Lets talk Weight Reduction
- Thread starter Setsuko37
- Start date
SupraMedical68;1851976 said:
Wait... are you being sarcastic or....?
I swear this topic pops up monthly and it's almost the same discussion every time. Most people favor dropping weight, some favor it as long as it means no loss of luxury, and some pop in just to say every one else is crazy. I could set me watch by it (if I wore one).
I've replaced the doors and fenders on my car, and I don't think that there's a lot of weight savings to fenders. They're pretty lightweight already, even in steel, but there's got to be SOMEPLACE to shave weight from the doors without giving up crash protection. They's SO heavy.
Probably the door skin isn't where the weight is.
Part of the structure is probably redundant for a hard-top car. There's a LOT of bracing in there for targa top cars, when they have that extra pin installed. Some of that can probably be completely discarded.
A side impact bar would be a good thing to have, so a steel superstructure on a "lightweight" door would be a minimum for me. I'd probably make such a door with a "V" structure running from each hinge to the striker area of the door in round tube steel. Making the rest in FRP or CF could still result in some significant weight savings, and could even have some extra touches for speaker enclosures or something. It's an idea that I'd been playing with, anyway.
I know that there's some weight to the reinforcement structure of the hood, which FRP or CF can help with, though I've never been overly fond of hood pins, which are a really good idea with CF at the very least.
Most of the places that I'd be most concerned with weight savings are up high, and to the front of the car, so that should really make the hood a higher priority item.
Probably the door skin isn't where the weight is.
Part of the structure is probably redundant for a hard-top car. There's a LOT of bracing in there for targa top cars, when they have that extra pin installed. Some of that can probably be completely discarded.
A side impact bar would be a good thing to have, so a steel superstructure on a "lightweight" door would be a minimum for me. I'd probably make such a door with a "V" structure running from each hinge to the striker area of the door in round tube steel. Making the rest in FRP or CF could still result in some significant weight savings, and could even have some extra touches for speaker enclosures or something. It's an idea that I'd been playing with, anyway.
I know that there's some weight to the reinforcement structure of the hood, which FRP or CF can help with, though I've never been overly fond of hood pins, which are a really good idea with CF at the very least.
Most of the places that I'd be most concerned with weight savings are up high, and to the front of the car, so that should really make the hood a higher priority item.
^ Correct!
Also :
1) CF hood
2) CF targa (if you have one)
3) Aftermarket Single turbo (saves a lot vs twin turbos),no washer fluid and lightweight battery.If you don't care about summer,lose the A/C components.
4) Lightweight wheels
5) From the interior only the front seats worth to be replaced and take out the rear seats. Also an aftermarket steering wheel will help vs SRS system.
6) From the rear,get all the stuff out (spare wheel,jack,tools,subwoofer,etc.,),and if you got the $ get a CF hatch and a plastic fuel tank and keep it 1/2 full.
Should be good for 500-600 lbs...Without destroying the car LOL. Not bad.
And you lost weight on perfect spots,like front middle and on top.
Also :
1) CF hood
2) CF targa (if you have one)
3) Aftermarket Single turbo (saves a lot vs twin turbos),no washer fluid and lightweight battery.If you don't care about summer,lose the A/C components.
4) Lightweight wheels
5) From the interior only the front seats worth to be replaced and take out the rear seats. Also an aftermarket steering wheel will help vs SRS system.
6) From the rear,get all the stuff out (spare wheel,jack,tools,subwoofer,etc.,),and if you got the $ get a CF hatch and a plastic fuel tank and keep it 1/2 full.
Should be good for 500-600 lbs...Without destroying the car LOL. Not bad.
And you lost weight on perfect spots,like front middle and on top.
The doors are only heavy if you got noodle arms. Supra doors are actually pretty light compared to F-body's and rustangs
destrux;1852053 said:
I'd much rather see this topic pop up monthly or every once in awhile opposed to the usual topics that flood SM daily, "OMG why is my oil milky and the car is overheating, how much will it cost to get a 1JZ swap?"
There's a bit missing
wheels still weigh alot though and there is more to removeNo sound deadening rear seats or carpet, heater, rear interior, battery in boot (still a large one) hard top, abs removed
Fiberglass- front bumper, guards, stout hood,
Yes it was mentioned once but removing bolts that aren't being used can save a good amount. Like rear seatbelt bolts and any bolts from deleted things like abs. Zip ties are lighter than bolts and can actually be used in some locations. And the nuts that are welded on to the body for the bolts to thread into can all be ground off. You can easily reach the point in weight reduction work where you can't go back to stock. At least not without a lot of extra work to re make mounting tabs and all.
For the record. I race a 1987 Supra Hardtop with a 1jzGTE. With cage, fuel and driver we're just under 3k pounds. This was with the rear glass intact and no fuel cell. We're looking into aluminum bumpers, going to replace rear glass with lexan and we just went with some 99 Mustang GT 17x 8 wheels which are way lighter than the stock 16" Sawblades. I'm guessing we'll be under 2800 for this upcoming race.