Weighing a Micra

Just picked up my first Micra, its a bone stock 2015 SV manual. My plan is to do a bit of auto-crossing with it and reducing overall weight is the easiest (read cheapest) way of improving performance. So I decided to weigh the car as a baseline. Car is completely stock with only the hub caps, 1x heat shield and cargo cover missing (maybe a total of 1 kg lol). Car has cruise control, AC, Bluetooth and backup camera.

My method for weighing is low tech but should be accurate enough. I have two 200kg scales which I placed under one wheel at a time. The other three corners of the car had a spacer under them that was equal in height to the scales + wood. I repeated this at each corner to get the total weight. I didn't have time to level the car, so the left/right or front back balance is completely inaccurate. But after I do some weight removal I will weigh again and take more time to be level.

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My SAAQ registration says the cars weight is 1057 kg. I got 1095kg, but this includes a full tank of gasoline which weighs 29.8 kg. So no fuel weights is 1065 kg. So that's a 0.7% error if we assume SAAQ weight is accurate and without gas.

Anyways, will post here how much weight I can get out of this thing. My best guess is taking out the interior behind the driver, losing the spare tire, going to alloy wheels and a couple other things will reduce weight by 20-30kg. I might be able to take a few more kg off by getting rid of the broken AC.

Just got rid of the rear seats, and they are surprisingly heavy. All parts including the belt buckles weigh 21.7 kg.

Any updates? How's the weight reduction & auto-crossing going?

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Originally Posted by Vaszya

Any updates? How's the weight reduction & auto-crossing going?

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Thanks for the motivation, I've been slacking on updates here. Unfortunately, I just went and weighed the car using the same method as above and got 1104kg. Which even subtracting the weight of gasoline (full tank) is more than previously. I know this is wrong because I weighed the stuff I removed, which came out to about 22kg and put on lighter wheels and tires, so it should be closer to 1035kg sans fuel. So im pretty sure my methodology is flawed, oh well. Guess its time to go to a place that weighs trailers or something.

In other updates, I installed SCALE coil overs and Fast orbit wheels (15x6.5 ET40) with Falken Azenis azenis rt660 (205/50/r15) tires. These are my first real tires and the grip is amazing, although i don't have a real reference point.

So far I've only taken it to iCar for time attack twice, the second time managing a best time of 28:32, which I felt was pretty good. I think with some more driver mods I can break into the high 27:XX without any changes to the car.

Next up for the car is an alignment, (1-2 deg of toe out) and maybe front brake pads. Future plans are to pick up some used Micra Cup parts (if anyone has a lead on this I would appreciate it) after the series ends. I am particularly interested in intake, exhaust, seats and unused brake pads.

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Originally Posted by Mikera

So im pretty sure my methodology is flawed, oh well. Guess its time to go to a place that weighs trailers or something.

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When I had to go to the recycling depot near me, which is free for residents of my city, they weigh your car in the way in and out. You could always go somewhere like that to get a weight.