
- In a perfect world, we’d add our missing 100 pounds to the right rear corner.
We’ve done a lot of work to the BMW Spec E30 project lately, including some pretty dramatic weight-changing things like removing the heavy stock exhaust and replacing it with the very light spec system. It was time to put the car on our Longacre corner-weight scales and see how it measured up.
The rules state that our car must weigh a minimum of 2750 pounds with the driver in place. Our fuel tank was much closer to full that it was to empty, so rather than try to drain it out we topped it off to the brim. Knowing that street gasoline weighs approximately 6.2 pounds per gallon, our 16.5-gallon BM1B-style fuel tank gives us an approximate fuel weight of 100 pounds.
If you can’t read the numbers in the photo, the totals were:
LF: 729 RF: 743
LR: 691 RR: 591
TOTAL: 2754 lbs.
This means that even with a nearly overflowing fuel tank and our driver in place, we’re just four skinny pounds over the MINIMUM weight. Looks like we’re going to have to add some ballast.
This blew our mind a little bit, as the car was weighed with a spare wheel/tire and carpet in the trunk as well as fully operational all-glass power windows still in the doors. Our driver weighs about 175 pounds in regular clothing, probably closer to 180 with a helmet and driving gear on.