Rickdogg

iTrader: (234)

Give Braille a call and see if they have a suggestion.

350Zenophile

iTrader: (20)

At 8:30 at night? I'll let you answer your own post:
For whoever is interested...I ended up just taking the battery tray out and drilling a new hole for the rear J-hook.


Tirerack seemed to have the best price since they include the braille bracket. In nice and snug now.

13.2lb difference in battery weights with no need for a tender:

finalforce

iTrader: (68)

This is a great thread. I'm keeping track of my weight savings now and so far I've cut 78lbs. of fat on my car I'm actually weighing each part OEM and aftermarket to get an accurate reading. I still need to weigh a few more parts I replaced so hopefully I get close to cutting 100lbs......maybe more!

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

Nice job, one small issue, the plastic is only so strong, and any sort of frontal impact and you have a potential projectile. I'll snap a few pics of what I did, but basically I used the front j bolt to pull down on the battery and the rear (after a little bending) to push down on the battery. I did spend about $3.00 at autozone buying shorter j bolts. I'll try to snap a pic at liunch for you.

350Zenophile

iTrader: (20)

That's a good point and a scary thought...but I did use the factory metal support hoop for the front J-hook and the battery is wedged up against the front lip of the tray so I think I'll be OK. I'd still like to see your install though.

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

No problem, I'll snap a pic at lunch, it is no tpretty but my underhood is really bare

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

Here is what I did. basically it is the stock top brace with autozone j bolts. The front one is cut shorter and the rear one is rebent and shortened. Told you my underhood is bare.

rbfd

iTrader: (18)

Do you have a picture of your full underhood area? I am just curious as to what you were able to remove and if/how you were able to keep things in place.

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

I'll snap one tomorrow and post it for you. There really isn't a lot under the hood you can shed:
AC System
Heater core
Lightweight battery
Windshield washer reservoir
Windshield wipers
Pullies
Flywheel/clutch
Strut brace
I'll pulled a few other nick nacks as well.

spf4000

There's way more weight that can be shed off the back, and most of the guys who gut their Zs end up with heavily front weight biased cars. I'm not sure what they are doing with their suspension and tire setups to accomodate for that, but back when I had my Z, I noticed that the car felt better on the track with the spare in the back. The rear tended to get too light without the spare and low gas.

specialized5223

iTrader: (38)

My roadster is gutted, bride buckets stripped trunk, top removed, all motors removed, door windows removed, and it is very front weight biased. the hood is already very light. I'm relocating the battery to the rear. washer resevoir and pumps and lines have been removed, all underhood plastics have been removed, front impact beam gone, front bumper and front fenders are off (until painted) besides CF front fenders and CF doors, I'm running out of ideas to balance it a bit better. I can think of more ways (with $$$) to lighten the rear but i'll be damned if i know what to do to even the whole thing out. once i get my cage in that will help. a little... also high flow cats and a single exhaust.

but aside, C/F front fenders only save 12 pounds. which is good but not nearly enough to even help the balance.

350Zenophile

iTrader: (20)

+1000. I leave the spare and tools in for balance and traction.

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

I'm old fashioned, I'm used to beig loose in the rear and throttle steering a car. IMO looser is faster if yo can drive it. If the car is pushing or nose heavy then use the lightened rear end to turn the car, do a little left foot braking to unload the rear end and modulate the throttle to get it to rotate. Next time I get to RRR I'l lweigh the car and see what the balance is like,but honestly mine ain't that bad.

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

hre are a few iphone pics

spf4000

With a front biased car, generally you're going to be slower than a balanced car with similar power and weight.

Like you said, an oversteer biased car will like to come around, but with a heavily front biased car, this rule doesn't apply when it counts. You're going to be understeering into the turn, instead of being able to use the weight in the rear to rotate the car.

Then, once you pass the apex and try to accelerate, your rear is going to step out on you as you have very little weight over it. Instead of maximizing your acceleration out of the corner, you're having to counter steer and feather the throttle to bring the rear under control.

A car that has under/over tendencies tends to be hard to drive consistently fast.

A balanced car will be able to do the opposite, where the driver will be able to trail brake into the turn and use the weight in the rear to rotate the car. Because he's able to have better turn-in, he'll be able to setup a line better for acceleration. Then, with the more weight over his rear tires, he'll have plenty of grip for accelerating out of the corner.

Obviously, I'm generalizing a lot, but having more weight over the rear tires in a rwd car generally allows for more grip out of the corners.

zman600

iTrader: (4)

im all about weight reduction and have followed this thread since i joined a couple months back. we covered alot on this thread(escpeially on batteries recently) but what about aftermarket seats.
who has them?
what do yall like about them?
dimentions that fit?
weight difference?
FITMENT?
best brands?
prices u paided?
carbon fiber on seats is it worth it?
ETC....
lets here it.

(im have some on the way soon so i'll comment when i get them)

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

I'm cheap so I didn't put a lot of money into seats, I have a Sparco Sprint for the drivers side and a Cobra knock off (wide) on the passengers seat, there are a couple of pounds difference, but not many. I also didn't opt for the CF seats due to students getting in and out of the car, another reason I went with wide seat on the right side. I do sit a lot lower which helps the center of gravity though.

scotts300

iTrader: (46)

My BRIDE seat is a few pounds lighter than the stock seat - not by much. The stock non-electric seats are quite light. I actually put two 350Z seats into my 300ZXTT to save a LOT of weight, but the weight savings are more negligible with the non-powered seat replacement on our 350Zs. I like my BRIDE seat mostly because it has the same seat pattern as the stock seat, and has taller bolsters to hold me in during hard cornering.

Lightning Guy

iTrader: (8)

Thats funny, I put my stock seats in my Colorado, those truck seats weren't too comfy.

specialized5223

iTrader: (38)

I have heated power mesh roadster seats and they were ****ing heavy. my bride's are fixed buckets that weight maybe 8 pounds each. the weight savings between my brides and the same model in CF is not enough to justify their cost.