HLG600

You could probably supercharge it for $10K.

cap'n jasper

I think you're onto something.
Carbon fibre hood, thinner metal for the doors, lighter seats, no soundproofing..
You could also take out the airbags, use smaller tyres, replace the wood with lightweight plastic, use a lighter engine....


No...... wait....... they already make cars like this.

They call them HONDAs

Bigdot

correction, they are called R230's

HAHa, jk, but serously.

Mark

mebeJOE

What planet are you on? They have 300 horsepower V-8 Hondas with carbon fiber hoods there? Using modern stronger materials to reduce weight on cars is a HIGHT TECH PERFORMANCE CAR idea; for example, the Ferrari 360 Modeno all aluminum body:

http://www.cauleyferrari.com/360.html

cap'n jasper

An R129 is not a 360 and can't be turned into one. It's a superbly crafted Grand Tourer.
Leave the carbon fibre hoods to the Fast 'n' Furious lot.

Bigdot

um renntech makes one, and they are very far from Rice Rockets.

mebeJOE

Following your various comments, it is apparent that you lack sound reasoning abilities.

First you compare the idea of using hi-tech lightweight materials in an R129 to making the car into a Honda. Then when I point out that Ferrari uses light weight material, you point out the obvious that an R129 isn't a Ferrari.

So what? The point is that many auto makers have used hi-tech materials to lighten the load of their cars. The Porsche 959 body was made from Kevlar and Aluminium.

Please don't continue to be stupid and point out that an R129 is not a 959.

We all know that.

As Mark pointed out, RennTech makes a carbon fiber hood. It costs $10,000. That would hardly cheapen the R129, but it probably would save some weight.

Oh, in case you miss the MAIN point, it is:

Lower weight = higher performance.

Next time you get a large amount of money from whatever you, from daddy, or a drug deal or whatever, perhaps you should use it to get an education and teach yourself a little reasoning ability, instead of buying an expensive car.

But if you don't, at least you could have the common sense to stop idiotically critizing my posts.

Thanks, and have a nice day.

99_SL_Sport

Joe you are married, right? Let's imagine what sort of woman might marry a sweet guy like you. Now, I'll guess she weighs about 220 pounds. As an experiment Joe, put your wife in the passenger seat of your car and do an acceleration run. Note the 0-60. Next, put your wife out of the car and repeat...The car is 220 pounds lighter, but did you notice higher performance? Of course not, and that's why your notion of modifying the engineering in your 129 is moronic. Leave engineering to an engineer.

Bigdot

jeez i notice a HUGE diffrence when im with a passenger v-s when im with my self. like a 15% decrease in preformance( in satraight line and on a course). and i am just going to ask, are YOU an engineer? i have a good time killer, run your gas tank to near empty, do some spirited driving, then full it up to the 21.8 gallon mark, then do some more fast driving..... feel a diffrence? YES a HUGE diffrence.

DANSMB

Having been a drag racer for years I have to sound off here and tell you what effect weight has on your performance. Each #100 removed from your car will improve your trap speed by 1 mph and reduce your ET by .1. There are many calculators you can use online if you know your HP and race weight to check what your car will run or tell how much power you have if you have a time slip, no excuses!

Dan

99_SL_Sport

No, I am not an engineer, and clearly you aren't either. But I can do some simple math...Mercedes conservatively quotes a 0-60 of 6.4 seconds. A fifteen-percent decrease in performance means your 0-60 is 6.4/.85=7.5 seconds. Believable? Yeah, right. Either your passenger is an elephant or you don't know what the hell you are are talking about. Which is it?

Bigdot

dude just try it, there is a huge diffrence. u can feel it! and i have so much expierence with it. i race a lot, i race the same people over and over, and trust me, when the hard top is on, and there is a full tank of gas, the car preforms a LOT diffrently, and that is not negotiable, because i HAVE expierenced it many MANY times. my SL is my daiy driver, my sences are very keen on its preformance fluxuation. and please, get a passenger, put the HT on and fill her up, take a turn and u will feel the enormous diffrence.

Mark

Bigdot

ok,
here are some numbers.

21 gallons of gas weighs about 175 lbs
i am 6'3 and weigh 200 lbs
we will say my friend is 200 lbs too.
the hard top is 90lbs


thats just about 665lbs lbs added to the car. that is a lot! right?

mebeJOE

Let's make this simple. Given everything being equal, changes to the same car, horsepower to weight ratio is fairly meaningful. But yes, I understand there are other factors.

