Decent weight reducing body parts?

kenchan

doesn't the AT weigh like 30-40lbs more than the MT? kinda off from the getgo...

you can start by removing the spare tire and all stereo stuff, get a dry cell. i'd swap out the fender and quarter to CF if that was really the direction you want to go.

basically take off everything you dont need like interior panels.

at the end of the day 100lbs in saving will net you about 0.1 sec if 0-60mph.

wstar

Yeah, I could stand to drop around 15-20 there

Yeah these are the basic weight specs from the factory for 2009, AFAIK:

MT Base: 3232
MT Touring: 3278
AT Base: 3269
AT Touring: 3314

I'd rather not get into another 6MT vs 7AT debate here, that's totally not the point of this thread :P

I've already done most basic things ages ago, as you can see in my journal thread. I killed the washer fluid system, the spare tire, the subwoofer, the bluetooth stuff. Did the battery relocate to a tiny PC680 (AGM) in the trunk. Lighter wheel+tire setup. Lighter 2pc brake rotors and lighter seats are on my eventual to-do list.

I haven't compromised the interior much yet though, as it's still a semi-daily driver / road-tripper for now.

Eventually, someday, that might happen, when I pick up a new DD car and re-purpose this one to be a bit more dedicated. But there some things I can do ahead of time that don't compromise its current function, and that's what I've been shooting for where I can. I figured one of those would be body panels, but when I trawl through the threads in this section advertising body panels, tbh it looks like they're all about the flash and not the weight loss, because they're not advertising any comparative weights. If there's one or two of you sponsors/mfgs that are advertising weight drops, speak up here so I can find your thread in the haystack.

Yeah I've been following that since day 1, but we don't have any body parts listed there, and quite frankly I'd rather not be the test mule on figuring out aftermarket body part weights if the mfgs aren't giving us any data to base buying decisions on.

The point of this thread is basically to call out the 370Z after market body parts makers and ask: do you have reasonable weight-dropping pieces available at reasonable prices? What kind of weight drop can we get from painted FRP fenders, hoods, etc? Are the stock pieces so light it's just not worth bothering?

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

kenchan

so how much weight has your car lost so far? 200lbs? 300lbs?

if so you went from a 0-60 time of say 5.4 to 5.1sec. hardly worth the effort on a street car imho.

if you're going to do it, do it like you mean it by making a track car. take out ALL the interior panels out and rest of your stereo, a/c everything.

wstar

Well, what's "worth the effort" is highly subjective. It's hard to be on these boards and not sound hypocritical saying that to anyone. Most regular humans would say it's not "worth the effort" to replace exhaust or intake systems for the gains they give either. That ship has long sailed, we're obviously all over-optimizing here.

0-60 isn't the whole game either, not by far. Dropping weight off the car also benefits handling, and redistributing the center of gravity towards the bottom and back can give pretty significant positive handling changes for fairly small moves. Hence the focus on the front body panels, rather than say the rear bumper or even the trunk lid so much. The battery move alone can be felt in the handling of the car, IMHO.

I'd love to build a track-specific car, more like TravisJB's build, but it's not in the cards right now. I don't have another car lined up as a replacement daily driver, and quite frankly with as few weekends as I could devote to the track right now it wouldn't really be worth it. I plan to keep this car pretty much indefinitely though, and someday it will get there

__________________
7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details