Mr B

iTrader: (2)

Again, stock hood is 24lbs. My CF hood weighs 14lbs and the hood pins weigh at most, half a pound.

MR-LIGHTWEIGHT

How about CF strut braces? Are they much lighter than stock strut braces? They don't look as strong as metal ones though.

Many ppl have 19" Volk Racing wheels. Are these lighter than 18inch factory rays wheels?

Vlad

Exactly my thoughts too. Weight shavings are important, but my safety is more important.

Although getting rid of motors and changing mirrors to cf can be significant change. I have a Zs side mirror as a souvenir on my table and that piece feels like 4 lbs at least.

Vlad

How do I empty it? Is there a drain bolt somewhere? I'd hate just wash my window for half an hour

Vlad

I have one. Throw away rear speakers. They are so shitty anyway and a good tuned stereo system should have only two speakers, left and right. This way system can trick your brain into reality of sound. More than two speakers - just added noise to sell the car to consumers who like things like "12 speakers blose system". In the mind of average consumers more is better, period.

I have my rear speakers switched off and whould actually get rid of them but people saying they are light anyway... and it can be difficult to explain if I'll want to sell the car (to upgrade to TT 2006 Z)

UsafaRice

Get a piece of tubing that's like 6 ft long and a container for the stuff. Put the container on the ground so that it is lower than the level of the reservoir. Then suck the fluid through the tube and stick the tube in the bucket as it starts to flow. It's just siphoning.

Vlad

So that's $500 to save 10 lbs. $50/pound. expensive ratio. Not everybody can afford. I like $4/pound much much better! I just paid $80 to save 20+ pound with dry-cell battery.

Vlad

And in case somebody didn't see it already here is my idea of a cf hutch. I would imagine this will save weight big time. And all of it up high, so it'll lower center of gravity significantly too. -50 lbs? More? If it'll cost a 1000, than it'll be $20/pound. Not that bad...

I JUST DON'T GET IT why didn't somebody produce it. There are dozens of hood models to save 5 - 10 lbs... and people buying those... Why wouldn't somebody sell us 50+ weight shaving?

First one is cf with twice less glass than we currently have

Vlad

Second one is cf with 3 to 4 times less glass than we currently have. Luvers are optional. Actually I don't like them, but I lost the copy without them... Both hatches suppose to give you exactly the same rear view and trunk space as stock.

UsafaRice

Someone has made it, but it's just really expensive.

http://www.varis.co.jp/e%2Cz33a1.html

Scroll down there and look. It saves 28 lb for ~$2,000. That's about 60$/lb. The reason people don't make them is that most people don't really care to save weight. An easier way would have been to buy and s2000 and then up the power on it instead of buying a powerful car and lowering the weight...

I'll eventually be getting this hatch, just not in the immediate future. I also need to research lexan more.

Vlad

It says
LIGHT WEIGHT REAR TRUNK GATE
Normal 22.0kg-> full carbon 9.0kg / * Pure rear glass use is possible.?@* Pure damper use is possible.

I'm not sure What do they mean by "gate"... Also I'm pretty sure the stock hutch is more than 22kg. Or they didn't iclude glass and wiper in that weight. It will add anothe 10-15kg... so it's 35 kg then... 77 lbs stock.

Now, take 9kg cf pantera style hutch and add 1/3 of original glass surface and no wiper. 12 kg. 26 lbs. 50lbs saving.

I don't want lexan since it's my daily driver too and I want it to look nice.

On the lowest picture I'm 100% sure it shows stock hutch internals... all the enforcements and structure are stock on that picture... so I'm not sure what those weights mean... Looks like just another overlay cf rice mod for insane price. All the rest of the stuff on that page is for looks only so

Vlad

UPS just delivered my battery. 11.4 pounds. My coworkers laughed at me after seeing how small and light it is. They think I'll be putting battery kids toys into my car.

MR-LIGHTWEIGHT

Is Nissan releasing a factory 350z TT in 2006? Or just rumors?

