MX-3.com

Hey guys, check this link out:

http://mazdamx3klze.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... a-mx3.html

In one of the comments, Leo mentions a Mazdaspeed poly hatch replacement for the glass itself, not the hatch. I guess I'm trying to find out if this is legitimate, or a rumor.

If it's real, me want

yep totally real, I believe the price was $900, that's why we ended up sourcing our own lexan and having someone form it for us locally

Wow, I'd rather buy a CF hatch with a lexan window for less... Scary.

Any chance you know exactly how much weight you saved with that swap Mark?

MrMazda92 wrote:Wow, I'd rather buy a CF hatch with a lexan window for less... Scary.

Any chance you know exactly how much weight you saved with that swap Mark?

weight of hatch.

EZ_4_FUN wrote: Official weigh in:

OEM Glass: 48 lbs
OEM Frame: 28 lbs
CF Frame: 12lbs)

weight of lexan window & w/ cf hatch

Mooneggs wrote:I just installed my lexan in my CF Hatch tonight The formed lexan weighs 17 pounds by itself and including the CF hatch total weighs 31 pounds (with no spoiler or little rear glass).

So roughly 45 pounds?! Wow, I'm definitely going for the lexan glass sooner rather than later. The savings on that alone are enormous. Thanks Evo!

I just read that blog. I can't believe people are actually following that idiot's "advise". "Carbon fiber myth"? Really?So all the racing engineers in disciplines like Formula 1 and Indy are just following a myth? And how about losing weight AND getting the CF parts? Wouldn't that give an advantage, over losing weight alone?

Apart from that, I'm on the fence on the lexan/CF hatch. True, the weight saving is impressive, but, unless I can lighten the front end of the car accordingly, I wouldn't want to lighten the rear of a car that's already nose heavy.

Money well spent would be money spent on an LSD. Never understood the battery in the trunk deal when we already have a problem with front wheel spin. Anyway, CF hatch and lexan is a nice cosmetic upgrade but as far as any weight loss vs performance gain I'm skeptical. I will say, that damn hatch is heavy.

Daninski wrote:Money well spent would be money spent on an LSD.

Definitely. They're expensive, but they're worth every penny.

Daninski wrote: Never understood the battery in the trunk deal when we already have a problem with front wheel spin. Anyway, CF hatch and lexan is a nice cosmetic upgrade but as far as any weight loss vs performance gain I'm skeptical. I will say, that damn hatch is heavy.

It all depends on the application. If you're gonna use the car for straight line racing, moving the battery to the trunk is one of the dumbest things you can do.
But if you are, for example, gonna autocross, or road race, wheel spin is nowhere as important as weight balance. Having the wheels glued to the pavement means very little, if you have to slow down on every curve, because your car won't turn.
The weight savings vs performance relation has been well documented, and it's very real. But you have to be smart about where you save weight. On an mx-3, and being that I am, first and foremost, a road racer, I'd pay much more attention to the front end, and leave the rear end pretty much stock.

I'm still on the fence whether using the CF hatch/lexan is actually helping or hindering me in autocross.

I haven't had clear comparative results since I was changing tires/suspension when I swapped the hatch so it's possible I would have had better results with better weight distribution vs. lighter weight overall but that remains to be thoroughly proven.

I hope to do some real comparative testing of this this next year at some of the autocross tuning events (bring both hatches to a race and do some test runs only changing that component).

IMO I would say get these items (in this order) before getting lexan: wytbushings + whiteline rear sway bar, MFactory LSD, coilovers

Yah it's really hard to say if it's going to help or hinder.. I'm not sure how much of a role weight distribution plays in handling compared to just overall weight.. However actually finding a comparable difference I think is going to be extremely hard with such a small weight difference.. what is it like 25-30 pounds??

45 without the rear GS spoiler, 38 with it

I guess I should mention that the class I want to run in (SMF) does not allow lexan/CF (has to be a stock hatch with glass) so I may not even be using it until I get the RC running again in a different more competitive class (XP)...

Regardless I'm still glad I have this piece just being 1 of 9 in the world and all and it does look amazing with the rest of the CF accents on the car

The spoiler is worth more on then it's weight!

Hoodzy wrote:Yah it's really hard to say if it's going to help or hinder.. I'm not sure how much of a role weight distribution plays in handling compared to just overall weight..

It depends on the application. If you're running 1/8, or 1/4 mile, you want to have as much weight on the driving wheels as possible (for traction off the line), while keeping the overall weight as low as possible. Either way, giving how short a run is, any weight advantage can be easily overshadowed by other parameters, like your reaction time, for example.

But in a race that involves multiple laps, and negotiating a number of curves, you want to keep the car as light as possible, while keeping the weight distribution as close to 50/50 as possible. If you have a FWD car, that's nose heavy, it will have a tendency to overshoot the curves, especially the fast ones, or the ones you enter slow, and exit fast. A RWD car that's a$$ heavy will show the opposite effect, especially on curves that involve heavy braking at the entrance, and, again, fast curves.

does anyone have pics or something from a catalog...how hard do you think it is to find. I thought about the lexan thing but only for weight reduction on gas saving

nd4spdse may have more information as he was planning on getting one... maybe he has a part number?

I would assume it looks similar to the one I have on my CF hatch or maybe it's more OEM with the black painted on already like the uk-mx3.com ones...