for the guys who aren't interested in the price and hassel of a "racing" battery.. I would suggest heading over to walmart, or even a junkyard and finding a battery that would fit into a civic hatchback... i took my 1998 civic hatchback battery out and saved roughly 10-15 lbs (yes i weighted it but forgot the actual numbers) without compromising chagring or startups and for very cheap too... it fit without modification i just tightened the bolts down all the way .. hope this helps anybody

 

That's a good point. I know a lot of people who use Miata batteries because they're smaller and lighter but still work like a normal battery. I think the terminals are different of something but still, you save some room and weight which is nice.

 

Ok. Just pulled the all the A/C stuff, the wipers, wiper motors, front plastic, etc., and swapped back from cats to TP. Will get it back on the same scale when I'm down to 1/4 tank of gas. I also removed the "CF" engine cover, which weighed a whopping 1.19#. Woohoo!

 

I am going to try and have my car weighed on friday at the strip. I swapped back to a stock battery from the braille because I just don't drive the car enough and I was tired of having to charge it. I am hoping that the car will come in at 3070 with out the passenger seat. Still have some hopes to get the car down to 3000.

Scott, you must be pretty close to that weight (3000) now with the new losses.

 

I think you (and I) can get down to 3k as well.

I bet it's close, but likely just over. 3060 - cats + TP - AC stuff should put me about 3020. The scale is +/- 20#, so I could have been 3051 or 3069 before and it would read 3060. From there, I think I'm going to head into the doors, but will get a new weight before doing so. Hopefully this weekend or early next week.

 

Ok, I'm pleasantly surprised at the outcome after gutting ALL the AC stuff, the wipers, the wiper motors, all the plastic paneling under and around the hood, etc.

My next step is to work on the front portion of the interior, as it is completely intact still. I'm going to yank the plastic, the stereo, speakers, door plastic, etc.

 

Now I'm confused..........you lost 260 pounds from just removing the a/c and other little, misc things? Care to post up a few pics of the interior as it sits .

 

I sure will. I have all the parts out still, so will see where all the weight came from. I will post up pics tomorrow with a full description of what has been done since the last weigh in.

 

this page is full of win

 

Okay, let's state that the hp of a z is 287 and wait is 3250.

That means that the hp per lb is .088308

If you take off 50 pounds making the weight 3200.

The new hp per lb is .089688

Now if you multiply the new hp/lb by the original weight it equals

291.48 hp

Meaning that dropping 50 pounds was equivalent to adding 4.48 bhp or roughly 4.08 whp.

Also concluding every 10 pounds you drop gives the equivalent to 1.02 whp.

It adds up.

 

It certainly does add up, although the math in your last step is slightly off.

50# equiv to 4.5hp --> ~4rwhp check
10# equiv to .9hp --> .7rwhp

So a car that loses 300#, if the relationship is linear, may perform like the stock weight car if it had 314hp from the factory. Equally as important -to me at least - is the fact that it'll take less braking to slow down a car 300# lighter, and will have more grip since the lateral forces during turning will be considerably less. Ok, I owe you guys some pictures.

 

Ok, here are all the parts that were yanked out last week while the engine was out. For anyone just joining the latter part of this thread, my car has gone through a series of weight reductions since I bought it this time last year. On this same scale, I weighed it when I bought it and it was 3180#. After gutting the rear, it was 3120#. I got a set of lightweight wheels, Bride seat, and lightweight Braille battery, which netted down to 3060. Pics on the scale are here: https://my350z.com/forum/7344432-post643.html

Since then, I yanked the NISMO exhaust and installed the Motordyne single side exhaust. I believe that was good for about 30# of reduction. While the motor was out last week, all this stuff was removed and the car weighed 2960#.



A/C, 16.4#:


A/C bolts, and other attachments, 31.4-16.4 = 15.0#:



Stock cats, 26.4#, replaced with test pipes of unknown weight:



Windshield wipers, motor, and trim: 35.0 - 26.4 = 8.6#:



A/C condenser and lines were ~ 4#, IIRC:



NISMO headers were replaced with stockers, which I believe were a little lighter, 15.2#:



Lots of plastic, 12.0#:





The CF engine cover was 1#.

