VS weight

I think it's closer to 1800#.  I know several have weighed theirs and will "weigh in"

Interesting. I had a 32 Ford roadster with a cast iron 350” Chevy, turbo 350 and 9” Ford rear end and it only weighed 2450#. I figured as small as the Speedster is and the lightweight engine and transaxle it would be very light. I thought water cooled cars would be closer to 1800#. It will be good to see if others chime in.

I think VS weighs more than 1800.  Jack Crosby would know.  The  Beck air cooled cars are light.   I remember Lane Anderson's car(Beck) being the lightest.   My VS  superwide body was a fatty.  @Jack Crosby

When I registered my CMC right after completion, I had to take it to a certified scale. It came in at 1820 unladen weight. 

@Safety Jim Buffalo NY. - Good to know!  Drums? Discs? Full tank? Oil sump? Anything special about the construction?

I've always assumed mine was 2200 with me in it. Seems about right.

Mine was 1835# no passengers, full of gas. (The car, not the passengers)

When Danny Pip brought his scales mine weighed in at 1700# even with a full gas tank on board.

Here are the specs from mine at Carlisle in May. This is a water cooled Beck no passengers. 

I don't have scales, but Danny P. does. I've weighed mine (tube-frame IM) at a grain elevator, and it was 1800-ish lbs, but that was before I started larding it up with flux capacitors and warp-drive accessories. I'd guess I'm near 2000 lbs as it sits now.

I'm a motor guy, so I always default to more power. But at 54 years old, I'm finally figuring out that Colin Chapman was a pretty smart dude. Simplifying and reducing weight is a gift that just keeps giving. I'd never compromise on safety items, but even there we are presented with options ranging from svelte and sleeky-like to big-mama in the house.

The SoCal wide-5 brakes most guys run because they are cheap and adequate are like having barbell plates hanging on the end of your hubs-- exactly where you don't want the additional weight. The bubble-top AL cases may be stronger and more stable than an AS41 mag case, but they also weigh 20 lbs more.

If a guy (like *ahem* "somebody I know") keeps making these kinds of choices, pretty soon you have a car that weighs 2250 lbs. That's almost 1000 lbs more than an equivalent Spyder, so going fast in one of them becomes an order of magnitude easier than hustling Porky Pig down the road.

I recently stepped on the scales for the first time in several months. The 30 extra pounds I was carrying for a couple of years is now 40. I can tell you it takes a lot more personal horsepower to drag my fat butt off the floor now than it did when I was 40 lbs lighter.

Our cars are the same way.

   In NY, (the state of way too many laws) before you can apply for registration of a home built vehicle, you have to have it weighed and then bring it to a NY State Gov't inspector.  You can't drive it. You have to tow it with a certified towing service.  I had a friend w/ a flatbed tow truck who dragged it to the scale and then to the inspection. I had to have an empty gas tank.  Oil was in the motor. Squirts bottle was full. Spare tire in the trunk. Nobody was in the car.  

   The inspection consisted of reviewing the receipts for ALL of the equipment, body, chassis, motor and engine components to be sure you weren't running a chop shop. If you look at my build photos in the pics section, you can see that I "created" a new floor pan of 1x 1 steel tube and 12 ga, steel plate.  I heated and bent the tubing to follow the curve of the original VW pan.  My pan was totally rusted and I thought that adding the support of the 1x1 tubing would add support for the convertible body configuration.  I am sure that added about 50 -100 pounds.  

  It took about two hours and cost me breakfast and a six pack for my flatbed driver.  My car is now registered in NY as a, 1955 Porsche, Red, Gas, 4 Cylinder.  

Danny weighed my Speedster at Carlisle and it was 1,763 pounds split front, 46% and rear 54%.  

I have since replaced the aluminum/steel rear discs with the SoCal  one-piece, all steel discs and that probably added 20-25# (guessing here)_ to the rear.   When weighed,the car already had the 1915 Type I replaced with the Raby Type IV which I understand is about 20 pounds heavier.  Getting better reliability,  and 50+ hp at the flywheel for         20 # seemed like a good trade off.

Well, to quote Stan, my IM6 is more to the Porky Pig end of the scale.  It’s really not what Colin Chapman would have liked.  His motto was ‘Add lightness’, and his Lotus cars did just that.

However, I have enough horses to move it along nicely, but with a steel frame, wool carpets, sound deadening, roll bar, etc., it is no lightweight Speedster.  I was a little surprised at what it weighed when we did it at Carlisle.

Weight is a trade off, and I have to accept the extra weight in exchange for a solid, great riding car.

And it is still January...

Or you can do what Chuck Beck said to do in that video we've seen recently:  

"If you have a car that is a lot of fun with the power that it has, and then you double the horsepower, it'll be TWICE as much fun!"

Joe - Your Beck seems to be perfect - once you get in driver's set it will all be about equal.  Who would have thought that a water cooled version would be lighter but guess its in the tube chassis.

Thanks guys. As soon as the snow goes away, I’m going to get it weighed.

I've weighed a bunch of cars. The Beck Speedster always seems to be lightest of the Speedsters. I think Alan's last one is the exception, it had a ton of steel removed and replaced with aluminum. He was saying something about 1200 pounds, but it didn't come over and get weighed. IMs are heavy due to the stout frame and 911 suspension. Old pan IMs are surprisingly light. CMCs vary a lot, depends on the build and how heavy the chopper gun guy was that day.

Spyders are almost always lighter. My new one weighed 1476 at Carlisle. It now weighs 1483 after the heater installation. Well worth it IMHO. Lenny's older Vintage Spyder is a tiny bit more at 1505 with a type4, so I'd agree with Jack that 20 pounds is the penalty for type4 power.

Of course, the best way to shed weight in a Speedster is up to the driver, but we know that doesn't happen all that often...

This conversation actually got me thinking about the last speedster Al put out of his Amish barn. I actually had the opportunity to buy the car prior to Al purchasing up. At the time, I was fixated on the engine (which is seriously awesome)— but that aluminum subframe is something that would take freakish amounts of time and skill to replicate (to make no mention of the cost of the aluminum). 

It really was a special machine. I hope the new owner understands just how special it is. 

Bob, you are so right! I'm working on getting back to my pre-Spyder weight.  30 pounds ought to do it! 

2340 pounds

Banzai Pipeline posted:

2340 pounds

If I recall, mine was about the same.  Guess we are just a couple of heavyweights.

WOLFGANG posted:

Joe - Your Beck seems to be perfect - once you get in driver's set it will all be about equal.  Who would have thought that a water cooled version would be lighter but guess its in the tube chassis.

I think Carey fills the tubes with Helium to keep it lighter... A Beck is the real bomb

Bob: IM S6 posted:

Banzai Pipeline posted:

2340 pounds

If I recall, mine was about the same.  Guess we are just a couple of heavyweights.

Ain't nothing wrong with a little meat on your bones,  especially when you have 250plus HP to provide the get up and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Is that called subi-doooooooo 👍