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Old 12-10-2007, 12:00 PM   #14
Jack
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Member#: 13699
Join Date: Dec 2001
Chapter/Region: NESIC
Location: Hopkinton, MA
Vehicle:
2021 Building
It Better

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soslow,

Please state the use of your car.

For a street car, you will want to do far less than you would for a track car. As an example, take my racecar:



This is obviously a track-only, never any chance of being on the street car. It started life very nose heavy. I have lightened the car over the years that I have owned it. Easy things like moving the battery from the engine compartment to behind the pass seat made sense for 3 reasons. It freed up engine compartment area, it moved weight back and it moved weight down. An added bonus was that the batt kill switch is right inside the pass side near where the mirror goes. The wire that went back to the battery from the switch reached to the spot it was placed behind the seat. Net zero added weight.

On the more radical side, the hood on the car is a home made, fully aluminum piece. It's held with 5 hood pins and weighs 5 pounds. It's functional and reduces front weight at no real downside for the track. It would not really make sense on a street car as it's not overly secure (easy to steal your engine stuff) and it does flap around in spots where it's not supported on the sides. Again, on a racecar, that doesn't matter, but it's not much for fit and finish.

It really also depends how serious you are about reduction of weight or redistribution. Lots of components, wires and accessories can be moved down in the car. Lower CG will help you. I personally don't do this if weight has to be added to make the change. But if it can be done at a relocation, only....go for it. Everything from horns to vacuum controls to wire routing can move down without removing any of it.

With enough sweat equity, you can do some really good redistribution and reduction. Don't start with door skins and fenders and hoods. The door bars are the biggest weight out of all that stuff and unless you're building a cage anyways, you won't be doing any removal there. Scrape off all the sound deadening/undercoating. We're talking at least 50 pounds over the entire car. If it's a street car, you'll have to be a bit more diligent about keeping rust from starting under there.

Have at it, but have fun and don't spend money.

jack
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