By now everybody and his brother has seen Colonel's weight reduction thread over at LS1Tech. Mike's (94Bird's) thread over at LS1.com was a big hit also.

In another week or two I'll be doing a bunch of weight reduction to the car and getting it ready for a 6-point rollbar over the summer. So I decided to pull up Mike's thread and assemble the several posts into a checklist to use on my own car. It's a great list of weight reduction specific for cars that still have to be able to turn

Mike's list (as well as Colonel's) can be accessed as a formatted Excel spreadsheet here.




Any additions / changes?

Hey, good summary. I do have some new parts to add to your list. Yours is not in the same order as the spreadsheet I've been maintaining, but I didn't see these on your list:

BTW, negative weights indicate heavier parts than stock . . .

Grant steering wheel -> 2.5 lbs. (stock = 4.5 lbs. including SIR coil, not including airbag and radio controls)
LS1 driveshaft -> 5.5 lbs. (stock LT1 steel = 17 lbs.)
SLP headers -> 12 lbs.
Global West front control arms -> -2 lbs. (stock are 4 lbs. and GW= 5 lbs. each)
Brad Blaine Carbon Fiber Targa Top -> (it weighs 3 lbs. 4 oz. and the stock t-tops are 26 lbs. I will lose more than this once I remove a few of the supporting structures for the t-tops)
C5 brakes -> 7 lbs. (less than LT1 stock)

I'm going to think long and hard about cutting my exhaust system short and dumping it in front of the rear wheels. That will likely save 20 lbs. or so since I'll also use a smaller muffler.

We had some more discussions on this board when it first started up on this thread:
http://frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?act=ST&...t=154&hl=weight

Also, switching from stock front springs to GC coilovers saved me about 12 lbs. in total IIRC, but for some reason I can't seem to find that sheet I wrote that down on anymore. That was before I was maintaining the spreadsheet. You could save even more if you went with shorter springs. Jon A probably remembers the lengths better than me, but I believe I currently have 10" springs on there and 8" will work quite nicely.

This is sort of on topic. I saw the most recent episode of “Sports Car Revolution” on the Speed Channel on 4/3 at 10:00 pm. They were working on a project car, an Acura RSX. They referred to a previous mod; they had changed the front brakes to Stoptech. They mentioned that they had lost 12 drive wheel HP from that. Since then, they had added a cat-back system and this week they upgraded to a Mugen low restriction, ram air filter box. These last 2 mods had regained most of the 12 HP they say they lost from the big brakes.

Did anyone see the earlier episodes? I would like to know how much weight the Stoptech system added. It is hard for me to believe that they could have lost 12 HP from a slight increase in rotating mass. Maybe it wasn’t slight. They spoke as if they were surprised by the size of the HP loss. I would be interested to know if they checked for brake drag after installing the new system, or if the whole loss is attributable to increased rotor mass.

I saw that episode last weekend I think. They mentioned it wasn't from an increase in mass, but an increase in rotational inertia. 12 wheel HP does seem quite high to me. I don't believe they checked drag. All they showed was the guys scratching their heads until they called another guy who theorized that must be what it is.

I saw that episode too. I concluded that they must have been talking about the oversized rims/tires that were installed. Can't say for certain, though.

....it is a little itty bitty motor.....

Does any know around how much weight aluminum heads, intakes and water pumps save? I know they save quite a bit but have never seen hard numbers.

I also read an article in CHP awhile back where they saved 25lbs from switching a 3rd gens power steering setup to a Flaming River manual box and collapsable shaft.

I don't see mirrors on anyone's list of ways to save weight. Those things weigh 5.5 pounds or so. Here's a pic from a bad angle, but the actual weight was right between 5 and 6 pounds.

http://www.z28racergirl.com/images/29work/...tockmirrors.jpg

What's behind you doesn't matter, right? But I figured just in case we wanted to check who's out there before turn in I'd put something back, so I installed some Spa mirrors. They weigh a lot less:

http://www.z28racergirl.com/images/29work/.../spamirrors.jpg

Chris had expressed concern about those big ass stock mirrors getting hit during a race, so I've had spa mirrors on my list for a while. She went to Vegas, I fabbed up mounts for the mirrors.

Jason

[Edit - looking at the spa mirrors, it looks like I've got the screws for the passenger side sticking out the wrong way. Another thought is that I could use the current brackets as a plug and make some fiberglass mounts. Probably not worth the effort except from an educational standpoint.]

Supposedly it's from the increased rotational mass of the larger diameter brake rotors on the drive wheels (fronts in the case of the RSX) and from the increased rotational mass of larger wheels (to clear the brakes). This along with the fact that the stock RSX-S will just about put you through the windshield is why we aren't looking at upgrading the brakes on the wife's RSX-S. Considering that the stock RSX-S already has close to 12" front rotors, I don't really see the point of upgrading unless you are doing a LOT of track time. Heck, I have no problems with the 12" LS1 setup on my Firehawk, and it weighs a good 500lbs more.

Stock '94 Formula hood - 45.5 lbs.
VFN liftoff hood - 11 lbs.

Weighed them tonight just as a doublecheck.

I know that Cobra Clubman seats are already on the list but here is the weight of another light weight seat-

UltraShield Rally aluminium seats {with seat cover}- 13.75lbs each

Isn't the Strano hollow 22mm rear bar a smidge lighter than the stock 19mm solid? Anyone remember?

I getting ready to try to get rid of around 80-100lbs myself. The last time I weighed {dragstrip ready} I weighed in at 3280lbs without the front swaybar. Add back something like 15lbs or so for my hollow 35mm front.

I just bought the UltraShield seats {-30 or so lbs}
Get rid of the airbags, airbag sensors and swap out the factory wheel {-25lbs?}
Get a hawker battery {-15lbs}
Pull the carpet and remove backing, scrap off the sound damping on the floor board {-20lbs}
Get rid of the windshield washer and assorted junk {-10lbs}

I would really like to get the car down to around 3200lbs. Being that my car is still pretty much a street car, that might be a bit optimistic but I will give it a try. I am going to have to add a roll bar soon so there goes 75-85lbs right back on there,,, what a pisser.