any specific useless part can be taken off to make my scooby lighter?:rolleyes:

anything that doesn't make you go faster, duh.....:alien:


But really there is all kinds of stuff on the cars and i'm sue it was a big buzz here a few months back.

Things like heat sheilds and that pesky interior could go and i'm sure there is lots of other stuff....


:p

spend your time making more power and the speed will follow.

Instead of removing things, I'd go with replacing those "heavy" rotating parts with lighter rotation parts. Such as wheels, flywheel, pulleys, driveshaft (if possible and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg), etc. Then on race days, pull out as much of the interior as possible. You could always get a CF hood, and aluminum trunk lid to shave some weight too...

I'm against removing stuff to lose weight, it'll come back to haunt in some day either by reducing the rigidity of your vehicle, or reducing the safety of your vehicle. There's been numerous threads on this subject, check out the search, you're bound to find some more info.


-Matt

Lose weight. sorry, I had to say it. All this weight savings is for what? for every 100 pounds you lose, you gain 1/10 second. Does it really matter on the street? Or is this for the strip?

you could go on a diet =P that way you make the car lighter when you drive it :D jkjk ok that was mean, im sorry

but you should work on the performance of the car if you want it to go faster, or if you want to lose alot of weight on the car, then strip the rear-seats out and put in a roll cage.:lol:

Originally posted by TaiChih
Lose weight. sorry, I had to say it. All this weight savings is for what? for every 100 pounds you lose, you gain 1/10 second. Does it really matter on the street? Or is this for the strip?

I'ts a good idea!! Take Stephan Papadakis for example. Did you guys see him in the latest Super Street mag. I guess that's why he runs 8's now, huh?:devil: No offense Steph, you rock.:D

Actually the interior is pretty light, i removed the backseats for a while and they only weigh like ten punds. they're pretty much just foam and cloth. even the carpet (wich sucks) is only like 5 pounds, its just carpet and some sound proofing. infact the sparetire and jack probably weigh more than all that interior together, just make sure you have a road side assistance plan with your insurance if you remove it.;)

Trade you spare for a can of fix-a-flat.

If you really want to go all the way.....
When people prep cars for racing they use a blowtorch and melt all the wax out of the body cavities to reduce weight and fire hazard.
The back seat weighs little, but I reckon the backrests would be worth removing. Get a rear strutbar to compensate for removing the seatbacks. Spare tyre is v. heavy, as is aircon, stereo, airbags, full tank of fuel, window glass and panels. I know a top hillclimber who drills the centre out of bolts and slices nuts in half to make them lighter!
When you think about it, you only need the vital gauges, a seat and a small fuel tank if you're going racing (plus windscreen etc. as dictated by rules)
toerag

for every 100 pounds you lose, you gain 1/10 second
On the drag strip maybe, but on a track or in the real world it matters a lot more than that. If a stock RS weighed 1850 lbs instead of 2850, it'd have a lbs/hp ratio of a Porsche 911. The stock brakes and stock suspension would be amazing.

Loose things like Power Steering, stereo and speakers, back seat, spare tire, any sound deadening fillament, etc.

Oh, I can see if you lost 1000 lbs. like you posted making a difference, but I thought we were still talking street legal. Sure you could go for GUTTING everything, except the essentials, and using fiberglass bodywork. But, losing 100 lbs here and there would not make a big difference on the street if at all, in my opinion. :D

take the heavy hood off, a la fast + furious :-)



actually take the entire body off, let it run bone bare :-):lol:

Put your trunk monkey on a strict bread & water diet.:D get rid of all the dead weight....spare, jack, wieght in the glove box....then it becomes a matter of personal hygene....ie diet, cut your hair, shave everytime before you drive, "relieve" yourself before entering your car, eat lean food, etcetc.

Andres

i remember that big Al removed his hood prop arm...that must've saved at least 3 lbs. I'm all for relocating the battery to the trunk to fix the weight distribution a little more in your favor but then you gotta have some thick-arse power cable running to the front which will add at least 5 lbs.

Removing weight is one of the best modifications you can do! Not only do you get better acceleration, you also get better braking, steering, gas mileage, etc. I have removed about 100lbs from my RS and it is noticable for sure!

remove the scoop and vents blockers, remove that soft carpeting crap off the top of the hood, or even better buy an aluminum hood. buy a light weight front bumper. get an aluminum trunk, if yoiu can stand to part with it get rid of the wing. remove that weight in the glove compartment. get rid of the heat shields, new lighten flywheel, light underdrive pulleys, lighter rims completely strip the interior of the truck (do you really need a nicely carpeted trunk?), replace your two front seats with racing seats of your choice. and when you go to the track take the spare and jack out. that should easily save you 120+ lbs.

next steps comes the power steering, the A/C, and the stereo

then going really hardcore, its time to strip the interior.

also remeber that often the after market preformance parts that you buy for your car (ex. exhaust, intake, and even suspension) are often considerably lighter than the original OEM parts.

edit: accidently cussed, and added some more tot he list.

For those who want to see how much a 100-200 lb reduction can make. Go down your favorite road or track at a brisk pace. Then do it again with passenger. It really makes a difference.

Good advice from the last couple posts

Removing weight is always a better mod than adding an equivalent amount of power (to give the same lbs/hp figure). More power and you accelerate faster. less weight and you accelerate faster, brake faster, and handle better. A hundred hp or so CRX can nearly keep up with a corvette or 911 on an autocross course because of lightness.

