I tried looking around the internet but couldn't come up with much, so I thought i'd post here.

I am looking at my next car purchase. Since my daily driver is also my work truck (I LOVE my commander, daimler-chyrsler has really turned some of thier marques around and are making some very quality products) i'm looking for something I can have fun with on the weekends, possibly take to the track that's >$35,000 (plus mods ) I'm looking at a 2002 White M3 Coupe 6 speed with 39k on it. The car had the rod recall done and drives like a dream. There also is a 2002 Mystic Blue M3 with a 6 speed and 41k miles.

I'm looking to mod the hell out of it, I dunno why but the 3 years I owned lexus's I never really modded them cause I felt like they were good enough and didn't really need anything else (that and when it came time to get wheels it was the middle of winter and i'd end up spening the money elsewhere) but with this bimmer i'm super motivated to git er done, i'm thinking remove the seats and add racing seats and 4 point roll cage and Recaro Pole Position seats. Coilovers, CSL 13.5 front brakes, and some other stuff i'd be adding of course, but as for as weight reduction tear everything out of the trunk and add:

AC Carbon Fiber Front Lip (maybe just get a CSL carbon fiber front bumper)
Carbon Fiber Foglight Cover
Carbon Fiber Hood
Carbon Fiber CSL Roof
Carbon Fiber CSL Deck Lid
Carbon Fiber CSL Rear Disfuser


Now I don't want to paint the carbon fiber cause the finish on it is show worthy already. So we're talking carbon fiber from hood to trunk. I'm not looking to tear out the AC or the stereo or anything like that cause I belive that no AC and no music isn't worth the weight saved.

I love the white but the blue also stands out too, there also is a carbon black m3 for a little bit more then the other 2 but the carbon fiber would stand out alot less on a black car, so back to my orginal question, is it just a car-myth that white weights less then other colors? And if that is true then by how much less does it weight?

 

No, its not lighter (as opposed to heavy). Even if it was, the difference wouldn't be enough to cause concern, in the sense that the cars performance abilities would go unaffected. Now I've heard of some makes entering their cars into competition with NO paint in order to keep weight to an absolute minimum, but otherwise you'll see no relation between color and weight.

 

Shinobi's right - and there is precedent for having NO paint on the car. The 1930's Championship W25 Mercedes of Germany was stripped of paint and hand-polished to achieve maximum weight savings. Today's German Racing Silver color pays tribute to the "Silver" series Mercedes.

American Airlines did the same thing - the great "Silverbirds" of its fleet were stripped of hull and wing paint in the '30's at president C.R. Smith's order because he hated painted aircraft. It turned out to reduce weight and increase revenue, by cutting fuel costs.

So get out the paint stripper and polish up the bare metal. Not having an aluminum skin like a W-series Mercedes or a 757, you may wish to clearcoat the finished product to keep it from turning reddish-brown in a few weeks . . . Tell everybody it's a classic !

 

It is fun for bragging rights among your friends though. My white car is lighter than yout black car Other than that though, I wouldn't worry about the paint weight. The direction the wind is blowing would have a much larger affect on performance than the paint.

 

Yep, I thought it was Mercedes that did so, but I was too lazy to look it up and verify. Interesting addition noting the Airline comment- I'll have to remember that.

 

I think the weight difference in between a white car and others would be as signifficant as how much the car would weigh before and after you pee

 

Excellent point!!

 

According to the airlines, it takes 90 gallons of paint to cover a Boeing 747. Eliminating the paint saves 595 pounds of non-paying weight on every flight. That's three good-sized passengers!

 

Did the KKK come up with this?

I LOVE PDW AND WHITE CARS!!!

 

One thing you guys forget....dried paint weights a lot less than wet paint.....all the moisture in it ( which adds most of the weight ) dries up. This, of course, is more the case with water-based paint than with oil-based.

Now as for the pigment issue, yes, a white paint job, having less pigment that any other visible color, in theory will weigh less, but the difference is insignificant.....less than even Skulinex's before and after urination.