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Weight reduction


stariondreams
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If your looking to stay in street form just leave it alone. The interior is weight, but not enough to make a diffrence until your getting the car to an every OZ counts type place and at that point it's not really a street car. Biggest place to drop weight right off the bat is the rear hatch. Mainly the glass in it, and the heavy wiper motor. Hood weights a bit, can go C/F front fenders are feathers so don't worry about them. Seats are a bit heavy might repalce with race shells and pads but that is again not really "street" nor would they be adjustable.

 

might consider rims, while stock one's are lighter they are not as light as some of the modern stuff you can get.

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what are your plans for the car? goals? horsepower goals?

stock cars can run sub 12 sec 1/4 miles with enough power.

weightloss does not seem necessary for street use. I like

the comfy 87 front seats, back seats? well id toss them if i could.

no use. i never have any one in the back anyways.

Edited by importwarrior
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what are your plans for the car? goals? horsepower goals?

stock cars can run sub 12 sec 1/4 miles with enough power.

weightloss does not seem necessary for street use. I like

the comfy 87 front seats, back seats? well id toss them if i could.

no use. i never have any one in the back anyways.

first let me say thanks for reply well what alot of guys dont like i am heavy into the street racing sceen but we do do track the problem is guys tend to get scared with a gutted car so tring to stay stock appearing. Mods are as follows

Wiseco's km555m925's

stock rods re cond

stock head mild port w/ jet valves plugged

1.6 roller rockers on stock cam

ajusa head gasket

arp head bolt

arp rod bolts

arp main bolts

new oil pump

Brand new crank shaft

magna intake

1200cc injectors

megasquirt 1 3.0 with direct coil control modded by scott

2 walboro 255's

36-1 crank pickup

areomotive fp regulator

gt35r turbo

stock exhaust manifold modded and ported

3' down pipe to 4' exhaust

38mm tial wastegate

hope i did not miss anything! goal is 500 whp that street-able but we see if you have any suggestions please offer

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My opinion is, there is nothing lighter than a hole. Its a lot of work to do, but you can save soooo much weight on a vehicle with drilling holes in the right places without compromising the structural integrity of it. Here is one of my hoods for a reference, properly spaced and staying away from the edges of the supports can drop the weight substantially. All of the solid metal panels in the trunk that hold the trunk floor and ABS ecu's and speakers in place, can all go on a diet big time, with no worries about hurting anything structurally. In the doors behind the door panels could also help. Just look around for any place that one piece of metal bolts together to overlaps another, You'll start to see obvious places that you can save weight.

 

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt93/BC_99/parts%20car%20and%20parts/bW1jMS9EQ0lNL0NBTUVSQS9TU1BYMDA1NC5qcGc.jpg

 

Another place to look for real weight savings is bolt lengths. Lets say you have 2000 bolts holding your car together (just throwing a number out there could be more or less) and they all stick through the nut or flange that they are tightened into by 1/4" or even up to 3/4", why? Its just weight hanging out there, going for a ride. Look around the car and you will see what I mean. There is at least 50 lbs of extra bolt length sticking out all over these cars.

 

Most people also get rid of the ABS systems and if you are going for performance over creature comforts, obvious choices would also be the entire HVAC systems and the cruise control system and all of the associated ecu's that control those things. Then you can look into removing the wiring that goes to them all.

 

That is just some of the thoughts I have, I hope it gives you some of the direction you are looking for. These kind of savings also only cost you the money for the tools to do them properly and the time to do them. Cheers,

 

BC_99

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put the battery in the back for better dist.

dump the auto seatbelts

4" exhaust is heavy if its out the back

tow hooks

heat shields

front sway bar

anything that can be changed with aluminum

and as stated some lighter seats

 

 

 

 

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Im about 190lb's......what are checkin me out???? :huh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just kiddin. I dont know the current weight. But it 2800lbs when I weighed it 3 or 4 years ago. Definitely lighter now though. And about to get even lighter. 10's are soooo 2005. :lol:

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you said my goal i just wanna keep it stock looking aka door slammer i am gathing all my pics together now to make a post on all my progress now should be done by tonight but any insight would really be loved i really have alot of respect for your build been watching you do your thing for awhile now!
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Im about 190lb's......what are checkin me out???? :huh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just kiddin. I dont know the current weight. But it 2800lbs when I weighed it 3 or 4 years ago. Definitely lighter now though. And about to get even lighter. 10's are soooo 2005. :lol:

 

Wow, that`s pretty light. My track only car weighs 2700lbs w/driver and it`s gutted!

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All the A/C is completely gone, hatch area gutted, and everything I listed.

 

Also forgot to mention, that 2800lb, (2830 to be exact) was with the heavy tail R154, a 10" http://images-ftp.americanmuscle.com/common/pages/viewer-enlarged.php?sku=32014G94&name=Race%2520Star%2520Dark%2520Star%2520Drag%2520Wheel%2520-%2520Uni-Lug%2520-%252017x4.5%2520%2894-04%2520All%29&thumbs=32014G94,32014G94_alt1,32014G94_alt2&selectedImg=32014G94_alt1sub with 1cuft box and amp, and 4pt Autopower roll bar in the car.

