I’ll ask again, how much does a TR6 weigh?
This has been a question in my mind ever since we fitted the new frame and engine to bowtie6. Well today I finally was able to find out. The result was a great surprise.
Along with a full tank of fuel and the hard top in place we took our first set of numbers. The following pictures show front and rear total weights.
Here is the total:
Not too bad – 2,222 lbs and a 48.2% front / 51.7% rear bias.
We were curious about the weight of the factory hard top. Well I can conclusively state the Triumph factory hard top weighs in at about 65 lbs. Granted mine has had a few changes done. I have added a layer of Dynamat Extreme inside however, I removed all the chrome trim. So at the end of the day, I guess this would be about equal.
Here is the total without the hard top in place:
With the hard top removed, total weight is 2,158 lbs and a 49.3% front / 50.6% rear.
Next thing I need to do is put bowtie6 on a dyno and measure just how much horsepower we are putting down on the pavement. In stock form, the 2.4 Ecotec in a Solstice/Sky produces 177 hp. That is using the restrictive factory exhaust and the factory tune which is optimized for economy. In bowtie6‘s case, we have tuned the PCM to produce power at the expense of economy (duh!), so we are far above from the stock value. How much? That we need to find out.
Regardless, this is all quite impressive. It would have been nice to be closer to 2000lbs but 2,158 is not shabby at all. I guess I should not have used all that Dynamat! 🙂
Oh and I found a prior post I had made regarding how much my cousin Jim’s TR4 weighs – to read that post CLICK HERE.
Ditto on heavy bumpers. The big ol’ aluminum forgings that used to be on the Volvo are affectionately referred to as “Commandos” by the Volvophiles. You probably remember I laid fiberglass up inside the forgings using them as molds. I have no bumper protection at all — but the front one weighs 5 lbs and the rear one 3 lbs. I’m thinking mine weighs in around 2960 right now….but based on scales at the city landfill in Knoxville, TN — who knows! If I can and the weather is decent I’ll try and make it down to your Cars&Coffee next week!
The aluminum bumpers that Jim my cousin made are lightweight. Just like yours they provide no protection at all – they are there for looks only. I rather take less weight! 🙂
Here is the link to our local C&C: http://www.facebook.com/CarsCoffeeUpstate
NICE!!!! You had mentioned to me before how (relatively) light the car is. Cool to see it laid out w/distributions. With engine set-back, the front/rear doesn’t surprise me. It’s weird for me – somehow the TR6 seems physically much bigger than, say, and MGB; I would’ve guessed the car weighed significantly more than that.
Would love to get the Volvo on a set of scales like that. Just in the past month I moved from 16 x 7.5″ wheels to 17 x 8’s. Knocked 4 lbs. per corner off! So while I don’t know how much mine weighs for certain – I know it’s 16 lbs lighter than it used to be. 🙂 I drove mine up to Greensboro for Cars/Coffee this morning. After putting the Ford rearend in a couple of years ago, I knew the toe was a bit off (steering wheel slightly off-center). So I busted out my ‘floor level’ bucket of water/tubing and my string/jack stands – and set the toe in the garage. Came out perfectly. Also used the GPS for mileage and discovered my odo is further off than I thought! 207.0 miles (ODO said 191.7….) covered on 7.66 gallons — was able to fill and re-fill at the same station using the same pump. 27.02 mpg – not bad for an old brick with a V8!
Hope all is well Joe — later – Michael
Thank you for the comment Michael!
Regarding the weight vs say, an MGB (or for that matter a stock TR6): I have removed quite a bit of “extras” when I assembled bowtie6. For example, the bumpers are not “original”. They are quite heavy and along with them, I also ditched all the reinforcement brackets and mounting arms. All those were quite heavy. I hate to put down the TR6 tractor engine once again, but that thing is heavy. Further more testament that it is only good for one thing: a boat anchor.
Cars & Coffee is the fourth Saturday of the month here in Greenville. Pretty cool concept! I bet your Volvo is quite the attraction and I am sure those 17″ wheels must look some sort of awesome. These scales are really cool. We have a friend that does quite a bit of racing and from time to time he is gracious enough to loan them to us. We pretty much weigh everything we can get our hands on! This is the first time we have had them since I had bowtie6 back on the road with the new frame and engine combination.
Finally that is some great mileage on the Volvo – wow. I am really looking forward to get the TR6 on the open road and get a real long distance run in order to measure mileage. On the way back from picking up the S2000, we got 29mpg on it. I thought that was quite remarkable.
Thanks for dropping by and as always I enjoy reading your comments!