Weight reduction is a great way to improuve the braking, handling, and acceleration performance of your car. i would remove...whatever you don't use...sometimes even if it doesn't look that great when the stuff is gone. i would remove whatever possible. like some have already said.

heres a few possible places to look:
1. Sound Deadening material. there is TONNES of this stuff in new WRX's and RS's i'm sure!!! it's under the carpets, in door pannels, floor of trunk, and on firewall. this stuff is heavy heavy heavy!! if you take out your carpet this stuff is glued to the bottom of the carpet and is sometimes called "horse hair" if you can. separate this stuff from the carpet and put the carpet back in.

2. Carpeting and trim pieces in the trunk. who looks there anyways.

3. spare tire, jack, and tool kit

4. heat sheilds!!!! All cars from the factory use SOOO much headshielding on the exhaust!! like the entire thing is covered. well i got a newsflash. it does nothin except rott out your pipes quicker cause it keeps water in. Drop the exhaust remove the headshielding and put the exhaust back on. just leave the piece bolted to the chassis for the fuel tank.

5. un needed plastic pieces. for some reason the factory also like to put plastic skid plates under the motor!! well these do nothing...you know what do with them.

6. Invest in lighter wheels. remember bigger is heavier (sprung weight...but it accounts for more. even a pound lighter wheel is amazing)

7. other stuff you see!!!

most people forget that you can have a million hp but if your car weighs as much as the titanic it's not gonna be fast.....cough...cough...domestic muscle cars...cough...cough..

heres a figure for ya.....remove 20lbs worth of weigh, and it's like gaining 1 hp. so 100 lbs would be thats it 5 hp. last time i checked. that's free HP. so. go for it!!!

another figure for you. power to weigh ratio time..

2002 Subaru WRX.... 3085 lbs and 227 hp..... 3085/227 = 13.59 lbs per hp.

1988 Subaru Justy....1781 lbs and 110 hp when i finish the turbo....1781/110 = 16.1.

now you didn't think a justy could come that close did ya.. nope. that's all weight.

think about it. and remove weight wisely.

p.s. sorry for the long post. just somthing i feel strongly about.

diet yourself.... :D

>> any specific useless part can be taken off to make my scooby lighter

cut your nuts off. you dont need them to go fast.. :devil: if you have an automatic, the left leg can go too.

my god... just read some of those insightful reply i got..:eek:
thx to all anyway

The results of weight reduction:
Autocross time with my dad (probably 220lbs with helmet, intercom, etc.) in the car :49.2 48.7 48.5
Autocross time when he got out: 47.5 47.2 and 47.3(and two cones :( )
It was very noticeable. As anyone who autocrosses knows, that 1-2 seconds is a huge difference!
-DW (eating only rice cakes from now one ;)

i was talking to a civic driver who runs a 1/4 in under 10, and he says if you take the wheels and engine out, it is really light!!!!

-nick

p.s. for those of you who can't tell what this obviously is, i'm kidding and making fun of honda boys :lol:

A lighter car is also gonner be easier on your car for wear and tear than a heavier one, or the same car with more power.

To accelerate at the same speed, a heavier car has to put more stress on the engine and through the Tranny.

Originally posted by toerag
I know a top hillclimber who drills the centre out of bolts and slices nuts in half to make them lighter!

Drilling a hole a certain depth through the center of a bolt will also make it stronger! I know it sound weird that removing material from a bolt can make it stronger, but it actually works. I don't know about the slicing nuts in half though :D

Inspired into action by this thread, I just bought a can of fix-a-flat,
then removed....
spare wheel + jack, cardboard & carpet from trunk, hood vent plugs, rear passenger foot mats, crap from glove box, and some cheddar cheese I found under the passenger seat.

Grand weight total saved was about 43 lbs (excluding the cheese)
Getting up to 100 lbs saved could be a bit more tricky...
and expensive ;)

I heard that getting an aircraft battery is a good way to save some weight.

if you have any passengers in the car, remove them too :D

How about the black cover and bracket behind the air filter box? I'd like to rip out the bracket that holds the boost control solenoid too.

How much does the rear skidplate weigh?

Originally posted by Future Subaru Driver1

1988 Subaru Justy....1781 lbs and 110 hp when i finish the turbo....1781/110 = 16.1.

now you didn't think a justy could come that close did ya.. nope. that's all weight.


We need to know more about this project!!!!:D

Then read this:

http://www.specialstage.com/htdocs/forum/DCForumID14/436.html

Wow ! that justy sounds like great fun !

another weight saving idea...
get your tires shaved, that saves a few more pounds, gives more grip, and less unprung weight.

How about removing the Driver??

On the real side,
does anyone know if the rex uses lead fill for sound deadning material between panel sandwhiches?

Careful removing the heat shielding!

There have already been numerous posts about the WRX trunk melting over the exhaust... removing what heat shielding there is could cause some issues!

Not saying it can't be done, just be aware of this.

Also... I thought I heard somewhere that saving weight is TWICE the acceleration bonus as adding horses... true? Like... increasing from 200 to 400 horses is not nearly as effective as decreasing from 3000 to 1500 pounds. I dunno, it sounds iffy to me.

Look at the Power to weight ratio and you can see the benfits.
If you say that the current WRX is 13.2 lbs/hp and you have a goal of 12 you have two options,
loose 200 lbs (maybe as mentioned by others in this thread) or gain about 30 HP (turbo XS Kit). But with the HP increase you do not gain anything else, with the weight loss you will decrease breaking distance and help handling.
On other cars traction is a problem, so adding HP doen't always make you quicker.