In order to keep the calculations simple, because I am NOT an engineer, I am using round numbers:

power = 300 horsepower
weight = 4000 pound
power to weight ratio (horsepower:pounds) = 0.075

Increase Horsepower by 20.

power = 320 horsepower
weight = 4000 pound
power to weight ratio (horsepower:pounds) = 0.08

Equals Decrease of 250 pounds.
power = 300 horsepower
weight = 3750 pounds
power to weight ratio (horsepower:pounds) = 0.08

So, in order to acheive the same approxiamate result as an increase of 20 horse power, I would need to not only dump my non-exisent very fat wife, I would also need to dump out my spare tire.

By the way, that is a 6.67 per cent increase in horsepower compared to a 6.25 per cent decrease in weight.

Which mods would you rather make, if you want to go faster? I guess it depends on cost, how much you like your fat wife, how much you value comfort over speed, etc.

People pay $1000 to $3000 for chips, intakes, exhausts, etc., for horspower increases of 20 or 30 HP.

As far as corning ability and g-force and all that, I can't even begin to make a guess. BUT, horsepower increases are NOT likely to make a car corner better, while weight reduction is.

And if you all remember, that is part of what the original poster's concern was -- CORNERING ABILITY.

So, I really can't believe how much flack you all have given me over a suggestion that it might be possible to reduce the weight of an R129, when it would address both the acceleration and handling issues raised by the original poster.

I didn't start the flames over this topic.

What the heck is wrong with some of you people????

Flyingphil1st

Weight kills ur performance whether you notice it or not.

I don't drive as fast if I've got passengers on board, but I can tell the extra weight just from driving normally if its a large load.

I'm hoping that the low centre of gravity, shorter wheelbase and better suspension will counter the 220kgs increase in weight of my W126. For handling at least. The extra 20Kw and 35NM of power of the 500SL isnt actually enough to better the 560SE's power to weight ratio.

Thanks for your input everyone, essepcially jjrodger.

SL BRABUS

There something about the R129......... To proof to everybody I took my SL to the track at LACR Palmdale to do a 1/4 mile run........ with hardtop on, full tank of gas, full sound system and me........the car weight 5,000lbs...... Here the test......when I run I do the same time with or with out the passenger which the car weight 5,200....and I run before the sound system, 1/4 of gas, and me, the car weight 4,600lbs ...still do the same time as when the car weight 5,200lbs....... it funny........ but with the C43, C32, Bmw M3 and all the honda......the more weight the slower the car from what I see at LACR Palmdale.......

cap'n jasper

I agree that lighter = faster but mebeJOE's suggestion of removing the soundproofing was just crazy. Similarly the seats are heavy because they are heated, electric and comfortable. Surely the part of the appeal of the R129 is the comfort and quiet?
Renntech may make a carbon hood but Renntech did race the R129. A carbon hood for road use would just look wrong IMHO. No matter how well finished it would never look as nice as the original and would you really notice the weight saved in the real world?


Mmmmmm.....

HLG600

Although it cannot be turned into a 360, a RennTech or Brabus R129 would beat out a 360 in acceleration and top speed. The 360 will clearly be the better handler, but on a highway...I doubt it will outrun it. Now, for the CF hood, I am sure it comes painted to match the exterior - RennTech is not the type of company which will "rice" out their fine tuned products. Take it easy guys.

Oh, and what is that doing here...R129 SL board , remember?

Bigdot

ok, its not like u cant PAINT a CF hood!! just because somthing is CF, does not mean it cant be painted.

cap'n jasper

I have an E320 and an SL60 AMG
I know a Carbon hood can be painted. The pic of the rice car was a bit tongue in cheek. Mine will stay standard though thanks.

HLG600

The ricer was a little too much...but SL60, okay now we're talking - what year is it?

HLG600

For the sake of argument, here is a photo of a RennTech SL74 with aftermarket hood (I am assuming it is the CF one R. Makes). It does not represent anything near ...it just hints at the power beneath.

Bigdot

that is not teh CF hood from Renntech, unless its a diff one. because the CF one looks oem.

DANSMB

I thought these cars were less than #4000? Maybe 4200 with driver. Has anyone been across a scale? My 84 Mustang I drag race is #3550 and runs 12.9 @109 with 310 RWHP.

Dan

SL BRABUS

All MB car have the sticker on the driver side....... that tell you how much your car weight........