Def

I made the mistake of throwing my car on a local set of scales, and now I'm weight obsessed again. It came out to 2550 lbs with a half tank of gas, 1.75x0.095" roll bar, no interior from rear seats back, but full stock interior from there forward. No sound deadening. Bumper beams frt and rear, SR with no AC, lots of chassis bracing. Cheap fiberglass hood is the only thing to save weight, but I imagine my splitter/wing offsets that. Weight balance was 53.7/47.3 frt and rear.

So I've got some ideas of ways to lose weight, but I'd like to at least get an idea of the magnitude of weight loss possible. I cannot find reliable weights for these components, so if any S chassis gurus that really know the car inside and out(like Russ) would chime in with at least a ballpark, I'd appreciate it.

Components(all S13 hatch):

-HVAC blower motor(looks heavy, never taken it out)

-HVAC control flap/heater core box(I'd like to keep my heat, but if I can simplify the flaps with some cables I'd look into it to save some weight)

-hatch rear glass

-rear quarter windows

-rear bumper bar(stock)

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WISH ONE

my s13 coupe weighed in at 2574, a tad under a half tank, full interior, SR, no ac, all bumpers, 23lbs a piece wheels, stock exhaust,
Still debating putting my car on a diet. I dont want to become annorexic.
I would be nice to know the weight of all the hvac components though.

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nightwalker

Some other weight loss options are...

-light weight battery (about 8-10lbs lighter)
-race seats (14-15lbs lighter)
-carbon trunk/hatch (15-20lbs lighter)
-coilovers (8-10lbs lighter)

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Matej

Purchase lightweight drivetrain componets. Lightening anything that spins will make the most difference out of any weight reduction.

racepar1

Components(all S13 hatch):

-HVAC blower motor(looks heavy, never taken it out)

-HVAC control flap/heater core box(I'd like to keep my heat, but if I can simplify the flaps with some cables I'd look into it to save some weight)

The hvac components are not that heavy, maybe 20lbs for the whole assembly. It's not worth your time to screw with unless you're building a trailered track car and can just take it completely out...

-hatch rear glass

The hatch rear glass and the hatch assembly itself weigh a metric shit ton. This is definitely worth your time and effort...

-rear quarter windows

The rear 1/4 windows are surprisingly light, leave them be...

-rear bumper bar(stock)

This also weighs a crapton. I went nuts with a plasma cutter on my old fastback one and I swear when I was done the entire bumper assembly weighed as much as the support alone used to...

TheRealSy90

Mine was 2400 without me in it. It's fully gutted with only the heater core stuff left.

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projectRDM

The rear bumper reinforcement is seriously heavy on the S13, this is due to the fuel tank being so easily accessible in a rear end collision. They want the extra protection. Shame is most cars that get hit tweak the quarters since it's so solid.

Hatch, also quite heavy, a CF/FG one with Lexan/acrylic window weighs less than half.

The heater core and box is light, so is the blower motor and box. Since you don't have A/C you can pull the evaporator core, remove the unit, then put the empty box back in, that only saves maybe 4-5lbs but you can get $10-15 for it at the metal recycler.

There's nothing majorly heavy that's easily removed after that unless you start cutting sheetmetal.

My S14 got down to 2640 I think, I had plans to go lighter and really make it undriveable but sold it.

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fckillerbee

oh so you don't have a cage in there either?

fckillerbee

exhaust? aluminum?

extra light weight wheels (could save you as much as 50-100lbs depending on what you have now and what you want.

turn glass into lexan

....you can always start cutting away the chassis turning it into a tube chassis...thats gonna be work..but a lot of weight. All depends on har far you want to take it.

fckillerbee

i'm sure there are 240's sub 2,000lbs....it just depends on how much you want to lose...some guys don't have an ass under their shell....

and would you consider going this far?

klits562

If you have power windows you could switch to manual. Same for the seat belts, only thing is i dont know how heavy all the components are so idk if its even worth the time, just a thought.

Also what someone mentioned above by reducing weight on anything that spins, flywheel, driveshaft, wheels.

I would definetly start with the hatch and rear bumper support.

Anything you can remove easily no matter the weight, will add up in the long run so keep that in mind too.

