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Organized Drag Racing and AutocrossDrag racing and autocross discussions and questions. Techniques, tips, suggestions, and "what will I run?" questions.
My goal this off season was to remove at least 200# from the car.
I scaled the car today after finishing the last upgrade and the I removed total of 204#
The car alone now weighs 3,008# (previous weight 3,212 #) with me and safety gear we have 3,240 #
I am looking forward to see what it will do now, rule of thumb I should be .2 seconds faster so this will put me in the 10.teens
There is a bit more weight that could get removed the biggest one would be lexan rear hatch ILO of the factory glass, but I am done upgrading for now.
Free mods:
Inner door crash bars removed (car has 6 pt cage)
Insulation under carpeting
Spare tire mounting bracket
Front and rear energy absorbing plastic and lightened the bumper bars.( bars still needed to mount fascias and front driving lights)
Rear seat and passenger seat
$ Mods:
Pinto Manual steering rack ILO S10 manual gearbox and stock steering linkages
Strange front disc brakes ILO OEM disc brakes
Umi rear coil overs
Replaced RCI plastic racing seat and OEM track with Kirkey Alum seat and fixed mounts
so many things ya can do to shave off a few lbs..On My car I did the aluminum body struts by Viking (coil overs) Wilwood front brakes. just that was 54lbs.. and the Aluminum BBC. was another 90lbs.
Nice job. I am doing the same thing now trying to get the car to 2750 without driver. Last check in was 2980 which included S-10 steering box, stock steel hood and full exhaust.
Never had mine on a 4 corner scale. Drove across a weigh scale. Weighed the front axle, total car and rear axle. If done properly, front and rear should equal the total.
My car is still nose heavy thanks to the iron block BBC even though it's pushed back slightly. It's got a full cage to work with the back half. My race weight sitting on the starting line is 3030 pounds. Don't care what the car weighs without me in it since it's the total weight that the engine needs to move down the track.
Here is the link to my cage install. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...roll-cage.html
Cage weight added around 190 pounds to the car however it's extremely stiff now with no chassis flex. Lots of extra tubes but they all serve a purpose.
All my windows are lexan. Windshield only took off 10 pounds. Side windows had a bigger saving removing the window regulator and sheet metal than it did the glass. My rear window is 1/8" Lexan and can't be opened. Back window is very heavy. Even though it's over the wheels, it's still weight that needs to be moved down the track.
When I originally installed a 9" under the car, the easiest way to do brakes was to use Ford drum brakes. Went to the local auto parts store and searched through a selection of drums until I found some that didn't have huge cooling fins. Ran that system for many years without any issues. Finally did a conversion and installed 99 Jimmy rear disk brakes onto the 9". Did a write up on how I did it. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/brak...ferential.html Rear brake conversion shaved 16.5 pounds of unsprung weight off the car. Removing unsprung weight is a better saving than sprung weight. Lighter wheels, lighter brakes etc have better performance advantages. My 9" diff has an aluminum center section, aluminum spool, aluminum pinion support. I can lift it into place with one hand. Again, all unsprung weight.
How far do you want to go to make the car lighter? After the free mods, it all depends on your budget. In reality, if I was ever going to do it again, I wouldn't even use a production car. I'd go straight to a tube chassis car. More expensive in the beginning but a lot easier and cheaper in the long run. Not uncommon to have a 2600 pound or less third gen race weight with tube chassis. If I really wanted to go faster, I'd yank out my engine and drop it into an Altered. Could easily run a 7 second pass in something that weighs 1800 pounds.
I weighed everything I took off and the new parts I put on, and kept a log.
Some items were not much but they all added up.
The big savings were the manual rack, front disc brakes, and removing the passenger/rear seats.
12-28-2019, 07:52 PM
Indeed, the old saw is true: Taking weight OUT is the same as putting horsepower IN.
