Beretta 2017 Autocross Spec D-prepared

[Amateur]

So I have a new heater core+ hoses since I'm running a bypass right now.


I also pulled some Z04 kit parts from the garage attic. mmmmm, antiquey up there:


And I finally started the installation of the side skirts. had to lop off some metal for a smooth surface:



I kind of just took a marker and eyed where to start drilling and riveting. The whole measure twice, cut once mantra didn't apply here. It's either I have too much faith in myself or I'm pretty lucky but everything is lining up nicely. This is as far as I got today:

[Amateur]

Finally finished installing the Z04 kit. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I had to do some legit measuring on the driver side since the rocker panel and fender aren't exactly aligned evenly so I had to compensate for it.






Also, my rearview mirror decided to fall off halfway through this for no apparent reason.



Once again the car is multi-colored!



Alos, ripping of duct tape race numbers is a horrible, horrible idea on unprotected rustoleum paint. I usually use masking tape but at the last minute there were only blue ones. Blue numbers on a blue car is equally bad. Choices were made.
All that's left is painting to match.

[3X00-Modified]

you compensated for a bent rocker and fender... oie, why bother? why not just go get some replacement parts to make it right?

[Amateur]

you compensated for a bent rocker and fender... oie, why bother? why not just go get some replacement parts to make it right?

Really because this car will be out of commission starting Monday for the upcoming winter and so I don't want to start anything I'm not going to finish. I work in retail and this is where I start working crazy long hours. I just wanted the car to have the skirts for it's last autoX race Sunday.

I really would like to knock out all my metal woes in one shot when the car gets turned in for paint by summer next year.
Here's my running list:
-d. side fender to rocker gap and alignment
-d. side rear wheel well/quarter panel has dings in it
-d. side underbody where there is a giant dent intruding into the passenger compartment (was there when I bought it, clearly someone tried jacking up the car with something non structural)
-hail damage on hood and roof
-p. side rocker rust with a hole about the size of a golfball
-d. side door has a large dent in it and crack

[ifixalot]

Rear view mirror glue just lets go every now and then.
You can get a glue kit for it at many auto stores.
Super glue won't last.

[woody90gtz]

Oh I thought that was plastidip paint.

[Amateur]

Yeah, that rear view should be an easy fix, hoping to attack that this week.

Yep, that paint job is just 2 coats of rustoleum spray cans "gloss sail blue." All things considered, it's holding up wayyy better than I expected for the $30 ish it cost me.

Also I ended up not taking the car to autocross today. I was way too tired and decided to sleep plus I kinda missed the preregistration deadline by an hour and was not really willing to pay $60 onsite to race. (I'm a nonmember this year and I need to pay for weekend race insurance).

[Amateur]

It was like 30 degrees today and i felt like that was a good enough temp to start prepping the car for autocross this year. The 2.2L is far from an ideal race motor but my goal is to squeeze the most overall performance I can from this chassis and motor combo before I hit its limit. From there I will inevitably swap over to a newer gen motor or turbo this one depending on my needs.

So the car improves little by little at the course year after year. This year my goal is extreme weight savings. This would help the 120 hp motor by lugging less heft and increasing it's favorable handling characteristics. Even if it's just tenths of a second (which is really what it's going to boil down to), that's still an improvement. I've been reading a lot on this from Porsche forums and those guys are crazy! They go the distance to save every fraction of a pound.

Today I started out small and stripped the entire rear of the car!


Now that roughly shaved off 53 lbs of weight. I used a cheap dial scale so these weights are approximate:
All weights are in lbs.
Aftermarket USB only radio: 1
Rear seat 2 pieces+sound deadening backing: 23
Interior quarter panels 4 pieces: 14
Rear speakers: 4
Rear deck panel: 4
Headliner: 2
Lap belts rear: 2
micellaneous sound deadening: 3

[themixer]

RACECAR!!!!!

[Amateur]

Hahaha, slowly but surely this thing is becoming a DD to a weekend car to eventually a track only car!
The weather is still pretty crummy but I managed to strip another 39.5 lbs from it. The total stripped right now is 92.5 lbs. Still a lot more to go.




Today's approx weights (in lbs):
glove box 2
d. door panel trim+insulation 11
P. door panel trim+insulation 11
rear seatbelt restraint assemblies x2= 7 total
A pillar trim x2= 2 total
d. kick panel+speaker 2
p. kick panel+speaker +adjacent trim 3.5
misc bracketry 1

[3X00-Modified]

Cool to know all of this weight... It would determine if I actually find it useful to strip the interior of my car for a one time trip to the track to see what I gain.

[1988GTU]

Times like those are when I wished to have completed the rear package tray idea. Halfway through the progress life got in the way and never could finalize it as I wanted to.

It basically deleted and changed the layout for the deleted back seat, sail wings, hardware, safety belts and third brake light.

[Money pit Beretta]

Where is your shock tower bar? Not joking, sure could feel a change on the Cavy with it on after it had been off for a shock change. That was with Eibach's. Some say with performance springs that you can't feel a change. This is not true, depends on the car.
Just do it. That way we can both be happy and I can feel as if I helped. Test it and if you don't like it I'll buy it off you. Have one on the Beretta right now, but what's another part just sitting around going to hurt?

Don't let me forget about the K-brace. Really, really don't think I'll ever want to take the time to put that on the Cavy. Damn thing is too low and picks up small sticks after a good storm as is.

[Amateur]

Yeah, eventually the car will get some more bracing when I get a rollcage in there. I don't know how many points I want yet but we'll see and the rear stut brace is still in the cards.

Today,I decided to focus on changing out some of the mechanical bits. The OEM intake was swapped over to a lighter warm-air setup and I changed out the stock starter for a lightweight gear reduction unit which should also require less power to run. Weight savings from today is 6lbs. Total so far is 98.5lbs.

OEM intake weight 5 lbs——>aftermarket warm air setup 3lbs
OEM starter 11 lbs———-> gear reduction mini-starter 7lbs

[1988GTU]

Is that an AC compressor I see?