Sileighty_85

if your a baller

S13 Seibon OEM Style Carbon Fiber Doors [ DD8994NS240 ] - Enjuku Racing - Performance Parts and High Quality Fabrication

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s14freak93901

or origin doors. made from FPR for about half the price of carbon doors.

Matej

fckillerbee

^^^^ i was looking for those pics...but was too lazy to really search. there is a thread on here...lightest 240's...or some shit.

locoluna825

i just converted my manual doors to auto ones. To my surprice They werent that much heavier than the manual ones... But it would still help to just use manual windows. Is it legal to run a lexan front windshield?

Corbic

Track or Street?

You'll need at least a support bar for either. It will be scratched to hell in a week and is a stupid idea over all.

People are to eager to sacrofice what little safety their cars have to save a few pounds which in most cases will make no performance improvement. Rather, the car just becomes less "drivable" and everyone thinks that makes it more "Raw" or "performance" oriented.

Sound-deadening removal is a great example, in some cases we are talking about 10-15lbs... and now the car is super noisy/tinny sounding.

Godchsr

Tubed front end ftw... Not that expensive to have done professionally.

Nose weight loss equals more applied torque by allowing the front end to lift more easily.

Def

My car is not my DD, I don't care if it's a little more uncomfortable on the street at this point since I have solid EVERYTHING. The diff noise is the loudest thing in the car on the track to give an idea of how "not comfy" it is. I have no sunroof, manual doors.

The AC evap is out, it weighed ~6.5 lbs. The front bumper support I built was right around 6.5-7 lbs for the whole thing made out of aluminum. A little heavy, and I could probably make it again and get it down to about 4-5 lbs, but oh well, it's strong as hell(and held together with titanium bolts - budget baller style).

Is the rear hatch all that heavy? I currently have my wing mounted on there, and I even used about 1-1.5 lbs of aluminum stock to really strength the deck lid(it was flexing quite a bit. A FRP hatch would probably not stand up to the wing without SIGNIFICANT strengthening, and at that point, probably not too much lighter than stock. I can see a few lbs there, but I'd rather not be dropping hundreds of bucks for a few lbs at this point(I'd get an aluminum driveshaft if that was the case).

So anybody know how much the rear hatch glass weighs? Trying to get an idea of weight savings.

I'll keep the heater/HVAC stuff if it doesn't weigh too much, as it is nice having heat and defrost.

I'm not really going to cut away huge parts of the car to start saving 10 or 15 lbs. I drive the car to the track, need storage for that, and don't need to get completely crazy.

Not going to spend the money on CF/FPR doors either - at that point I'll just gut the stock doors(which I'm going to do slightly, not sure how much weight there is to be lost and keep at least some side protection).

My realistic goal is to get the car down to 2450 lbs with a ~10-15 lb heavier cool shirt setup than I have(currently 12-14 lbs, not enough ice capacity when it's 100 deg F out here).



This is what the car is like currently on street tires:

YouTube - 100 1011mp4

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S13 Hatch - Goes around tracks quickly
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KiLLeR2001

Could I go through the truck weigh stations with my car to see the weight? Or would I get in trouble for doing so?

Also, a '94 Honda Accord crashed into the back of my car at a low speed and all it did was bend my exhaust a little bit, his entire front end was squished like an accordion thanks to the rear bumper support, I'd keep it on.

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Def

Pic of the car this past weekend:

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S13 Hatch - Goes around tracks quickly
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drift213

cf doors OEM doors weight a sH!t load but if you crash your ass is gone

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singlecamslam

I hate when people take out their plastic interior and NOTHING else and say "its a drift car, needs to be light" those plastics weight less than 2 pounds and make your car look good inside. My Coupe weighed in at around 2500 or so, full interior minus the sound tar. Everything else stock with sr20.

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racepar1

A stock hatch, w/glass, w/o a wing, and w/o a wiper weighs in at 53.6 lbs according to the shipping scale across the street. I left it over there right now after weighing it because it was too damn heavy to carry back across the street by myself again. With a fiberglass hatch/lexan window you could probably cut that weight almost in half. Now on a coupe it's a different story. Coupe trunks are not very heavy...

