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Weight Reduction and Onsite Gear Swaps

To: bobt@bimmerhaus.com
Subject: Weight Reduction and Onsite Gear Swaps
From: jeff@winchell.com
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 16:31:36 -0800 (PST)
Are you using any of the LTW parts to lighten your car? If so, how's it going.

Here's a couple of ideas unrelated to the LTW, but could save you some weight:

Gokart seats for both front seats (thanks Greg Fordahl). Aircraft aluminum seat 
belts from
Boeing Surplus (thanks Joe Cheng). Should be good for 10-20 lbs savings over 
the usual
race seat/belt setups.

On another front, I'm considering having multiple ring and pinion gears for 
ProSolos, NTs,
Nationals (and my co-driver and car is good enough that this refinement might 
be useful).
I read that you did this in '98. I'm wondering if it would be useful for my ESP 
Mustang.

I have 4 gear choices (2.73,3.08,3.27 and 3.55). The top speed in 2nd gear:
2.73 - 92, 
3.08 - 82
3.27 - 77
3.55 - 71

The difference in gear ratios between 2nd and 3rd gear, and the torque curve of 
my engine
give higher acceleration running the car up to redline in 2nd gear, than 
shifting to 3rd
gear at a lower 2nd gear RPM, so those top speeds above are the most effective 
with
respect to torque at the wheels.

I'm guessing that an ESP car will never see 92 mph at an SCCA
Divisional/NT/ProSolo/Nations, but what about 82, 77 and 71? Will I likely ever 
want to
change gears, or should I just use the 3.55 for maximum acceleration all the 
time?

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