I stopped by the local dump and got on one of the scales. The car had about 1/6th of a tank of gas. The result: 2,540 lbs. I was pretty pleased, since the car weighs 2,628 lbs stock. That means I’ve reduced almost 100 lbs through incredibly easy stuff, none of which compromise everyday driveability. The car is now lighter than a stock RS, and again, driveability has not been compromised. I weigh about 170 lbs, so with me in the car it only weighs about 2,700 lbs. Here is the list of stuff I’ve done to reduce weight:
Gutted hatch (spare tire/jack/tools/etc)
Removed all floor mats
Removed rear wiper
No front plate
I also have i/h/e, all of which are lighter than their stock counterparts, especially the header. Moral of the story: weight reduction is simple, free, and effective.
Yes, the first 100 pounds is easy to find it’s when you get to the next 150 pounds that it gets interesting. My GSR weighed in just under 2400 pounds with air and PS six months ago. I should have lost another 50 pounds since then and in a few weeks I will loose another 35 yet still have air, PS, electric windows, mirrors sunroof, radio and a metal hood.
Under 2,400 is pretty damn good. How do you do it? Would you mind listing all your weight-saving mods/techniques? For those people like me on a low budget, weight reduction is about all we can do.
Wow… i woder if you are going to share your weight saving secrets… if not, I’ll find a way anyways.
Would be interesting to hear it though.
1993 RSp/s is the only option… full interior, all 4 speakers and stereo still in place, spare tire still there… 2360lbs.
And I did not even BEGIN to get creative yet… never took a drill or any cutting apparatus to anything in the vehicle.
Want/wish for 2200lbs next summer… comfort might take a backseat in this goal.
Sorry, I would but it would take me all night to write them up. Just take a good look at your car for all the extraneous pieces of metal that serve no purpose for you or the function they were designed to perform. Start there, trim bolts, shave brackets, change materials, remove parts, build parts… it all adds up. It has taken a long time to prep my car, take your time and little by little you will hear about things to do to lighten your car. You could start with your rear tow hooks. Do you really need three in the rear?
we had a reallllllllllly good post weight saving a while back…not sure if it has been deleted, but that would definately be a great [SIZE=5]ARCHIVETHIS[/SIZE] thread !!!
Marc is definitely the weight saving man.
anywayz, like he said, just go through your car and remove any excess stuff; for instance, in your engine bay, where your intake is, in front of the passenger stock shock tower, there is a big ass metal bracket that holds some wire harnesses; pull that off; you’ll be surprised how much that metal weights for what it is.
on top of the beautiful lightness of the stock RS (No AC, no power windows, no sunroof), here is what I did:
shaved antenna and motor
shaved rear wiper and motor
JDM headlights
Neuspeed Header
PS pump and reservoir removed
Shifter linkage counterweight cut off
heat shields removed
rear tow hooks removed, contemplating whether to take the front ones off
various brackets removed
stock washer fluid reservoir removed, and replaced with 500ml plastic bottle
plastic piece on top of the front bumper removed
intake manifold lower support bracket removed
Looking to take out the DRL relay behind the driver’s 1 piece inside the bumper on the fender.
This isn’t much, but all the little things add up.
and, the most awesome part of all, myself; I weight 115 lbs.
Yeah, I’m contemplating the two outer tow hooks in the back. But do I need those? Is the center tow hook enough to get me out of a future jam? Where are the front tow hooks? Do I need them? Anyone know how much the backseats and everything that goes with them weighs? Any other little tricks anyone has out there? If two trains leave Denver, one traveling east, the other traveling west…err, nevermind…
How much does the undercar heat shield weigh? Is it safe to take it off? I don’t want permanent damage? I really don’t want a 500 degree shift knob, but it would my shifts quicker. Also, how much did that “intake manifold lower support bracket” weigh? One more question, E-DA9, why haven’t you taken out your back seats? DO you use them or something?
Originally posted by E-DA9
[B]Marc is definitely the weight saving man.
anywayz, like he said, just go through your car and remove any excess stuff; for instance, in your engine bay, where your intake is, in front of the passenger stock shock tower, there is a big ass metal bracket that holds some wire harnesses; pull that off; you’ll be surprised how much that metal weights for what it is.
on top of the beautiful lightness of the stock RS (No AC, no power windows, no sunroof), here is what I did:
shaved antenna and motor
shaved rear wiper and motor
JDM headlights
Neuspeed Header
PS pump and reservoir removed
Shifter linkage counterweight cut off
heat shields removed
rear tow hooks removed, contemplating whether to take the front ones off
various brackets removed
stock washer fluid reservoir removed, and replaced with 500ml plastic bottle
plastic piece on top of the front bumper removed
intake manifold lower support bracket removed
Looking to take out the DRL relay behind the driver’s 1 piece inside the bumper on the fender.
This isn’t much, but all the little things add up.
and, the most awesome part of all, myself; I weight 115 lbs.
[/B]
you weigh 115 lbs? whoa… i need to lose some weight…
BTW what kind of plastic bottle did you replace it with?
I like to have a 100% practical yet quick car.
Full interior, full trunk, stereo with 1 sub in a decently small box.
Itz kinda like this:
them: “dayum…u’re car is fast. What motor?”
me: “B18 non tec”
them: “boost? nos? supercharge?”
me: “nope; NA, stock bottom end”
them: “wow…stripped interior then…has to be”
me: “nope…full interior, with one 12 inch sub too!”
them: “dayum…”
Well, my car isn’t that fast, but u get the idea…hehehe…
the heat shields on the bottom aren’t a problem when u take them off…ur shifter won’t be 500 degrees, it will just be warm every now and then.
the intake manifold lower support bracket is quite heavy man…maybe 2-5 pounds?
I replaced my washer fluid with a white plastic bottle that had some house cleaner in it; I just emptied it and drilled two holes for the pumps and fastened it on the car behind the bumper…empty engine bay look…yeah…
OH, AND I AM RUNNING NO JACK AND TOOLS…spare is used to hold up the sub…otherwise the plastic piece in the trunk collapses with the weight of the sub.
Damn, I’m guessing my car weighs in in the 2400 zone:
CF Hood
Gutted trunk
No back seats
No rear wiper… motor
No power steering assembly
DC headers
b16 motor, lighter than the b18a I believe
Smaller muffler and lesss piping than stock
Sweet, well it looks I’ll be taking off my heat shield then. My car also rattles at WOT for some reason, and I’ve heard it might be this. Any idea how much it weighs? Also, is there anything else that could melt or be damaged as a result of no heat shield? How long have you guys been running without a heat shield? Well, the next sunny day, I’m going to be doing more weight reduction. I like to call it “Project Next Sunny Day.” It includes:
*Remove rear seats and perhaps completely gut the exterior, speakers and everything (how much do speakers weigh?)
*Removal of rear tow hooks.
*Removal of heat shield.
*Possible removal of windshield wiper fluid and resevoir.
*Removal of anything else I don’t deem necessary.
Anything I should add to the list? Hopefully all this lets me get into the 2,400 lbs range.
Your even removing your wiper fluid resevoir? I guess you don’t get much road crud in your climate. Is your car undercoated with the rubberized stuff? I’d imagine that removing the heat shield would melt that stuff off a bit. A long time ago i was getting heat shield rattling and the dealer just removed it. I’m not sure what shield it was (never looked back then) but its not the one that runs underneath the shifter. The dealer said that those ones always rust out and they always just yank them off.
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