DRE350

I am contemplating making my Z an almost dedicated track car. Still need to drive it places sometimes but it's main use would be the track. So I would like to make the car as light as possible without spending ridicilous amounts of money. So the plan is to:

- Remove air conditioning, stereo, internal trim
- Replace OEM seats with lightweight seats

Any other ideas? I'm not willing to change body panels to lightweight ones at this stage.

How much weight can I realistically expect to lose?

mr. sparco

iTrader: (13)

You need to consult with Rickdogg on this forum. lol

deviljon

iTrader: (50)

the infamous rickdogg diet...

Zendem

iTrader: (2)

hhmm take out your spare...hope this helps












lol

zz350zz

If you're not willing to lose the stock body panels then forget the weight loss diet....it just won't be worth it and will be a waste of looks, air conditioning, and time

Kolia

iTrader: (2)

Get rid of all the interior garnishs, take the carpet out too.

Empty the engine bay too.

MoodDude

Before you do anything, or take advice from anyone, first - decided what class you want to run you car in, then read the rules and talk to the people who work for the organization you race your car in for what you can and cannot do. Since, you really don't want to do something to the car and not be allowed to track the car or move your car into a upper class. And doing lightening to the car will defiinitely move your class.

Also, if you want to drive your car on the street, make sure what ever you do, still makes it street legal.

One last piece of advice, coilovers will be a great investiment if you start lightening the car, so that you can dail in the cross wieghts after you have removed the weight!

Good Luck - and let us know what you do to the car.

merlot350Z

iTrader: (3)

We exchanged a leather seat for a cloth seat and found that we only saved 8 pounds. We run our car in SCCA T-2 class and you cant do much in the way of modifications. Most trim has to remain but you can take out AC units, radios, and replace the stock rims which are very heavy. We put on a set of Enkei RPF-1 10 x 18 which weights 18.6 pounds.

StaticCling

iTrader: (1)

My thoughts were in alignment with yours. However, I still can't drag myself to remove the stereo or A/C yet. I have removed some of the interior trim, removed the passenger seat, put in a race seat for the driver. I have also contimplated adding a cage, but can't figure out what rules to adhere to for the cage regulations. Plus, removing the windows makes the car pretty difficult to use except at the track. Right now I just have a harness bar.

For now, I still have a lot of work to make myself a better driver. The car is more than adequate for my skill level.

350Zteve

iTrader: (6)

I installed a Braille battery last week. It was 21lbs lighter than the stock one.

A tilton clutch&Flywheel will save you another 30+lbs.

ALong

iTrader: (12)

You might think twice about removing the A/C. Without the A/C the inside of the car gets very hot, also the weight savings in minimal, Nissan did a very good job of making a lightweight A/C system, it only weights about 35 pounds.

dmoffitt

iTrader: (4)

unless you are competitively racing for money who cares. I took out a lot of crap in my car because I wanted a cage, because I take roll-over safety VERY seriously after surviving an incident years ago in a 951. was it the best choice? maybe, maybe not... but my motivation was clearly NOT weight loss... if I wanted to build a car to race wheel-to-wheel competitively I'd buy a stock 911 (older, 80s) and blueprint / built it to Stock class, not the Z - as much as I love it, it's going to be a great car for learning but will never compete in my opinion, it's just soooo heavy to begin with.

Nic@CiNcity

iTrader: (93)

nevermind

plumpzz

iTrader: (10)

Try to loose weigth from the top down. In other words, loosing 20 lbs from the top of the car is better than loosing 40 lbs from the bottom (i.e. exhaust). Also, loosing weight on the ends of the car (hatch or bumpers area) is also a lot better than loosing a little weight in the center of the car. If u don't drive your car on the street you can loose the washer fluid and reseviour (or convert to meth). You can switch out to lighter seats. You can get lexan glass (which would give you a huge weight loss), flywheel/clutch, lighter tires, 17' forged or hallow cast rims.. Theres a lot you can do. Little by little you'd never notice a difference, but driving a 2800lb car vs a 3300 car back to back you'd feel it. Just some simple physics for ya.

PS: a 2400 lb car w/ 400hp is scary! (Friend is into rebuilding old light cars _