Hi guys,

don't get me wrong. The Fabia is amazing on fuel anyway..

However, i was thinking to as an experiment. If i was to shed the spare tyre and the seats would the improvement in MPG be negligible???

Anyone here done it??

Yeah, more for speed & noise tbh. Doesn't make a massive amount of difference to speed, but much louder they do weigh a fair bit

Matt

I shed mine

but only for the trackdays i've done so any cost saving that comes about by being lighter was negated by hammering around at ten tenths all day!

I've got the back seats out just now didn't want grass stains from the lawnmower lol

I have noticed my MPGs went up by a few mpg, however, it is a lot noisier back there and it creaks a little more because I get the feeling the seats add a bit of rigidity to the car as well.

it takes all of 5 mins to take them out and put them in the garage so go for it.

si

OK for track days or effects the car balance with even less weight at the rear?

I've never bothered and ran at Santa Pod and Brands with all the seats and spare in.

How much do they actually weigh?

OK for track days or effects the car balance with even less weight at the rear?

I've never bothered and ran at Santa Pod and Brands with all the seats and spare in.

How much do they actually weigh?

The 40% bit ways 10kg and the 60% weights 15kg ish just stepped on the scales with them, the bases weigh almost nothing.

I've been getting a lot more over steer in the wet eg if I lift out going round a round about rather quickly, I wonder if its the no seats which have been causing it :think:

si

I have done lots of track work, and actually prefer having the rear seats in (with Eibach springs). I am getting coilovers fitted this week so will have to wait until Castle Combe to see what it handles like without them with stiffer suspension. It does induce more lift off oversteer, which I like, but overall the car felt more balanced with a bit of weight over the rear.

Spare wheel weights about 20-25kg, I never have this in the car, and the wheel well adds some useful storage space

Havent ran back seats or sprare for the whole time I have had the car. If you dont use em why have em in? Power to weight for the win

I have noticed that a couple of slabs in the boot of my car (not a fabia but still a diesel) improves the handling quite a bit, you get a lot less understeer so I could see why removing the rear seats and the spare could have an adverse effect on handling.

I presume it is down to weight distribution and the big lump of pig iron at the front. It should have a more noticeable effect in a fabia compared to my octavia.

Edited 8 August, 201114 yr by trundlenut

Top gear done a test on this by stripping a Jag out completely and found it made no difference in mpg going round a track, but as they said there's no hills on a track??

Once the car is in momentum it doesn't really take that much effort from the engine to pull it along.

Would be good if you did test this for real life driving.

I ran with only the drivers seat for a couple of days while I picked up some big stuff.

As said, it made the interior much more noisy, and I didn't really notice any improvement on MPG.

rear seats stripped out FTW

It would improve MPG slightly as the engine has less weight to pull, with the rear seats and spare wheel out u easily saving about 50-60kg ish

I've had no rear seats in mine for about 2 years now, I honestly havent noticed much difference to mpg, maybe gain 1/2 extra, It's deffo much louder though and you can hear a few more rattles and creeks. On the plus side it makes the car far more practical for me, as the wife and kids dont get in it, I can just sling all sorts in there, mountain bike, sacks of garden waste! It's ace.

You'll save $mpg_before * $weight_removed / $original_kerb_weight at best (say 50 * 50 / 1250, or 2mpg better). Unless there's a lock that holds the tops of the rear seats together you'll not make any significant difference to rigidity though.

Noise-wise, the extra noise people are reporting was always there, but damped out by the rear seats.

Top gear done a test on this by stripping a Jag out completely and found it made no difference in mpg going round a track, but as they said there's no hills on a track??

Once the car is in momentum it doesn't really take that much effort from the engine to pull it along.

Would be good if you did test this for real life driving.

It won't make any difference on track - fuel consumption at full throttle is the same regardless of weight or hills. The difference will be in laptime, and laptime only.

Wel this evening I decided to remove the whole lot lol dofinately lifts a wee bit quicker! And first corner I went around the car felt like a tripod lol not sure if I actually got the wheel off but I certainly felt Pretty close lol the back end is alot more unstable/twitchy in a bend which I like surprisingly, prior I was very afraid of oversteer catching me out and killing me but strangely the car feels alot more drivable? Pushing is round that bed it usually pushes the nose out and this time it didn't so thumbups up! I'll def be alot more cautious in the wet and just take her easy also a bit more road noise bit made up for it by the added exhaust note not sure if this will be permanent as I love the look of the leather but I pretty much never have anyone in the back so haven't got much to lose apart from a flat tyre I'm sunk!! Lol (shouldn't have said that! Lol)

Anyone thinking about it? Go for it