Perspex rear side windows?

[CMF_Yom]

Hi all,

Has anyone replaced the rear side windows (super s pop-out in particular) with perspex?

It just dawned on me as a possible modification to reduce weight when I noticed a large sheet of very strong and rather light for its size perspex had been cut and the edges rounded just like automotive glass. Perspex also seems to come in various strengths, not that it really matters as if someone wants to get in your car by breaking a window, they'll do it regardless of the material its made from.

Probably not road legal though.

 

[CMF_Toma]

Hey Yom,

Sounds like an awesome idea. It would certainly stop the petty smash and grab crims from simply breaking the glass and running off with your shoes that are on the back seat and so on. As for the road legal stuff, perspex looks just like glass when its tinted However, if its cheap and non-heat resistant, it might go brown if you have a hot day in the sun. Brown windows just dont look nice! Also, perspex kills out more noise than glass, so you'd have a very slightly quieter ride when driving past huge road trucks!

What would the weight difference be anyway?

 

[CMF_Yom]

The perspex replacements would weigh under 1kg each. The current glass would weigh around 2kg each i think. I havent pulled them off so I wouldnt know but it seems to be a fairly hefty type of glass.

Its not much but its weight which is fairly high up, so while performance wouldnt really change I would imagine that the centre of gravity would be ever so slightly lower.

I'd love to see how much weight you could remove by fitting a non-glass rear hatch window (yes, perspex can be formed to virtually any shape you desire so it is definately possible). Same with the windscreen but you wouldnt do that. Laminated glass is much safer.

 

[CMF_Toma]

Hmm sounds good. But losing 2kg from glass weight? Probably better for you to remove 4kg of ass weight huhu (that is, if you have it)

Yeh that back window would be nice as perspex. Id imagine its quite a heavy chunk of glass.

 

[cisco]

I'd be petrified of getting more vibrations and resonances out of doing something like this. Ikk!

 

[CMF_makes]

Hi Yom,

I think this is certainly feasible. I have seen perspex windows on racing cars many times.

Unfortunately I suspect they might not be very practical for an everyday road car as perspex scratches very easily.

The ones I have seen seem to end up with swirls and light scratches on them very quickly....