Quote:
I don't know how your car will be under 4000lbs, because on mine I have an aluminum head LS, manual brakes, no inner fenders, no heater, no air, no radio, no back seat, no power anything, no interior to speak of other than carpet and fairly light seats, and an 8-pound Woodward collapsible safety steering column. The battery is in the center of the car behind the driver's seat. The only thing I added was a S&W 4-point rollbar that I designed to bolt to the chassis.
Well, it's quite simple. A stock 56 Nomad weighs 3600 pounds with 776 pounds of dry weight for the iron engine and iron PG transmission. My engine is 650 pounds and my trans and flywheel is 190 for 840 pounds total or 64 pounds over stock weight. The aluminum suspension drops about 170 pounds so that makes the car 106 pounds less than stock. I added an estimated 400 pounds in engine accessories, power window regulators, console, armrests, power seats, stereo, etc. and I get to 3894 pounds. I don't know if I over-estimated or under-estimated that 400 pounds because a lot of my interior is aluminum. Another data point is Wade's finished car weighed in at 3686 pounds with an LS-1 and 4L60E. My BBC is probably 250 pounds heavier than his is and my trans is a little lighter so call it 225 pounds heavier. That's 3911, so about the same. If I hit 4000 pounds so be it, but I doubt I added more than 500 pounds over yours. I don't know why yours is so heavy.
Quote:
Here is a good article explaining why they used leaf springs, which wasn't cost, and some of the advantages of coilovers for track cars.
They also talk about some of the disadvantages of the transverse leaf, and in the end they say that coilovers are actually better for tuning and flexibility. The "crosstalk" issue is real, but it only matters on top-end cars.