Any ideas on how to lose some un-needed weight on the sc 300's?

I was thinking of replacing the twin power seats with factory supra seat, ie one power seat or the cloth supra seat, no power. Then getting rid of the rear seat entirely.

Also replacing the factory foam padding with dynamat extreme to save on weight and increase sound dampening.

Has anyone done any of the above or have any similiar ideas and results?

 

If you don't mind losing the luxury aspect of your Lexus you can pull the interior apart. The rear seats weigh minimal. I honestly have no idea about what the padding weighs in comparison to dynamat.

Most of the weight comes from extremely heavy body panels (doors, hood and trunk). If you have any doubt look at the size of the hinges on your doors. With the lack of carbon fiber parts for our cars I think we're kinda stuck.

I pulled my spare and it weighed over 50lbs.

 

96Sc,

Replacing the stock power seats would be one place to start. I have a pair of reclinable black cloth Corbeau A4's fabricated to fit the stock motorized tracks. I saved at least 30-40 pounds on the seats alone, keeping in mind that my stock seats were leather and had those headrests. Supra seats are a great idea and probably easy to find for a good deal. They look lighter than SC seats. Like VegasSC said, they're not a whole lot of lightweight mods out there for our cars. The only lucky person I know to have carbon fiber pieces such as a hood and Trunk Lid would be Emerald (And this is a Chick's Car~!.... ) She's a member here as well, so maybe you can contact her. Other than the seats, remove the spare if you want.

 

Some guy shaved off 300 pounds or so from his NA Supra by replacing all the bolts in his car with high tensile Titanium bolts. Labor intensive but effective.

My advice:

CF hood (-80lbs) (but for the love of God paint it to match the car's body)
Supra Spare
Racing seats in front if you dont mind doing that (maybe -100 lbs)
Junk your stock mufflers. Those are heavy. (maybe -20lbs?)
Lighter rims
Lighter suspension parts (more for driving fun)
Don't keep junk in your car
Get a turbo so you don't have to worry as much about weight. (Adds 100 lbs)

 

Takahiro Ueno spent a good $60,000 on his soarer lightening it. Need to be light and nimble to hit those tight corners drifting

if you're really serious about lightening your car a little. maybe you should get some gutted carbonfiber doors. you could get some fiberglass fenders. or maybe a lighter more powerful engine like the 1jz

just my 2 cents

 

The stock electrically adjustable seats weigh 70 lbs; not including the tracks still left in the car. I was having mine re-wrapped at Katzkin, grabbed a UPS scale and put them to the test.

Frankly, the rear seats are more foam than anything..also had them re-wrapped and could carry them around balanced on my pinkie finger. I would leave them in...the car looks more classy with a full interior.

It would be interesting to see if there were any carbon fiber hoods readily available...would make a neat weight comparo.

 

Stock mufflers are actually 2 times lighter than my Magnaflow mufflers....I guess it depends what mufflers you are planning to get...

BTW, do a search there was a big thread about weight reduction awhile back...

 

yeah...true true....maybe he meant a titanium exhaust...*droooooool* so freaking loud. but i don't think any company's produce those for the jzz30..

 

appears to me that someone has been reading their june 2003 issue of superstreet...

I have been using Ueno's car to give me ideas on how to work my SC! you can read up on that article and it tells everything hes done to his car to make it "drive like a feather, it is extremely nimble"

Kevin

 

Instead of spending $60,000 on making your car lighter you can buy a new car that is lighter and faster than the SC. For example a Acura NSX, or a Dodge Viper. Thats what I would do.

 

yeah i've seen that issue, but all known facts. yeah i don't read the articles on those stupid magazines after i read this article where they said the 13b (rotary engine) is a 2.6 liter displacement because it's 2 rotors. i was going to hurt whoever wrote that article for not researching it before he made assumtions.

But yeah his car's awsome. and it doesn't tell everything that he's gone to his car. it just tells the basics of what he's got that you can notice. BUT WOW what an awsome car.......

 

yeah you cooooooooooould...but no. hah jk the reason for this is because he's a drifter and the weight distribution on the NSX (midship) and the VIPER (fat *** monster) is really off. and there's more to it. BTW that soarer will kill both those cars in any curcuit.

 

Weight reduction is easy....Weight Distribution is a science.

-Taking the hood from an SC (that’s built for comp.) will be noticeable...but not in a good way, it throws off the dynamics of the car. It’s the same with any other car....
-There’s a reason why the spare weighs so much
-There’s a reason why the gas tank is located where it is.
-There’s a reason why the front seats are heavy yet the rears are light as a feather
-I’m sure you get the picture......

*Take for example: Our 850CSI is a heavier than the SC., yet the hood weighs about 2/3 less

There is a reason why the SC's hood weighs more than the BMW...since both cars are pretty well balanced (BMW a bit more)


This (SC) car is so well balanced from the factory that it was not a coincidence...they built it that way.


> My advice is this: Learn about distribution first before trying to reduce weight when building a track car. If you're looking to build a drag car you’ve started in the wrong place

 

Um, not trying to be an ***, but you really think that Lexus had track events in mind when they contracted someone out to make the spare wheel and tire? The reason it weighs what it does is because steel wheels are more economical than aluminum...don't get me wrong, weight distribution is great, but that can be largely left up to the suspension via corner balancing.

 

Uh, I didnt say they had track events in mind.....these cars are 'pigs', simple as that.

I said the car is well balanced from the factory...with all its 'heavy parts' and that those 'parts' are taken into consideration when building the car.