Dynasty SC

heated seats automatic seats are EXTREMELY heavy... cant really have both luxury and a good amount of weight reduction... all of the electronics stuff adds a huge amount of weight. saving 100 lbs in seats is great! why do you think benzes weight 4-5000 lbs? and why economy cars weigh 2500 or less

SC400-V8

iTrader: (1)

This is true, but lexus does work their butt off trying to save weight. When the LS400 was in development in the 80s, and order went out that technicians needed to submit a report to the designers for any component that weighed more than 1/2 pound or something like that. No luxury was compromised and the car only weighed 4,000 pounds in the end.

The SC400 only weighed in at 3500. And furthurmore, The 2nd gen LS dropped a few pounds with just a few minor changes, one including taking a sliver of steel out of each bolt head, saving over 30 pounds each car.

JKAG

Stock seats (heated) ~65 lbs

Supra tt seats, ~45 lbs drivers (it's electric) and ~35 lbs passenger

Dynasty SC

if you can install manual seats.. cloth or some type of reclining racing seat.... you should be able to save a lot of weight... lightweight seats can weigh under 30 lbs... and the nonreclining seats can be about 15 lbs. i wonder how much weight would be saved with: aftermarket exhaust, carbon fiber hood/trunk, reclining racing seats, lightweight wheels/rims, lightweight battery, jack/spare removal...i dunno.. what other practical weight reduction can you think of? lightweight flywheel... its also plausible for some ppl to remove the rear seats and seat belt assemblies.... think it is plausible to get under 3000? i wonder how much the front seat brackets weigh... and if they can be replaced by fabricated aluminum ones...

MongolKhan

Hi guys,
New here, this is my first post. This topic is great, i just bought my 92 SC300 and planning on making it light as possible and drift with it. I've been drifting for the last 3 years with my Corolla but when i moved from Texas to Virginia i sold my AE86 ( it was the hardest thing i ever did in my life) i guess its time to upgrade my car, more power means fast speed going into corner, lets keep this thread alive and keep the info coming guys. This was my Corolla.


I havent taken the pics of my sc300 yet, will post them soon.

Dynasty SC

sweet hatchi... im interested to see how much a hardcore gutted/stripped SC would weigh... my guess is you can get under 3000 lbs.

BTW is there a way to remove trunk shocks? thats gotta save a little weight.

SupraCoup3

trunk shocks aren't worth it. MAYBE 1 lb. They're tiny little things. and that trunk is a lot heavier than it looks.

A lightweight exhaust may be more worthwhile (it would certainly sound better as well)

MongolKhan

Thanks for compliment on my corolla. I like quiet exhausts, i had an HKS Hi-Power exhaust on my corolla and it was pretty quiet and for sc Blitz makes Nur-Spec one and i heard they are pretty loud, is there anyone else makes exhausts for 1992 sc300? I am planning on removing both front seats and replacing it with sparco or bride seats, remove back seats for drift events, CF hood and Trunk ( where can i buy them good quality, please let me know ) I havent decided on which wheels to get, probably Volk Gtc and HKS coilovers, just by replacing these it should give me some weight off. Anybody know how much stock bumpers weigh? I am willing to sacrifice comfort for performance so throw anything at me guys.
Thanks for your help.

soarer479

iTrader: (2)

well for c/f trunk and hood you should check out www.importfan.com very expensive though
if you want a light custom exhaust take your car to any muffler place and tell them to mandrel bend you some pipe for your car and makesure they use some light weight pipe then simply choose your favorite muffler and your good to go oh by the way thats a sweet corolla

im not sure how much the stock bumper weighs but im sure the bumper support is alot unfortunatly lexus seats weigh a ton! so like you said sparco or any other aftermarket seat would be a good idea

i think it would be great if we could get our cars under 3,000 pounds
this is a very good thread and needs to keep going

MRAD

soarer479, thanks for the post. I was having a little trouble looking for SC400 C/F parts here in Toronto, perhaps this fall I will get the trunk/hood/spoiler, but I will paint over them (mostly want the weight reduction but stalk look...), if anything I will leave the hood the way it is (C/F). Is it possible to use the stock hood lift with the C/F hood (would save me alot of headaches... literally), I would like to keep it if possible, my trunk is already shot, so im not worried about that.

SupraCoup3

even when your trunk & hood pistons are shot, they still have a good amount of pop to them - they won't work.

drnkcarlos

Its nice to see someone else into drifting who want to drift their SC. SC's drifting are so sexy!!!

I also had an AE86 and been drifting it for a about 3-4 years now. When I switched out to the Soarer ... all those years of of training and no power + gotta make it drift paid off. the car feels like an AE86 but more power and a bit more weight but so easy and nice to drift.

Changing out to CF hood was one of the best improvements I ever did ...except for removing those boat anchors called seats. Changed out to 2 reclining Bride seats and was a noticable drop in weight between those 3 items. Only thing I found was that the Bride Recliners sit VERY LOW!!!!! I had to put cushions in my seat so I could see over the hood. (I'm like 5'6") but even tall people who would sit in my car said its too low for them to see over the hood. I ended up changing to a Bride Full bucket seat (which was much lighter than the recliner and can be set to sit a lot higher) for the drivers side and I like it even more now, I can see over the hood now. I only take the rear seats out when I go to the track and thats only cause I need somewhere to put spare wheels and with the seat in you can't fit but maybe 4 18x10" wheels across the back and their pushing into your seat making the drive to the track really uncomfortable. WIthout the back seat, I can fit 5-18x10 wheels across the floor and 2 more laying on their side on top of the 5 below plus space for some misc stuff and it all fits in nice and comfortable. Since you can only really put 1-18 wheel in the trunk in the tire well, its really difficult getting more wheels in without deflating the tire completely and even that is tight. Only thing left to put on is a 6pt. roll cage going in later this month, a little bit of weight but the safety aspect is kinda nice... plus looks kinda cool when you see the roll cage in a Soarer. But yeah every bit of weight reduction is a blessing for this car. Remember someone asking about Ueno's Soarer, It weighs like 1400kg(stock is about 1800kg)... thats almost Skyline or S14 weight.

I'm still searching for a CF trunk. If any of you know anywhere that will ship a CF trunk to japan, Please let me know.

Levistey0

Thanks Carlos! Have you tried importfan.com. They make pretty good quality C/Fiber trunks with wings. They might able to ship over there! Good luck!

Kick Azz Hachi Slider! I just sold my Hachi liftback to JASPER motorsports! I miss her! hopefully it's in D1 sometime soon.

-Mike

MongolKhan

Thank you for all your help guys, what do you think about some exhausts and where can i get them? Anybody have any experience with HKS Coilovers? Also looking for Limited Slip, preferably 2 way. What do you guys think of those CF hoods on ebay?
Thanks.

SupraCoup3

rather than De-rail this thread, you'd proably have better luck creating your own.

Kaaz makes a limited slip, and I believe TRD has one as well. Or you can search on it -- MKIV LSDs fit.