The

 

I was told by an experienced race car driver....

lose some of the structural supports and get a rollcage. Apparently the roll-cage is much lighter than the sum of all of the structural stuff.

I remember SCC (sports compact car) doing something like this in a civic Si with the doors, etc....

lighter seats, no spare, no fat chicks.

Scot

 

Didn't Mugen reduce the weight a lot for the SS2200?

Jay

 

...and remove carpet, subcarpet sound deadening, the electric top motor, the top itself, AC, powersteering, roll hoop assembly, swap out seats for fiberglass race seats. That ought to be good for 150lbs?

Body panel swap too, if you're serious

Car wouldn't be too attractive though...

 

Not at all what I had in mind.. I am not looking to gut the car, just be more intelligent in performance mods. The question was how much HP is ten pounds worth.

If people are willing to spend on marginal engine adds, how about sure thing weight reduction. Maybe thin wall moly subframes with equal strength and less weight, forged aluminum suspension components and braces, etc.

 

At low speeds the most important single factor controlling acceleration is the power to weight ratio.

In our case we have got 240HP for 1260kgs or 5.25 kgs per HP. If you take 10 kgs off your car you get 5.208333 Kgs per HP.

To get this ratio without shedding weight you would need 241.92HP.

So I'd say that for each 10kgs lost you get the equivalent of around 2HP (and better handling as a bonus...).

I have lost 10kgs in the Mugen header and exhaust. I am planning to loose an additional 10kgs(?) by retiring the spare.

Other potential areas of savings are:
Seats: They are heavy weighters! By going to recaro bacquets you should be able to save 30kgs.

By going to ligher wheels (say, the spoon black wheels) you'll save 20kgs all around.

You can also save an extra 5kgs in calipers and drilled disks.

2kgs on a lighter flywheel, another 3kgs on the engine bay (light weight batery, brackets, etc).

Spoon and other tuners have other light weight components, but let's leave this as it is.

Total weight saving? 80 kgs, and you gain 16HPs.

 

Other ideas to explore :

dump the wife/husband/girl/boy friend, 16HPs!

Go on a diet: can vary from 0HP to 20HPs in extreme cases.

Drive naked: .5 HP.

Always visit a restroom before driving: .1 HP.

Hair cut: .01HP

Any other suggestions?

 

to get that 80kg or 16hp that Luis talked of would cost an arm and a leg, just like the upgraded engine stuff though.



Scot

 

I don't pretend to know what is underneath the plastic on our bumpers. But I remember a guy that ran Showroom Stock at the runoffs one year got a big fine for drilling a bunch of holes in the steel thats behind the rubber bumpers on his car. The only reason they found out was he wrecked his car and ripped part of his bumper away and then it was obvious. We could take a drill to our cars a lose some weight.

 

Probably, but with his list you get better brakes, handling, and lower rotating mass.

More than one way to skin a whatever.