Weight Loss?

Kore · 10-26-2003

Doesn any one know what you can do to get rid of some weight on our cars?

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Zzyzx · 10-26-2003

depends on what your willing to do.

you could take out all of the sound deadining pad, or start striping out the intirior. or go Carbonfiber/fiberglass everything.

If your not concerned about safty you could take the bumper reinforcements out.

Freak · 10-26-2003

Put ephedra in the gas tank...

big_daddy_b_99 · 10-26-2003

^^hahaha yeah that might help

MatrixShark · 10-26-2003

Don't take this to the bank, but I heard somewhere that the side impact door beams weigh in at fifty pounds each. Pull them both and save around a 100lbs. That is equivelant to around a ten horsepower gain.

MatrixShark · 10-26-2003

A big one that everyone overlooks: Keep your small factory wheels or buy 15" lightweight rims. Most people slap on big heavy rims. This kills straight line performance (acceleration and deceleration) in two ways. First is the added weight and second is the higher rotational inertia.

MatrixShark · 10-26-2003

I spent big money on the 17" OZ rims you see in my sig. They weigh only sixteen pounds each but I still felt a dramatic difference in acceleration.

tripledoublegs · 10-26-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Freak
Put ephedra in the gas tank...

good one

RiceBuRNeR · 10-26-2003

The first thing you do is ditch the spare tire, although the rear seats realy dont weigh anything if your going for a all out race setup then ditch them too.

PICHY · 10-26-2003

id say
remove stock hood change to carbon fiber
remove stock trunk change to carbon fiber
remove stock fenders change to carbon fiber
remove all interior all mats all seats exept drivers seat ( u need to drive it no)
remove A/C off
power stearing off
cruise control off
remove everything out the tunk ( no mats, no spear tires, no music, etc)
Did i forget something guiz....?
i guess i made ur car like a feather....

PICHY · 10-26-2003

oh yeah and get a cage..

Zzyzx · 10-26-2003

if hes trying to drop weight in the car why on earth would he want to put a cage in?

PICHY · 10-26-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Zzyzx
if hes trying to drop weight in the car why on earth would he want to put a cage in?

I didnt kno cages weight 10,000 pounds...He need a cage cuz the only place he will be driving that car is at the track....the weight of the cage will never match the weight of all the shit i told him to take out...so it wont hurt to have one

Yukonart · 10-26-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by PICHY2G
I didnt kno cages weight 10,000 pounds...He need a cage cuz the only place he will be driving that car is at the track....the weight of the cage will never match the weight of all the shit i told him to take out...so it wont hurt to have one

A cage?

Unless someone's running HELLA BOOST, most Civics will never be fast enough at any track to warrant a cage. Hell, I'd even have to mod the hell out the STi I'm picking up on Tuesday to get it that fast. I'm pretty sure you have to be hitting 11's before you need one.

Matrix Shark. . . . I think someone didn't have a clue what they were talking about. I think we'd all be hard-pressed to see an entire DOOR weigh any more than 50 pounds. I'm sure the side impact door beams are heavy, but 50 pounds each should make them stronger than the frame under the engine bay.

MatrixShark · 10-27-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Yukonart
Matrix Shark. . . . I think someone didn't have a clue what they were talking about. I think we'd all be hard-pressed to see an entire DOOR weigh any more than 50 pounds. I'm sure the side impact door beams are heavy, but 50 pounds each should make them stronger than the frame under the engine bay.

I was kinda skeptical about it too. But, hey who knows what kinda crap uncle sam mandates be added to all of our cars. Anyway, it would be nice to know (more specifically) how much those intrusion beams weigh.

01EXplain · 10-27-2003

If your goin to race, you should do it on a nearly empty tank of premium. Gas is heavy stuff. Also, you could drain the fluids low for the day your going to race but REMEMBER to refill em afterwards. PS, how much lighter is a Vic with all carbon fiber panels and such?

MatrixShark · 10-27-2003

^^^ Good tip. I know water is about 8lbs. per gallon. Gas is lighter but probably roughly around the same. When he says drain the fluids don't drain any oil or radiator fluid. That stuff comes in handy for keeping the motor cool

Keep it to the windshield washer fluid.

Kore · 10-28-2003

These are really good tips guys.. thanks... I might end up doing most of those suggestion....

SMURF_KILLER · 10-28-2003

just gut it out leaving only the spoon carbon fiber seat and go to some specialty shop and pay lots of money to get your car totaly done in carbon fiber and the frame redone using the lightest and strongest metal they make......may cost a lot of money

grimace360 · 10-28-2003

i put on the kosie 17" ki racing rims they weigh in at 13 lbs each with the 205/40/17 they are the exact size of the stock wheels and tires. you can start removing the back seat. spare tire. and most trunk items. you should lose a bit of weight there. if you want to go loud just remove everything except the dash and the driver seat. but road noise is going to be unbarable

IronFist · 10-29-2003

You could always remove your exhaust. Haha.

SMURF_KILLER · 10-29-2003

yeah do that and it will make all the difference

havocErnie · 10-29-2003

I think i might go extreme tear down on my car then... I'm really the only one that drives it and i don't carry any people with me expect my GF. I'll post images when i get gutting the car out...

grimace360 · 10-29-2003

if your girlfriend is with you you may want to keep the passanger seat in as well

Skunk2ner · 10-30-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by grimace360
if your girlfriend is with you you may want to keep the passanger seat in as well

or maybe the backseat instead

maxsin · 10-30-2003

for wheels is 19lbs each for 17's really heavy?

good luck with your weight reduction.

Zzyzx · 10-30-2003

If you want to go fast, get the smallest Lightest Widest wheel you can fit over your brakes, with the shortest/widest tire you can fit on that wheel.

14's will fit, but I dont know of many 14s that are wide (6.5-8 inches)
15's would probably be the way to go. Find some 15X7's or 15X6.5 and slap a set of Falken Azenis or Kumho MX on them (205/50R15 for both) that will give you a gearing advantage due to the short tires.

avoid Large wheels 16's could be ok if they are light enough, but avoid larger......

kjgracing · 10-30-2003

on our cars basically 100lbs takes off about 1/10th of a second...it is really not
worth it or noticable. I race with my seats and spare tire.
Gas...well it only weighs 6 lbs pre gallon, so you are not shaving much there
by running on a 1/4 tank.

havocErnie · 10-30-2003

I heard our civics are lighter than the previous gen's. is this true?

Zzyzx · 10-30-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by kjgracing
on our cars basically 100lbs takes off about 1/10th of a second...it is really not
worth it or noticable. I race with my seats and spare tire.
Gas...well it only weighs 6 lbs pre gallon, so you are not shaving much there
by running on a 1/4 tank.

Depends on what type of racing you do. Weight affects acceleration differently then it affects handling.

so with drag racing you'd probably be better off if you just added Power.
For Road racing or autocross, reducing weight would be the better solution.
Example: two guys I race with are in the same class. D-modified. on has a CRX with a B16 engine in it (Approx 160HP) the other drives a Caterham 7 with approx 110 HP. by the compairing HP you'd think that the CRX would be stomping on the 7. but The 7 weighs Much less then the CRX and on average the Caterham 7 is 3 seconds faster then the CRX........

in a Drag race the CRX would probaby win, but on a track the 7's light weight is much more usefull.

CRX

Caterham 7