to perspex or not to perspex
 

Currently in the process of killing a 1.1 saxo and giving it a rebirth with a lovely cammed 1.6 16v 106 gti lump full spax suspension and dampeners and gutting it.
Currently as it stands she has no interior and a sorry attempt at a budget cage (not me, this is how it was bought) custom 3inch straight through system (£300 with receipts apparently but we are yet to see) looking to achieve the best i can out of this little shell. I have high expectations for this budget build, just want the best i can out of this little car.
Currently has all glass in it but as im trying to make the most of the power to weight ratio i was looking at removing the glass all round apart from windscreen for obvious windows and replace it with some form of lightweight plastic... be it perspex or polycarb im unsure. my question is... has anyone done this and if so where did you get yours from im really trying to make the built not bought topic a reality and dont want to go for ready made polycarb if that makes sense??? i would rather raid b&q etc and fashions some myself? its all part of the learning curve. if any of you experts could point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated

Hopefully you just mean its for a 3' tailpipe on it, cos a 3' system is massive massive overkill on one of these in this state of tune.

Personally if it was me, i'd be looking to sort the sorry budget cage first and foremost - seen pictures of a few lately that just look downright dangerous.

As for your plastic windows - again, if it was me, i'd just be going for the ready made kit along the lines of what stevo linked above. Save you a lot of hassle, you'll have a better product made from the right stuff.

my advice --don,t only for absolute full spec race car on dry days
only when you have 220bhp and looking for the last wee bit -- they always leak ,they always scratch and the shell is weaker with them

with windows time to weld in a proper cage first

thanks for the comments chaps. I've had a few people point me in the way of acw but id really like to do it on the cheap. i want the whole build not bought aspect as much as i can get away with, plus i'm hopeing it would be cheaper to get some polycarb sheets and build it myself. Then there's a sense of "YES!! I did that" if you get what i mean. I am yet to have the car in my garage, at present im being told i have to wait until the 16th until i can get the keys as the current occument is being a bellend. From what i remember it was some chavs excuse for a racecar... we know the likes... the ones that sit in mcdonalds car parks with their load exhaust in.... A 1.1!! So pull that sorry excuse for a cage out and plonk a bigger engine in him. i've already got myself a nice set of 1.6vts suspension along with full spax setup including vts brakes. Im just trying to save as much weight straight away while its being built and its off the road then while its on the road i can just enjoy it.

I've always beaded clear silicon round all windows to stop the water problem.

But...............

I've done the stripped out road cars, and eventually you realise that unless its a track only car the downsides outweight that small gain in power. Even my weekend fun car has a full interior these days. If its really going to see a significant amount of track time then I'm all for it...

Don't do it unless it is a 100% track focused car

I did just the fronts on my VTS with a sliding window on the drivers side. As you would expect, it leaks water, it scratches easily, you can easily open the sliding window from the outside, it doesn't let enough cold air in during summer so it gets really hot inside.

My VTS is a track car and it only does about 2000 road miles a year, if it was my daily car I certainly wouldn't have done it!

ah, it was just a thought ultimately. literally trying to lose as much weight as i can. but your right it will probably get more road time than track time even as a weekend car...

I'm most likely going to do my rear quarter windows(I have opening ones at the moment) but they're essentially pointless with no rear seats and a cage. I did consider the front windows but I find myself wanting them open all the time lol.