dczoner

iTrader: (1)

Hey all,

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out where you can drop some weight off the Z without the typical "strip prep" of a race car. The obvious :

1) Don't take a passenger
2) Quit eating 6 dollar burgers and drinking beer
3) Empty out floor of spare change (after a few months that can mean a few ounces!)

But no, seriously, where is the weight coming from, and where can it be reasonably shed and/or kept at current quality. I don't want much more road noise, or to be left without an airbag or something. . .

I was thinking maybe changing out the seats could mean reducing weight, hell, it is a 2 seater (set it & forget it), but damn I like those seats.

Any suggestions or current experiments in action?

cabalisticfire

Weight saving possibilities

wheels- volks, etc
tires- toyo proxies ts1
seats- sparco, etc
remove spare tire, replace with AAA and fix a flat
hood (minimal savings since stock is aluminum
carbon fibre body work, fenders etc
exhaust
brakes (likely minimal savings)

MustGoFastR

iTrader: (13)

Do NOT use Fix-A-Flat if you have the tire pressure monitors!

Vlad

replace battery with lighter one

aluminium or cf rear hatch

cabalisticfire

Hmm, hadn't crossed my mind but it sounds reasonable that fix-a-flat and pressure monitors don't mix.

Oh well, guess you'll just have to wait on the side of the road then :-)

ares

iTrader: (2)

youd forgo your rear defroster, but plexiglass windows would help, and carbon fiber panels other than hood would get good gains(loss?)

seats could drop some weight, remove mats could drop 5-10lbs i bet, thats all that comes to mind without sacrificing drivability.

Chebosto

iTrader: (43)

take out your A/C unit.
take out your spare.
CF front fenders, CF doors. the list goes on. but then you get to the question of... safety. and practicality..
you'd get more of a weight savings if you went on a diet, than to start ripping out random parts.


i think i recall an old SCC article on weight reduction on a civic Si.. they took out over 50 pounds in sound deadening material off the frame (its sprayed on black goo stuff)

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

Good luck..........
The real wieght to this car is everything that makes it a street car.....stereo, speakers, carpet, ect.
CF front fenders will make you faster because your wallet has less weight in it. the stock fenders weight practically nothing.......
If you wanna save wieght in this car you gotta loose the 42 pounds of plastic in the interior and all the stereo, airbags stuff.......
The best gains are loosing the spare escp on the track model because its a big steel wheels to clear the front brakes..

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

forgot to say that the doors where another arena of big weight reductions we got. The glass window, elec motors, all the wiring, door panels, crash bar and another sound deadning panel inside the door.

Ohio350z

You can spend a lot of money getting carbon fiber this or that and stripping out your car of you interior and stereo. Why not just save the cash and put it towards a twin turbo set up. With an extra 100-200 hp you can you can keep eating at KFC and take your fat friend Fred along with you for a ride and you will be able to still dust 99% of cars on the road. How many 911s or other exotic cars do you see driving around town with no interiors? More HP is the key!!!!

Vincey2kr1

The hatch weighs alot, someone needs to come out with an aluminum one. From what i understand it helps for nothing for structural integerity anyhow since its clearly a hatchback. When I installed my rear spoiler I had to remove the struts and hold the hatch up, man do those struts have to work. I'm guessing it weighs over 100lbs+ easily.

Mr B

iTrader: (2)

Hey dwnshift, how much does your race prepped 350z weigh anyway?

Thunderbolt

one of the things I have learned about racing is sometimes adding weight can be to your advantage. removing weight from the rear of this car will make it nose heavy and it will push harder in a turn. Try to remove as much unneeded stuff from the middle of this car would be your best bet. Get rid of sound deading material. You can do this by placing dry ice on it and it will crack right off. ever wonder why you hear all the rocks hit the inner fender wells? very little sound deading. yes the radio, big *** speakers and a/c need to go. remove the heater core. get rid of the electric window motors and side air bags, in fact get rid of the front air bags too! leather seats? get cloth instead. all of the frills you add to impress your friends make the car weigh more. Or you can just enjoy the ride as it is

MDoMe7

just curious...what is the Z's current weight distribution?

raceboy

How about my new 12lb Dynabatt in the nose instead of the 42lb stocker!!

oz350

Reminds me of a bloke I know in Australia, he is always chasing performance, and wanted to know how to reduce the weight of the car and he weighs about 230-240lbs, I reckon if he went on a diet he would gain 2-3 tenths. Sometimes the answer is right there in the mirror.

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

Our car weighs about 2800 lbs. without driver no gas.

nokidz

FYI
Had my stock touring 6MT model weighed at an auto x event recently. The scale identified the weight on each individual wheel to determine distribution. Driver's front 874 lbs, passenger front 902 lbs, drivers rear 765 lbs, passenger rear 750 lbs, total 3290 lbs. The car had 2/3 tank of gas. I was informed that side to side weights within 25 lbs were acceptable.

dczoner

iTrader: (1)

Here's my thing - head to head vs. a Honda S2000, the Z registers 400lbs more than the S2K, hence the reason many consider the Honda to be better around mountain roads, etc. Like VQRacer said, "flickable"...

Now I'm not trying to compare our 287HP 6pack to a 240HP 4 banger, but I would like to see if there's a way to drop non-essentials or replacements in order to make the car more maneuverable up mtn roads. . . I like the idea of the rear hatch, I can believe that things weighs a lot. I wonder if there's something under that sheet metal that could be taken advantage of, like changing out the sound deadening, etc.

What about upcoming exhaust systems, any of them gonna drop some weight (maybe 5-10lbs?)? I mean, if you do mods to your car, eventually enough weight concious mods could add up to a considerable jenny craig program. . .

Thanks for all the input thus far! And I would love to know the curb of that fully race prepped ride, cause that car would be down to the bare essentials.

Driven

No one has mentioned the useless 2lb weight bolted inside the plastic to the rear hatch! What an oversight! You remove that much weight and it will be the equivalent of adding 50hp I'll bet!!!