by looking at my budget, im a little short on cash (aren't we all? damn rx7's) and decided with my kind of budget, 500 hp is going to be hard to attain. atleast in a DD. so i decided to look at it at a more mathmatical view. im no longer going to HP goals, but power vs. weight goals. 6.5 lbs per HP is what im aiming for. and thats more than enough to satisfy my needs. i figure if i can get to 450 hp (which should be easy with a turbo upgrade and some other goodies ) and drop my weight to ~2500 lbs, ill have the feel of a much faster car, with more reliability. does anyone look at theyre car like this? or is it jsut me.

 

I will say this, that if your budget wouldn't allow for 1.5-2 times your estimated costs, you will probably run out of money before expected. I'm doing a rebuild and some really basic power upgrades and it's costing significantly more than I had planned, some of the things just because I've had problems along the way and some because I just missed something. So if you plan meticulously, maybe you wouldn't have this problem quite as much.

 

o i know to expect more than what you think your going to need, im just saying focusing on more than just power will give you a more reliable, and just as "fast" car, for the same, or less money than just a "fast" car.

 

Yeah, 450 hp in a 2800 lb car is scary fast, I would expect it to be faster yet in a 2500 lb car. Maybe I am taking it to an even further extreme, but do you really need (or have any use for) 450 hp in your car?

 

to be cool of course.

 

^well said

dean of course ur thinking of reducing weight to compensate for a lower horsepower goal will add more reliability and you are not alone in that thought. much like how a simple 4.3 ring gear swap will multiply power to the ground if only a few percentages but the bigger the power the more free horses.

 

"Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races."

-Carroll Shelby

 

Wtf?

Don't bring in any of that Mustang BS! I think he forgot to mention that his cars are **** and only go in a straight line.

 

Average RPM HP, average RPM torque, and weight wins races.

Anyways, power to weight ratio is more important to my power goals right now than getting a high hp number to brag about. Its going to be an awesome spring when I completely gut my interior and take everything unneeded in my engine bay.

 

+1. HP and torque are the same thing expressed in different ways.

 

How many compromises are you willing to make to save weight? Are you comfortable driving around a tin can with no interior? That's about the only negative to dropping weight. It takes a LOT of little things to add up to a few hundred pounds and by that point you've made a lot of sacrifices.

For example, pulling up the floor insulation will completely change the character of the car. Road noise will increase a lot, the floor will become hot enough to melt shoes, every little creak and rattle will be heard, etc.

 

Totaly true, I mean the Shelby Cobras were total piles back in the 60's, terribly slow with terrible handling right?

 

I have a stripped hatch, no ps, no ac, no emissions, single exhaust, no sound system ,exc. It adds up to significant weight savings

I dont know how much your budget is or what you have so far, but its alot more than just a turbo kit to make that kind of power.

Id say im about at where you would like to be.

and if your looking for someone to tell you that that is the way to go it it... if you dont mind sacrificing comfort, exc.

 

quoted for truth.

 

Hewlett Packard is overrated.

 

so are ipods.....and air....

 

Carroll Shelby being a drag racer??? WTF LOL!

 

This is a TECH SECTION, respond accordingly. This guy gets it:
Good thoughts. Also keep in mind whoever might be riding along in the car. My wife has made it clear (and she really can't help it I guess, she gets aches and pains much easier than I do) that she would ride in my '7 less if I make it louder or ride significantly rougher. Eventually I may have a dedicated track '7, but this one has to cater to both worlds.

By the way it is 'et cetera', abbreviated to etc.

 

lol i drive a tin can!! daily drove this car for over a yr... if it was running better id still be daily driving it... you can probably shed around 200+. doing some extreme lightening. i still never striped the tar off the floor tho.... thats one of the last things i might do when im not so lazy...

its great no one can try and bum a ride off me!! haha ive still got a heater on a switch tho for defrost! ( yes ive gotten rid of that ghetto *** steering wheel)
a high performance 3" single exit exhaust actaully offers quite a weight reduction by it self.. the stock catback and main cat weigh around 65lbs.



this car actually came mostly gutted out, iand what peices were left were somewhat moudy. so i peeled off the dash vynle and removed what was left.
dont think ill strip another car.... but this ones staying how it is anyway

 

I'd think 2500lbs. should be possible without gutting the interior. Not easy tho. The thing is you'd only be gaining a 5-10% boost in speed from dropping 5-10% of your weight.

 

Weight reduction is still cheap, and really 5% is nothing to scoff at.

 

2500 lbs+450hp will be damn fast car. But really, is it practical to have that on tap? I'd imagine anything with your weight savings goal that 350 ish should more than suffice.

 

The cheapest way to improve horsepower is to loose the mass in the acceleration equation. This is what I plan on doing first. Taking out seats not used etc..

 

(Old topic) However, power to weight is the name of the game. Most every component works best on a lighter chassis (e.g. suspension, brakes). In a street car my suggestion is more power. I say this because to get a car light for the street it is impractical (no power anything, a/c heater, carpet, dash, sound deadening, any type of heat shield, plexiglass windows). Reducing weight is much easier said than done.

But if you are just itching to lighten the car I would do the hatch and the hood as they are both heavy and you will see big results there, more than any other reductions put together outside of getting fiberglass doors.

 

the thing is that im not looking for some drasticly stripped car. and im keeping my ps and anti-lock, because this is a DD, and i like to drive comfy. but there are little thinngs to change.

say a mit of a smaller iC, because the size of mine is useless, and is also dented in pretty bad from my dads truck hitch . if got a lighter flywheel for that tad of quicker acceleration and light rims. ill be getting even lighter rims to compensate for the larger tires required for a USUABLE amount of power. i even have racing seats right now that are at LEAST half the weight of the stock seats, but they suck to drive in for long periods, so im keeping the stock till i get some more comfy seats. i honostly think 2600 lbs is a decent spot to stay at, for my needs atleast, and mid 400 up 500 would be nice. no1 says that ill behaving that amount of power ALL the time either, thats what's nice about turbos