What items could be looked at for removing weight from the car?

 

Depends on how much noise you want to tolerate and how stripped you don't mind the interior.

 

Removing the spare tire is a start.

Mine is out right now. Not because I want to save weight I just forgot to put it back in while I was installing my XM receiver. This thread reminds me to put my spare back in. I been driving around without a spare for 4 months now.

 

Keep fuel low, go on diet if possible, Tanabe Exhaust, Engine covers, lightweight battery, remove spare if your drive is feasible, lighter wheels, lighter tires (rotational mass), keep your car extra clean (no junk in the glove box/floor/seats/trunk). Other than these items I can't think of much more that I'd be willing to change/remove to drive around daily for weight benefits.

FYI
Michelin PS2 tires of stock size are 2lbs lighter in the front and 1lb lighter in the back compared to stock Dunlops
Engine covers are 7lbs
spare/jack/tools are 36lbs combined
Tanabe exhaust is 27lbs compared to stock 29lbs
Owners manual is 3lbs (including all manuals that came with NAV)
And if you are really hard core you can replace the front seats with racing seats. The stock seats are 65lbs each.

 

-Put in a light weight battery
-Take out the spare tire and jack, and anything else in the trunk that you don’t need, like the stock amp and satellite radio controller
-Rip out the stereo and speakers
-take out the back seat, front passenger seat, and replace the drivers seat with a racing seat
-Gut the carpet, sound deadening material and the center console
-Get a custom made carbon fiber or aluminum drive shaft made, the stocker is a two peace steel shaft that probably weights around 30 pounds, also replace the half shafts that go from the differential to the wheels with carbon fiber shafts or aluminum
-Get a set of light weight wheels and tires, if you go to tire rack the tell you how much each tire weighs to it's size
-Replace all of the suspension components in the front and rear with aluminum or cromoly steel peaces, titanium would be best but it would cost you more than your car is worth
-Get rid of every accessory on your engine “AC, power steering” and run an electric water pump.
-Replace the crank, and alternator pulley with billet aluminum peaces
-Replace the front "K" member with a cromoly steel unit "a K member is what your engine mounts to"
-Take out the bumpers, not the bumper cover but the big peaces of plastic that are under them
-Replace the rear and side windows with lexan, you can do the front ones also, but it’s really illegal
-Get rid of the power door locks, auto windows, and remove all the door panels
-Get rid of all the air bags
-Replace the 20 or so little computers in the car that do individual things that you really don’t need and have a stand alone fuel management computer just for the engine
-Swap your sequential manual gear box over to a true manual, sequential are just beefed up automatics and they weigh about a 150 pound more than a manual.
-Get rid of all the heat shields on the bottom of the car and in the engine bay
-Get rid of the head lights and replace them with Non HID's that don’t move when you go around a corner, the extra motors and ballasts for the lights add weight
-Cross drill your rotors, granted you run the risk of cracking every gram counts!
-Replace every body panel with carbon fiber, this would only be a minimal loss of weight since the majority of the car is "plastic" any way
-Replace the connecting rods, and valves with titanium, and have the cam shafts drilled out to make them hollow.
-Replace the valve covers with carbon fiber units
-Put your self and your family on a diet

 

I bet you previously owned either a Mustang or Civic...

 

Almost as important as losing total weight, is were the weight is your losing...
Alot of guys start removing weight from the rear of a rwd car for drag racing , this isn't always as helpful as you would think...If the front of a rwd car has a bulk of the weight, how much does putting a lighter trunk lid on help the weight transfer to the back where the drive tires are? I would maybe start with looking at the balance of the weight.

 

The last word in removing weight from a car-

http://www.nerocam.com/SCC_TAP.asp

 

I know the rear seats come out pretty easily.. I think easier than the fronts... (not sure of the weight)

^ BTW - I got 40lbs for the oem exhaust (rear section)..


And for all of you that don't know, the huge OEM front-mid section with the 2 secondary cats & 1 resonator weighs 28 lbs.

Joe Z

 

that link is nuts. That shows me just how insane you can get with all of this stuff. I think I will just keep my car together and just buy a different car to race with.

 

Word, I did about 200 pound of weight reduction on my Z28. No AC in the summer in Ca was not so fun, but damnit that car was fast.

 

So I went to remove the space and jack from my trunk the other day only to find thats what holds my sub up from breaking the particle board cover. I was really hoping to dump some weight that I'd never use (not a chance in hell I'll change one of my wheels and end up scratching it), but it looks like the spare will remain a 30lb subwoofer holder.

 

why not remove the sub too then?

 

that is pretty funny. thanks for sharing.

all that for 2 seconds off the quarter mile.

 

Because out of absolutely everything, my subs would be the thing that I notice the most in the car. They do in fact weigh a lot, and taking out the spare and jack wouldn't even cover their weight. But I was hoping to compensate for some of that weight by taking out something that I'd never ever use, and is unseen.