Stiffening up the hatch with some foam or honeycomb for your wing should only add a couple pounds. You'll probably still end up dropping 20lbs off the hatch/glass even if you go nuts re-enforcing it...

There isn't really anything to remove from the doors unless you just want to completely hollow them out. I spent an hour staring at mine with the panels off trying to figure out where I could trim it off without hurting the door too much structurally. It's not worth it... Doors are heavy as hell though, probably about 60lbs each maybe even a little more. But the "fiberglass doors" thing goes back to the "trailered track car" thing. Not too realistic on a "street" car.

Def

I don't drive it much on the street, so I'm not too worried from that perspective. Besides, the height of 90% of the door impact beam is well below most car's bumpers now. I was staring at them now, and even my bumper is right around the bottom of them, so unless it's trying to stop a slammed Civic, I don't think they're going to do much. The average truck is well over the height of that bar. So I think I'm going to trim that up and weld in a piece of DOM tubing, or maybe aluminum stock bolted to the door. Should provide roughly the same level of protection at a much lower weight than the stupid stock stamped chunk of metal(that's too far down in the door).

I've even heard the JDM S13s have no impact beams in the doors, and I also have a roll bar right behind the seat that offers a bit more protection than a piece of stamped metal in the door.

You're right that other than the beam, there isn't too much weight worth losing in the doors. Maybe a few lbs here or there.


I'll look into the fiberglass hatch, but I just can't see the metal of the hatch being that heavy. Maybe I'm wrong, but it all looks fairly thin gauge. I'm thinking a lexan rear hatch window I make myself will get me most of the weight savings I'm really going to get back there, at a small fraction of the cost of a FRP hatch + lexan.

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S13 Hatch - Goes around tracks quickly
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Def

That stuff adds up. I thought it didn't matter that much until I put all that crap in a big box and weighed it. I think all the interior from the rear seats back was ~70-80 lbs. 4 lbs here, 6 lbs there - it all adds up when you take a lot of it out.


When comparing my weight to yours, don't forget mine has stuff that makes it work better as a track car like bigger brakes, an oil cooler, cool shirt setup, 50+ lb roll bar, big ass wing and splitter etc. Take all that out and I know I'm in the low-mid 2400's, and my car looks fairly "stock" on the inside.

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singlecamslam

I meant just the plastics, the A-pillar, c-pillar, i honestly dont have anything in the trunk, no spare, no carpet no jack. But i keep all the plastics there because it makes the inside look good and not have a naked car. My car now is probably heavier due to big braks, rb25, massive fans and radiator, welded all my control arms... etc. I'm sorry i'm just really anal about the interior of my car... I like it complete. Also no rear seat, put a little carpet over it. BAM.
I think the best look there is, is a full cage with FULL interior. My opinion thouhg..


something like this

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godrifttoday

Put your wilwood brake kit... Hehe...

kognition

I have a bare S14 chassis in my shop with roof cut, subframes removed and all suspension/ fuel tank/ engine gone. I can lift the thing up with very little strain.
It's being used to make my undertray mold for the Kognition track car. Which is pushing 2,100 lbs itself right now. Don't screw with the chassis as far as removing sections of it. It is worth more if you stitch weld it. But focus on roof (70lbs if removed), doors, replace glass all around with lexan. Replace any iron knuckles for aluminum. 2,000 lb's is crazy light. But don't sacrifice strength/stiffness for weight reduction. Most of the team time attack cars dominating right now in the states are about 2,500 lb's. The carbon roof replacement was the single most significant move i did to my car. You can easily fab up aluminum tube doorframes, and bolt up carbon/kevlar doorskins. I have molds for those. But i was like you, wanting to make it as light as possible. That was until i actually stripped this new shell down to nothing, and can pick it up like a sardine can. No, better to stitch weld it. If you cut out the back, from behind the rear shock towers like some have posted... you might be saving 20 lb's of metal. But not worth it to me. Better to have more downforce and a more rigid chassis.

fckillerbee

100 lbs is 9 horsepower...i'm sure all of us have heard this....and it all adds up.

so instead of removing shit....add power! haha.