Edited by Funky Phil
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nobody mentioned the sound deadening? pull your carpet, get dry ice and let it sit. bonk it with a hammer and it pops off the body, youll get a bit more vibration noise but it wont be nuts. Im doing mine soon, a friend of mine took a rubbermaid tub amount out of his 240. (never weighed it)
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yeah, i forgot I did that also^^^^^

 

Alot of it where the back seat is at. Its funny you say dry ice, I busted mine of without it, but it was the dead of North Dakota winter when I did haha

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  • 3 weeks later...

I too was wondering about weight savings and was about to start a thread until I found this. Unlike the OP, I'm not trying to keep my car for the street (and in my opinion have already compromised that aspect with my cage) but I was wondering what other racers have seen as far as lowest weights.

 

Was also wondering where are the biggest savings. I was thinking about pulling my dash and removing all of the bits underneath it, but I kinda like having heat on cold track days.

 

I figured the rear hatch glass would be a big saving as well, but I don't have anything to replace it with yet. Working on that. My door glass is coming out soon, as well as the sunroof glass. I haven't removed my sound deadening completely (I hate that I put it as an afterthought) but that will happen here shortly. I guess, other than swapping lighter parts in, the only thing I can do is drill holes in an attempt. That's a very old racing trick/tip, but an effective one.

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I too was wondering about weight savings and was about to start a thread until I found this. Unlike the OP, I'm not trying to keep my car for the street (and in my opinion have already compromised that aspect with my cage) but I was wondering what other racers have seen as far as lowest weights.

 

Was also wondering where are the biggest savings. I was thinking about pulling my dash and removing all of the bits underneath it, but I kinda like having heat on cold track days.

 

I figured the rear hatch glass would be a big saving as well, but I don't have anything to replace it with yet. Working on that. My door glass is coming out soon, as well as the sunroof glass. I haven't removed my sound deadening completely (I hate that I put it as an afterthought) but that will happen here shortly. I guess, other than swapping lighter parts in, the only thing I can do is drill holes in an attempt. That's a very old racing trick/tip, but an effective one.

 

I swapped the hatch glass for plexiglass. Car wouldn`t launch very well. I ended up installing really thick plexi and adding a bar just for weight behind the rear bumper. Launched great after that.

 

My dash is completely removed with a really crude home made carbon fiber dash in it`s place. All the glass has been replaced and I can`t lower any windows, so my car is near unbearable in the summer heat. But, it`s comfortable in cooler weather (when the car runs best anyway). After one pass, the car is warm for the day, no heater required :)

 

I want to know how Phil got his car so light without doing all this. C`mon Phil, I need to lose a couple hundred pounds....spill it ;)

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I dont use stainless steel.....? All my exhaust is thin wall mild. That saves weight. For all i know the scale was off. I didnt think 2800 was very low.

 

Yours weighs approx 2400lbs. I dont know why your asking me anything. I should be buggin you!

 

Btw, good info about the hatch. Was curious how badly that would affect it. I may have to do a custom dash......

Edited by Funky Phil
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Yeah i've pulled my rear wiper, motor and all things associated with it. I'm not to the point where I need to start onesie twosie my pounds off yet, but I'll get there eventually. My car is prepped for SCCA/NASA Time Trials and Hill Climbs, so I'll be in the car much much longer than what I think the average drag race would have you in the hotseat for.

 

I'm going to get to work on my sound deadening after I get back from Talladega this weekend then we'll see where else weight can come from. I think I'm going to go with a custom hood then start working on my rear glass. I didn't realize how much of the rear hatch was glass (all of it) so going with a super-thin plexi will help a lot in that area.

 

I also need to make sure it's balanced, I don't want to pull so much weight that my car is now upset when trying to stabilize at high speed and around corners.

 

Things to consider, I guess.

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Just messin` with you, Phil. I still think you got helium in your tires or something.

 

Removing the rear glass definitely upset the balance on my car for a drag race launch. But for a SCCA car, a lower center of gravity would be a plus, I would think.

 

At around 2500lbs, my car is a tin can. Probably about as light as a Quest gets.

 

I don`t know how to turn curves, so I`ll bow out of this discussion......good luck.

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2500 pounds sounds about where I need to be aiming, I was hoping that 2400 was readily possible but it seems that (after reading here and in other places) that I may have my head in the clouds with that thought.
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pull all your power locks aswell and power windows as Bill said. Cut all the inner webbing out as well as the spare tire well. if u dont need working lights, all of that can go. run an intercooler thats sized properly rather than the heavy huge ones.
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I never thought about the power locks, that's a good idea. I was thinking about having some lightweight doors made or having mine gutted and just using fasteners to keep the door closed when running my laps. I believe working head and tail lights, as well as brake lights are required to signal other drivers when running HPDE's, I'm not sure how Time Trials and Hill Climbs will work yet as this is my first year of competition.

 

Thank you so much for the assistance, it's great having a resource like SQc with all of you veterans of the SQ posting. It saves a LOT of time and headache.

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