UsafaRice

Trunk gate is how Japanese people talk about the hatch.

You can get one with just overlays and all you're doing is paying for the look. The one that costs 220,000 yen is fully made out of carbon fiber. It has the attachment points for the stock stuff, but is a layer of fiber on the outside and another on the inside. There's no way that it is including glass in that weight as the part at the bottom says you can still use the stock glass, wiper, and struts (well at least the page in Japanese does).

And while some of the stuff on the page is for show, their hood is the lightest one I could find from the Japanese manufacturers.

Your pantera idea is cool, but I definitely want to keep the stock look. Also, getting someone to start a production line for that piece is going to cost lots of $$$. The cheapest way for you to do it is just to make a custom one for yourself. However, you're not going to get the fiber weave to lay as nicely or be as stong at someone that's been doing it professionally for years.

About lexan windows. We use lexan on the airplanes we fly here at the academy and you can get stuff that doesn't scratch up if you take care of it. You'd lose the rear defroster, but there are treatments for plastics to keep them from frosting as well. I wouldn't want to use a wiper on it either so that would have to go. I also wouldn't replace the side windows because they'd get all scratched by going up and down in their tracks.

UsafaRice

We won't know for certain until we see a real press release, so it's still rumors for now. Nissan probably doesn't even know for sure. The problem with a TT is that it adds several thousand dollars more to the price. And if they were to add that to the track model or something, you're now looking at a close to $40,000 Japanese sports car. This happened in the 90s.

I think Nissan is going to stay where they are on this car. Since there isn't a production TT VQ35 in Japan yet, there isn't going to be one here for a while at best. Right now, the 350Z is a great deal for performance compared to Boxsters or M3s and such, but people might not be ready to pay $40K for a Nissan when they can get a more comfortable, more luxurious car for the price.

As much as I love my Z, there's no way I could squeeze a wife AND kid(s) in it!

Vlad

That's my suggestion to Nissan! I seriously hope they'll give us an option to go on par with M3 and Corvettes

Zpeed Freak

Trying to stay on topic.....

If you start ditching stereo equipment to save weight for racing, the logical thing to do would be to ditch the entire system. A radio is useless in a race. If you are trying to free up weight but don't want to get rid of the stereo for daily driving, then your idea is a good one... two high quality midranges would be a great improvement over all of the stock speakers combined.... BUT a two speaker setup is not audio perfection like you suggest. More speakers = better sound = more weight. People with high quality sound systems in their rides have all bases covered. Sub's tweets and midranges... no single pair would do the job....

Just some clarification.. hope u don't mind....

Vlad

I know, but I don't care for cf look anyway. Not that I'd be able to produce one anyway... I need a mold, and I don't want to risk my only hatch to make a mold... cf in the picture is just for the purpose of highlighting the part. I'd paint it. I need to photoshop one in stock color...

They produce it for $$$$ anyway. Why don't they do it my way too? Also it won't stand out that much. From sides it won't be noticable at all, from rear picture will be similar to stock... Only from the rear quaters it'll be noticable difference.

jng1226

You've already got several options to go against M3's, Corvettes, etc.:

Vortech, ATI, PE, Greddy and several more coming. By 2006 you will probably be out of factory warranty (or close to it). Instead of taking the depreciation hit trading your "old" Z in on the latest greatest, take the money that you would put into the new car (or less) and put it into a proven FI solution.

Vortechs and Greddy TTs are regularly putting out 350-380 rwhp, more if you do intake and exhaust mods. I doubt that whatever the factory FI VQ35 Nissan puts out eventually, the 1st Gen won't do that for less than $45K.

Vlad

I meant that sound should be coming from two points in space. Those points of course can/shell have tweets and midranges.

If it was a pure track car everything would be so simple... But what I need is a street/race car. So only mods that daily driver can live without is "allowed". To ged rid of all stereo system and a/c etc will bring a lot of discomfort to daily drive.