Originally Posted by Tougefactory

Speaking of seats we are actually about to start a seating chart test of all the seats we have in stock. I'm a heavier guy (5'10 215lbs) so i know how finding seats can be tough.

Originally Posted by Singh_snisen

that would be awesome. Wer u guys located?

Originally Posted by Singh_snisen

Oh nvm too far haha

Originally Posted by toofast4yalll

There are 2 ways to influence your power to weight ratio, (obviously), add more power, or decrease the weight. Adding more power simply makes the car accelerate better. Decreasing weight, however, makes the car accelerate better, brake better, and handle better. Since I bought my car, I have been experimenting with the weight. The idea is to get below 2500 pounds. However, I want to keep a full interior so the car can be driven daily on the street.

The curb weight of a MY00 off the showroom floor is 2,809 pounds. To reach my goal, I had 300 pounds to carve away from the car. Seem challenging? The curb weight of the C-West S2000 is a little over 2200 pounds (without fuel or driver). If they can take 600 pounds off, I can take 300 pounds off. There are 3 steps to weight reduction.

1. Remove unnecessary parts
2. Replace parts with lighter versions
3. Replace steel and aluminum body panels with carbon fiber

For step one, there are tons of things on the car that can go. First of all, gut the trunk. I removed the tool kit, spare tire, and all trunk carpeting and sound proofing material. This takes away nearly 50 pounds!

For all of you who have nagging wives/girlfriends/hookup buddies, or friends who like to bum rides, this is the best mod out there. The passenger seat with rails weighs 33 pounds. The fatass sitting in it weighs a lot more than that on most occasions. The rear seat rail bolts are 14mm and the front bolts are 12mm. The first time you take the seats out, it will take some torque to get those bolts loose. This is something quick and easy that you can do on a track day or group drive where you'll be by yourself.

The next thing that can go is the factory radio and speakers. To do this, you will need to unscrew the 2 panels where the driver's right knee and passenger's left knee would rest. Then pop off the front panel and start unscrewing things. The door panels pop off easily, and you are a few screws away from having the speakers out. This adds up to 8 pounds.

The cruise control unit and attached throttle cable are next. The bracket that holds the throttle cable is also used to hold the coolant overflow reservoir. Remove the CC unit, then take the bracket out. A torch, sawzall, and grinder come in handy here. Cut off the part of the bracket that holds the CC unit and grind the edges smooth. I also used a can of black spray paint to repaint the bracket. It looks super clean, even factory if you take your time. CC unit, bracket, and throttle cable weigh 3.6 pounds.

A hard top is a good way to save weight, but there's a way to save more weight and still have a convertible. Remove the A/C lines, solenoid, compressor, and compressor bracket. Then, take out the motor for the convertible top. You will have a manual soft top and no A/C, which will be far more weight savings than you could ever get with a hard top.

The popular intake, test pipe, exhaust combination not only adds whp, sound, and throttle response, it's also useful for removing weight from the entire car. The stock airbox weighs 10 pounds. The K&N short ram weighs about 1.5. Much better sound and throttle response along with 8.5 pounds of weight reduction.

The stock AP1 exhaust weighs in at 64.2 pounds. It also makes the S2000 sound like an Odyssey below 5,000RPM. Any single, non-resonated exhaust paired with a test pipe will give you lots of gains and at least 45 pounds of weight reduction. A JDM titanium header back exhaust can weigh as little as 8-10 pounds. My exhaust is a custom 3" header back that weighs 15 pounds. I gained 12whp and lost 50 pounds, not bad at all. My car also sounds like a 350Z below VTEC and an Indy car above 5,800RPM Also, anybody that says our car has a hi-flow cat from the factory have never looked through one. I'm sure a 12" by 3" cylinder of dense honeycomb is real good at achieving optimum exhaust gas velocity, right? This piece of tree-hugging junk is also pretty hefty. Unless you live in Cali, the cat is one of the first things you should be yanking off your car. Also, Comptech makes a handy fix for the secondary O2 sensor.

A steering wheel is an often overlooked part that can save weight and change the way your car behaves. The smaller the steering wheel, the more responsive the steering will be. I have a 320mm NRG wheel, with a Momo hub. You will be shocked at how much the steering wheel with the airbag weighs. Total weight reduction from steering wheel and hub is 3.2 pounds.

Now we're getting to the fun stuff. Time to pick out baby's first set of shoes The stock AP1 rims are fairly heavy, and as long as you go with a quality JDM wheel, it won't be tough to reduce a lot of weight here. The most important thing about wheels is that decreasing rotating mass is equivalent to reducing 4 times the weight. If your wheels are 10 pounds lighter per set, it is equivalent to a weight reduction of 40 pounds. Also, you can now mount some nice fat rubber on those rears so they really hook up. Volk LE28/CE28 are a good choice. I went with black w/a polished lip. The 17x9 rears weigh in at 14 pounds each. The 17x7.5 fronts are only 13 pounds each. Stock AP1 rim weight is 17.5 pounds each for the front and 18.6 pounds each for the rear. Don't bust out your calculators, I did the math for you. 18.2 pounds of rotating mass reduced, which is equivalent to 72.8 pounds of weight reduction! Not to mention the front tires are now as big as the OEM rears were, and you can mount much larger tires on the rear. This setup helps launches, acceleration, braking, cornering, everything. Not bad for one mod.

Now that step 2 is well underway, you can either continue down that path or add some JDM, uber baller, super light weight dry carbon bling. ASM, Amuse, Top Secret, J's racing, and C-West (just to name a few) make dry carbon hoods that have functional vents and weigh next to nothing. Steer away from companies like Seibon. The hoods don't fit as well and 90% of the time they're actually HEAVIER than stock. I went with a company called C-Wings. They produce loads of carbon fiber products for the S2000, and I wanted to see the weight, fit and finish of their carbon hood before I sunk any big money into their products. The hood fits great, looks even better, and weighs only 15.8 pounds. The stock hood weighs somewhere between 21-22 pounds (it's kind of tough to fit it perfectly on a scale). Let's just say 5 pounds of weight reduction.

Other than the wheels and a little elbow grease, most of this can be done for around $2,000. Add in the hood and wheels, it's a little over $6,000. However, you have now drastically changed the power to weight ratio and also made the car more responsive in every aspect. Not bad for 2 G's and some time in the garage.

Total Weight Reduction to date:
Trunk gutted -50lbs.
Pass. seat -33lbs.
Radio + Speakers -8lbs.
CC unit, bracket, and throttle cable -3.6lbs.
Intake -8.5lbs.
Exhaust -50lbs.
Steering Wheel -3.2lbs.
Rims -18.2lbs. --> 72.8lbs. effective
CF Hood -5lbs.
A/C lines, solenoid, compressor, bracket - 23.6lbs.

The curb weight is now 2,551.3 pounds, and the crank horsepower is (give or take a few) 260hp. The power to weight ratio has gone from 11.7 pounds per horsepower to 9.8 pounds per horsepower. That is definitely a noticeable improvement.


EDIT: If you give me crap about this post b/c the car can't be daily driven any more, you're an idiot. I didn't post it in S2000 talk because it belongs in S2000 RACING AND COMPETITION. I don't know how many other ways I can say it but this forum is not about driving your S to the grocery store! It's about tracking your car, which if you are serious, involves finding as many ways as humanly possible to ditch weight. I'm keeping a full interior because it's not a STRICTLY track car, and I don't want to look like one of those guys in a 93 civic hatch with just a driver's seat in it parked at the mall. Anybody that says "how can you drive a car on the street with no radio?" needs to go post in freaking S2000 talk and leave this forum to people like me who drive their car on the track.