Power to weight ratio

wstar · 01-12-2012, 11:36 AM

The best bang-for-the-buck weight mod is definitely light wheels/tires, and there's no real "tradeoff" there, it's all win. Going right along with that would be lightweight (2pc) brake rotors, but they're a little pricey for what you get, and probably mostly only worth it on the front pair. Light seats are obvious. Pricey, but also hold you in better.

A good cheap one for dropping front weight is to ditch the whole windshield-washer-sprayer system. Or you could just empty out the tank completely dry to get most of the same benefit without permanently removing anything.

You can drop a pretty decent chunk of static weight from the car by doing the combo of emptying out the trunk (subwoofer, spare, foam, plastics, etc), removing the big heavy battery up front, and relocating to a smaller battery like the PC680 mounted in the newly-empty trunk area. I list this as one big combo-upgrade, because if you just empty out the trunk and don't do the battery work as well, you're shifting the car's weight balance in the "bad" direction.

If you do both, the weight balance is basically unaffected (if anything, it goes barely in the "good" direction), and you get a significant net weight drop. Going off an estimate from one of my own old posts, you'd get just under 70lbs of weight drop from this, with a slight bias towards front weight drop.

(EDIT: the old numbers I came up with were 35 from the front and 29 from the rear, but that didn't include plastics/foam/etc from the trunk, just the big ticket items: spare, subwoofer, and battery swap)

NickBaragona · 01-12-2012, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

The best bang-for-the-buck weight mod is definitely light wheels/tires, and there's no real "tradeoff" there, it's all win. Going right along with that would be lightweight (2pc) brake rotors, but they're a little pricey for what you get, and probably mostly only worth it on the front pair. Light seats are obvious. Pricey, but also hold you in better.

A good cheap one for dropping front weight is to ditch the whole windshield-washer-sprayer system. Or you could just empty out the tank completely dry to get most of the same benefit without permanently removing anything.

You can drop a pretty decent chunk of static weight from the car by doing the combo of emptying out the trunk (subwoofer, spare, foam, plastics, etc), removing the big heavy battery up front, and relocating to a smaller battery like the PC680 mounted in the newly-empty trunk area. I list this as one big combo-upgrade, because if you just empty out the trunk and don't do the battery work as well, you're shifting the car's weight balance in the "bad" direction.

If you do both, the weight balance is basically unaffected (if anything, it goes barely in the "good" direction), and you get a significant net weight drop. Going off an estimate from one of my own old posts, you'd get just under 70lbs of weight drop from this, with a slight bias towards front weight drop.

(EDIT: the old numbers I came up with were 35 from the front and 29 from the rear, but that didn't include plastics/foam/etc from the trunk, just the big ticket items: spare, subwoofer, and battery swap)

What if I've installed a 10" zenclosure with a sub and an amp. Will that make it ok to remove the spare, tools, and Bose sub?

ChipsWithDips · 01-12-2012, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

The best bang-for-the-buck weight mod is definitely light wheels/tires, and there's no real "tradeoff" there, it's all win. Going right along with that would be lightweight (2pc) brake rotors, but they're a little pricey for what you get, and probably mostly only worth it on the front pair. Light seats are obvious. Pricey, but also hold you in better.

A good cheap one for dropping front weight is to ditch the whole windshield-washer-sprayer system. Or you could just empty out the tank completely dry to get most of the same benefit without permanently removing anything.

You can drop a pretty decent chunk of static weight from the car by doing the combo of emptying out the trunk (subwoofer, spare, foam, plastics, etc), removing the big heavy battery up front, and relocating to a smaller battery like the PC680 mounted in the newly-empty trunk area. I list this as one big combo-upgrade, because if you just empty out the trunk and don't do the battery work as well, you're shifting the car's weight balance in the "bad" direction.

If you do both, the weight balance is basically unaffected (if anything, it goes barely in the "good" direction), and you get a significant net weight drop. Going off an estimate from one of my own old posts, you'd get just under 70lbs of weight drop from this, with a slight bias towards front weight drop.

