Clio 197 vs Corsa VXR

[Willis]

Excellent!!! How much lighter is the flywheel?

 

[N0ddie]

Think it would be a different story now with the 'Ring Corsa?

Has replaced the 200 as TopGear hot hatch of the year.

 

[Raptor6767]

Excellent!!! How much lighter is the flywheel?

It was <5kg, don't know how much does the OEM weigh.

Dyno before & after the airbox & the flywheel:




And I have to stand corrected - camera car is a Golf V ED30 that had ~360bhp at the moment. A friend of mine that has a white R26 was a co-driver so I thought it was his car.

 

[N0ddie]

What does a lightened flywheel achive? ie. why does it give you more perfomance other than the lighter mass?

 

[Raptor6767]

What does a lightened flywheel achive? ie. why does it give you more perfomance other than the lighter mass?

TBH, I didn't notice any difference in terms of performance, HOWEVER, I've noticed that it takes less throttle to get the car moving - I especially notice that while moving up the hill - there's no need for a handbrake in the places that I had to use it before - just let go of the clutch slowly and remove the right foot of the brakes and apply the throttle to get moving.


In theory the car should revv faster and loose revvs faster while changing gears - didn't notice that too.



HOWEVER - a friend of mine drives a Formula Renault 2000 with the same engine as ours and it revs like hell with the small and MUCH lighter flywheel.

My ugly face in the Formula - seat under construction so I could fit in:







We're off topic now....ups...

 

[930Tech]

What does a lightened flywheel achive? ie. why does it give you more perfomance other than the lighter mass?

Less weight on the crank sort of like lets more power to the wheels, the engine makes the same power and you get to feel a little more of it, sort of like free power.

Not sure what they are like on the renault but on my 1800 16v Alfa it really feels so much better, revs like a little motorbike and pulls so much cleaner.

The internet says you'll lose engine breaking but i (and other Alfa owners) don't feel this is true, i have a paddle clutch too and it makes setting off a little tricky but you do get used to it and it becomes second nature, i've done over 35.000 miles on mine with no problems.

 

[Willis]

^^^ As already said, the revs will pick up faster on throttle and fall faster off throttle. I can't say I noticed a massive reduction in engine braking either when I lost 4KG from the flywheel on my FIAT Coupe 16VT... Made a big difference to that car in terms of throttle response and thus, how quick the Turbo spool'd up.

Less rotating mass means less power wasted in the drivetrain and more power making it to the wheels.