper and valence). That would save a few pounds.

While I'm at it, I could also get some fiberglass flares, fiberglass front and rear deck lids, and a fiberglass rear bumper.

I hope you folks can help me decide how far to go by answering a few questions:

1. How much weight is saved by replacing the steel bumpers with fiberglass?

2. If I go for flares, do you recommend 7 front/9 rear or 9 front/11 rear?

3. How much more weight can be saved by going to fiberglass deck lids, etc?

4. I assume that I give up all of the protection of the steel bumpers if I go FG. Right?

For reference, I'm buildling a 3.2L short stroke engine for this car with twin-plug heads, 9.5:1 compression, and Megasquirt fuel injection. It should be over 250hp.

[nine14cats]

Hi Bill,

This is a great subject. I'm going to weigh in here ( (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) ) and say that you can get close to Andrew B with the right combination of power, weight reduction, and driving. A few years ago with our 914-6 Andrew, Steve N. and I were within thousandths of a second of each other. And our cars were setup very differently. The Smurfmobile is the lightest as they have pulled off much of the engine auxillary equipment. Last time I looked, "team smurf" had pulled off the alternator and cooling fan. That is why on really hot days they normally push the car to the start line. And they run with no windshield.

Our car was significantly heavier, with a full cage and a 6 motor and oil cooler system. But it also had alot more power. Our 2.7 dyno'd at 236HP at the crank. And I could rev it to 7500 RPM with a selective rev range switch (got the pill/switch idea from JP!)

I would go with 7's and 9's as the biggest flares if you wanna run TTOD. With Fritz I'm finding I have to give a little more room to get the wide rear flares around the cones. Since I wanted to have The Beast be a dual purpose car (AX, Track), the body work on it is the narrow Sheridan glass.

Here are a few links of my weight reduction program with our 914-6. There are some comments of the weight reduction and what components weigh what. It's my opinion that in order to catch the Smurfmobile you're going to have to make the car a track car only. But it's just my opinion.

Project Jenny Craig 1

Project Jenny Craig 2

Project Jenny Craig 3

Keep up the work! Can't wait to see the car out there!

Bill P.