(EDIT: the old numbers I came up with were 35 from the front and 29 from the rear, but that didn't include plastics/foam/etc from the trunk, just the big ticket items: spare, subwoofer, and battery swap)

Lightweight wheels and tires are nice, but seriously "best bang for the buck" weight reduction? What are you smoking? How much did you pay for all 4 wheels and tires?

Best bang for the buck is removing uneccesary **** from the trunk etc. That's FREE.

After that pretty sure best bang for buck is a lightweight battery. Then maybe flywheel(~16lbs less rotational mass), lightweight underdrive pulleys(not much static weight saving, but losing rotational mass is nice).
Keep in mind the flywheel will make the car a bit less streetable, more difficult to smoothly go from a stop. Depends how tolerant you are of things like that.

If you get other power adding mods, keep in mind that some of these options often can save a bit of weight too, win/win situation.
Deleting cats by switching to longtubes or test pipes saves quite a bit of weight. I just got my longtubes installed, and when I get around to getting a catback, I plan on probably getting a single exit exhaust, to save a few extra pounds.

All the CF hoods I have seen actually WEIGH MORE THAN STOCK. Don't get that garbage with weight reduction in mind.

Anyways there's a whole weight reduction thread over here

theDreamer · 01-12-2012, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChipsWithDips

Lightweight wheels and tires are nice, but seriously "best bang for the buck" weight reduction? What are you smoking? How much did you pay for all 4 wheels and tires?

Best bang for the buck is removing uneccesary **** from the trunk etc. That's FREE.

After that pretty sure best bang for buck is a lightweight battery. Then maybe flywheel(~16lbs less rotational mass), lightweight underdrive pulleys(not much static weight saving, but losing rotational mass is nice).
Keep in mind the flywheel will make the car a bit less streetable, more difficult to smoothly go from a stop. Depends how tolerant you are of things like that.

If you get other power adding mods, keep in mind that some of these options often can save a bit of weight too, win/win situation.
Deleting cats by switching to longtubes or test pipes saves quite a bit of weight. I just got my longtubes installed, and when I get around to getting a catback, I plan on probably getting a single exit exhaust, to save a few extra pounds.

All the CF hoods I have seen actually WEIGH MORE THAN STOCK. Don't get that garbage with weight reduction in mind.

Anyways there's a whole weight reduction thread over here

Wheel/tire are best bang for the buck (remember you do not have to spend 4k on Volk/Advan to get less weight), but also wheel/tire combo do more than just weight. Balance, better grip, etc.

01-12-2012, 11:36 AM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	The best bang-for-the-buck weight mod is definitely light wheels/tires, and there's no real "tradeoff" there, it's all win. Going right along with that would be lightweight (2pc) brake rotors, but they're a little pricey for what you get, and probably mostly only worth it on the front pair. Light seats are obvious. Pricey, but also hold you in better. A good cheap one for dropping front weight is to ditch the whole windshield-washer-sprayer system. Or you could just empty out the tank completely dry to get most of the same benefit without permanently removing anything. You can drop a pretty decent chunk of static weight from the car by doing the combo of emptying out the trunk (subwoofer, spare, foam, plastics, etc), removing the big heavy battery up front, and relocating to a smaller battery like the PC680 mounted in the newly-empty trunk area. I list this as one big combo-upgrade, because if you just empty out the trunk and don't do the battery work as well, you're shifting the car's weight balance in the "bad" direction. If you do both, the weight balance is basically unaffected (if anything, it goes barely in the "good" direction), and you get a significant net weight drop. Going off an estimate from one of my own old posts, you'd get just under 70lbs of weight drop from this, with a slight bias towards front weight drop. (EDIT: the old numbers I came up with were 35 from the front and 29 from the rear, but that didn't include plastics/foam/etc from the trunk, just the big ticket items: spare, subwoofer, and battery swap) __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 01-12-2012 at 11:40 AM.

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