With so many mods available to make more HP and torque, it seems that there's not one good method (that's guaranteed) to make our car go faster.

What if we reduced weight without making it into a dragster or shell ..keeping the luxuries ie. AC, PW, Leather seats etc. and swapping lighter (smaller) wheels, exhaust, intake pipes, etc.

How much weight could we lose and can live with without compromising the car?

I want to see your opinions.

 

Good luck getting big gains on this car without loosing those things. There isnt much to the car. Its all the comfort items in this car that make the weight.

 

Tobydog, sounds like you're describing the Track model. :-)

 

the car weighs 3200 pounds, theres got to be something...

 

I think quite a bit of the weight is in the frame. It's not like there are any lead bars hanging around that you can just take out to save weight.

If you really want to do this, then probably the best place to start is to go to lightweight 17" wheels with 225's in front and 245's back.

Next would be a Ti exhaust. Then maybe two racing seats. That front engine cover probably weighs about 0.3lbs. The floormats are surely slowing us down as well.

Get rid of spare and jack and buy one of those cans of sealant or a AAA membership.

After that I think your starting to get into the area of sacrifice.

Get rid of stereo and speakers. Drive naked (may be more of a sacrifice for your passenger). Get rid of power windows. Change rear glass to plastic. Remove counterweight on rear hatch. Get rid of interior (along with squeaks and rattles). Blah, blah, blah.

I think Nissan has already pulled out the weight where it was easy. That's why most people focus on adding power. It's quite a bit easier than removing weight.

-D'oh!

 

dwnshift,s right, theres not much to take out that weighs a lot.

The biggest single weight reduction we got on our race car was
replacing the stock wheels with lightweight Enkie race wheels.

C-West & Amuse in Japan make dry carbon trunk lids & doors but you,d need to win the lottery to pay for them

 

edit: darn. some people beat me to some of the stuff i was sayin while i was typin. oh well, too lazy to delete it.

as for gains, i heard that for every 100lbs you reduce from the car you gain about .10 of a second ET on the 1/4mile. it's a pretty sketchy rule though. for lighter cars i'm pretty sure its a little more than .10 of a second. For daily driving, there isnt much yet for this car that would reduce weight other than a good set of rims. of course, the hood can be replaced with carbon fiber. i'm not sure about the specs of the Fairlady Z but some JDM parts are lighter than USDM parts. for example, Honda made lighter control arms (around 3lbs/each) and sway bars for the Japanese Integra type R. Again, Im not sure if it's the same case with Nissan. and there are also lighter aftermarket AC compressors out there but i dunno how reliable those are. Oh, some people who take their daily drivers to the track remove carpeting (i'd say around 10-20lbs) and spare tire (since it's a full size, i guess 30-40lbs). good luck when you get a flat though.

 

Yeah your talking to a guy that spent a week completly striping the car and weighing everything I took out before it went to get the cage installed.
We are at 2850 with no driver and no gas and 17" wheels

 

It's obvious Nissan spent a little bit of effort on it since the car comes stock with an aluminum hood and carbon-fiber driveshaft.

But yeah these guys seem have covered everything additional.

 

how much does the air conditioner weigh? after i remove it, can i still have vented air into the car?

 

Do these for simple weight loss:

1--- exchange battery for Drycell (PC680, etc) or other light battery. -20lbs

2--- remove spare and jack. - 40 lbs


3--- light rims (track model, etc). -32 lbs over stock 18``s


4--- light flywheel (UR, etc) -15 lbs over stocker.

Total reduction = 110ish lbs = MY car!

Note, # 3 is pricey, and #4 is easy IF you already have a new tranny coming!

Jack

 

I had this down some time ago...and to keep the luxuries . Perhaps like this:
- mats, including rear (7lbs)
- engine cover (1lb)
- strut bar (7lbs) *sacrifice (slight)
- spare & jack (36lbs) *sacrifice (hm, on long trips only, tho)
- wheels & tires (20-35lbs)
- seats (20-45lbs) *possible sacrifice of comfort (no recline, no adjust in extreme bucket seat cases )
- battery (20lbs) *possible sacrifice if aftermarket stereo (20min max durability when engine off, 600watt max)
- clutch & flywheel (10-29lbs) *possible sacrifice in driveability (Tilton)
- exhaust: cats (12lbs) *RT cats, measured
- exhaust: cat-back (10-40lbs) *Borla 10lbs, Ti single 40lbs (sacrifice noise and looks)
- headers (10lbs?)
Total: 153-242lbs

There also reductions in weight when switching to aftermarket brakes and rotors. Also, a lot of aftermarket engine parts may be lighter.

That would make enthusiast drop below 3000lbs. Expect to pay a hefty sum for some of those parts, tho.

Cheers.

 

Spare/Jack mats made I swear .1 off my time at the track. I went 13.7, 13.8 13.8, 13.8, 13.6

The last time, I removed the spare jack and mat because my buddy showed up and I finally had somewhere to put the stufff

 

Here's my weight reduction:
1) changed to Odyssey battery: -21lbs
2) spare and tools delete: -45lb
3) changed to high flow cats and y-pipe: -20lbs

So total weight loss is 86lbs thus far, quite significant.

Another thing to think about is to change the tires. Changing from OEM tire to something light (like Continental Contisport) will lose at least 20lbs. Not to mention you'll lose very significant rotational mass.

Baron

 

Very good point about the stock tires. I hear that the potenzas are a very heavy tire. My track 18x8.5 wheel and tire weighed in at 52 pounds, kinda heavy for a 18.5 pound wheel.

 

the heavier frame's advantages are:

better crash ratings
less body flex
strong enough to handle some seriously high HP

 

Hmm, if you want a light weight car. See mine. I've got a cardomain page as my webpage. The car weighs 3000 lbs with 5 gallons of gas in it.