Just seen the word seriously....
Talking about waight, one of the bigest problems is the big diferance between the front and the rear of this car.
Some not costly aspects are moving waight to the rear like the batery and taking a small one from a small car like an Su. Alto. A bit more costly shanging the alternator and the starter motor, several Kg can be saved and at the same time gain relaiebillety.
A alu rad from an modern car, we use a rad from a porsche 944, but I have heard that one from a Fiesta fits to.
The bonnet can be lighneted with a litle work and stil rigid enoufg,
the same for the extreem havy booth lid including opening spring and bracket. a small alu tube opening beem works fine to.
Who need rear window operation, a fixt window including shortened window rails save several Kg. there are so many details you can look at.
A lot of work, but moving the engine as far as posible to the rear makes a positive diferance. Yes I know gear lever, propshaft exhoust ext ext. Oh I almost forgot your question about the numberplate, in the UK was it not alowed to have them like a sticker ?
........but on the flipside me and my friends have never had any trouble running with a 'stick on' plate, even when pulled, and some have got by with no front plate at all, again, even when pulled and checked!
"No s'ah, must have fallen off!"
Just as long as you don't keep it in the car, i.e. admitting you're in the wrong!
As far as I'm aware, it was perfectly legal to fit a stick-on front number plate, as long as it complied with all the other rules about them, up until they changed the number plate rules in 2001.
Hence all the Minis, Sports cars, Rally Escorts etc with them.
Daryll's (from Racetorations) race TR3 (600BPC) had also one and I know many people in the UK driving classics with these. On this old cars the police do not make a big deal out of it as they are not familar with all the details of what was allowed until when exactly. They know normally just some key dates. For example by when you need to have rear seat belts and so on.
On my TR I have also made one and sticked it to the front. The original is in the boot and nobody every complained about it. The only thing which would be an issue for the German number plates is if you copy also the official license and MOT stickers on your new self made sticker plate as this would be falsification of documents by German law but in the UK you do not have such stickers anyhow on the license plates.
And if a police man hates you and want to find something he always will find something on any car even if it takes an hour....... If such an ar...ole would fine me for my sticker plate it would be 10 Euros (6.7 Pounds) for this kind of regulatory offence. So who cares for such a sum if it happens once a decade on average?
Ok, so I was a bit wrong there. A rule came in with the White and Yellow reflective plates in 1973, that says all number plates must meet a British Standard, and no stick on plate has as of now.
DavePoth wrote:Ok, so I was a bit wrong there. A rule came in with the White and Yellow reflective plates in 1973, that says all number plates must meet a British Standard, and no stick on plate has as of now.
Correct. I have a stick on plate on the front of my rx7 and have had no problems with it yet including when the police pulled me over for a random vehicle inspection.
Hans, have you got any pics of the bootlid and bonet mods to lighten them? I assume you have just drilled more holes in the stiffening supports, right?