Four Times Less Weight!

Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:19 PM

and lowered the centre of gravity If you have an older VX, you may like to have a look at your rear roof retainers and check their exact shape. When I collected my Speedster (first registered April 2001) after its clutch replacement in Germany, one of the things I found lying in ther car was a plastic parts bag with two black bits in it. (Got there Saturday just before lunch, so no mechanics around to explain). Looked like could be to do with roof, but as had hardtop on could not see. This was the bag with the parts code:

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:23 PM

Well, atleast I suppose it is the code but, thinking about it, could be any old bag they used Finally got the car washed and took the hardtop off. The factory-fitted roof-retainer at the corner of the roll hoop looked like this:

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:28 PM

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:37 PM

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:45 PM

But wait! I hear you cry, What's this got to do with weight reduction and lower c of g? Well, the original was a massive beautifully cast/machined piece of metal. The new one is a very lightweight piece of plastic. The difference in the weight was so dramatic that I misappropriated the kitchen scales to get a rough idea (never have got round to buying letter scales). Original: around 40 grammes New: around 10 grammes Now if we could do that in enough places... Look at the difference in the quality:

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 10:47 PM

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 11:12 PM

Fitted the new ones, seem so flimsy in comparison. Were old ones over-engineered as well as poorly designed? Hope new, better designed ones are up to the job... Did GM dealers (the more competent ones) just replace these without informing owners. How many of you were aware of this change? Wonder when they modified them and how many of you still have the old ones. Definitely worth having a look and only takes seconds to swap. New ones in situ:

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Posted 23 August 2003 - 07:19 AM

My car was registered December 2001 and is fitted with the new design. I don't know if it's a retrofit though. I bought the hardtop in June 2002 and the dealer fitted it as per handbook advice. maybe they changed them then

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