EDIT: Fluids from A/C and windshield washer reservoir, etc., ~15#.

All total was about 115# from the front plus ~30# from the exhaust, and I did put the stock headers and test pipes back on in their place, which I estimate to be about 25-30# total, so a net of about 120#.

As requested, this is how the car sits now:

 

Damn.......I don't know how your car could only weigh 2800. Perhaps it wasn't calibrated correctly. I would think your car weighs maybe......80 pounds less than mine (when I have the braille battery in) and my car weighed 3090 last time with the pass seat in(I would guess 3040 w/o (leather/heated/power)).

 

thanks for the info!alot of people disregard the importance of reducing weight!lol

 

Car weighs 2960# as it sits, and 1340# RR and 1640# front (scales are +/- 20#, hence why the RR + FR = 2980#). That puts it at 45% rear, or about what it is stock. I'll get it on "real" 4-wheel scales soon.

 

I really hate it that I need A/C over here in Sacramento. I don't think I can drive back from Thill in the summer w/o A/C. The windshield wipers are a possibility, but maybe I'll start with taking out the passenger side one first, and also see how well rainX works this Winter. It looks like the days of chasing each other around the track may be over cause you've taken out so much weight. The only thing I got going for me is that I'm pretty light (130 lbs), but you're pretty skinny too Scott.

Daveh has his E92 M3, so I won't be keeping up with him either. Mistico has ***** the size of bowling ***** along with mad driving skills, so I need to find new friends (that are slower) :-)

Nevertheless, I can't wait to see the beast at the track next season; when I come back from my hiatus.

 

I updated my posts after weighing the car again tonight on the same scale. Oddly, the only weird thing was that there was an attendant there the other day when I weighed it at 2800#. That's the only time I've ever seen an attendant, so may be he was screwing with me with the tare weight or something. The weight tonight, 2960#, agrees with what I took out and weighed, and is about 55% front weight now.

 

I spent some time this weekend pulling what I could from the door, the carpet, the center console, all the kick panels, and the rear speakers. I also swapped from my BRIDE seat, which weighed 42.4# and put the stock seat back in, which weighs 35.6#, saving 6.8#. The passenger seat weighed 36.4#.

The door skins and speakers for both sides weighed 17.4#
The carpet weighed 9.4#
The center console, rear speakers, and kickpanels weighed 9.6#

Total weight removed: 43.2#. Since the car weighed 2960# a few nights ago, I figured it would come in at 2920#. I even put another gallon of gas in the car to keep it consistent since I was using some gas driving back-and-forth to the weigh station.

There is not much more to take out - the rest of the stereo and a few other odds and ends. MAYbe 20# more. The roll bar is about 70# with all the hardware, so it's likely the car will weigh just under 3k with 1/2 tank of gas for road racing.

Z on the scale:


A bunch of boxes of all the stripped parts, totaling about 260#:



and the result before putting the roll bar in:

 

two things:

with your lightened rear, and front bumper adding DF, aren't you concerned with rear tire wear?

running after lower weight isn't always the most important... the stock seat sucks for keeping you in place and I would assume (though I don't know) that the Bride is substantially stiffer and more gripping.

a few pounds isn't worth the trade off if that is the case.

but good results. how is your corner balancing? I only saw f/r splits not l/r

 

I just located a set of individual scales, so will get that data hopefully next week. I have 60# of roll bar to add in to make up for the gutted rear, then will dial in the suspension settings; still lots to go but coming along. I'll likely get a wing for rear DF, but haven't seen anything OTS that has been proven that makes sense on the wallet at this point.

The Bride seat was too wide for my frame, and the stockers should hold me in well with the harnesses, but certainly point taken. I'm gently looking for a fixed-back set of race seats without spending a lot of $ on them. This is a track car on a budget. As always, thanks for your inputs.