Dum-Dums Bianca GTi6

[Grant]

For what it's worth, I wouldn't run a stripped out standard GTi6. The weight savings you've indicated so far just don't make it worth it, unless it was for competition. In which instance you'd be adding in a 50kg+ cage to meet with the regs anyway!

It's good that you're having a laugh and all that but I think I'd prefer a car with a full interior and just put up with the extra weight of it, as the benefits of having a full interior in this instance seem to outweigh the advantage of shaving the weight in the first place.

If you're going to do it then go all-out, strip, cage, buckets and harnesses. But you'll remember Nick!'s red Rallye from back in the day, it made little compromises to save weight and it was quite a chore to drive any great distance (such as to a trackday) - yes it's a bloody good laugh when you're having a hoon but this is never, ever 100% of the time, since we have traffic, crap roads and poor weather to contend with every day.

In a nutshell; stripped interiors look wank, are not nice to spend long periods of time in and ultimately the gains aren't worth it on the road.

Does your insurance co. know that you've shed all this weight? As a car is insured for carrying X amount of passengers (4 + driver in this case). I'd wager there's a possibility you can invalidate insurance policies without advising them.

After stripping the back of mine, the differences were immediately noticable.
My lowly 1.8 will happily keep up with 6's in a straight line now (just about) and it is a lot more 'nippy'. It is not all sugar coated however. The reduction in weight in the rear has raised the rear ride height, moved the centre of gravity forwards considerably, consequentially making it more lively at the back in the corners...
This is however a short term problem as a cage is going in, to stiffen up the chassis, and also provide a mounting point for my harnesses, along with a lowered rear beam on alternative shocks.

My insurance company know about my stripped interior. My premium went down for having no seats in the back (as i can carry less passengers so less of a risk to the insurance company) and for bucket seats up front it cost no extra at all.
Infact I am covered for any modifications to the interior of the car, as it was a generic interior modification code she put it under. She must have liked me or something lol.


But then my car isnt a daily, as I am fortunate enough to have the work van, so whenever it gets used, it gets abused, so it kinda fits...