787B

heres the deal...

lately i have been on this mission of removing as much weight as possible in my FC and heres my first situation...

i am not much of a car audio guy and my stock radio doesnt display numbers so i am just going to take it out.

after i take out my radio, equalizer and tape deck what should i put in that place?? Should i make a storage bin? Cover the hole with an aluminum sheet??

I dont want to see a bunch of wires and a big hole and i dont want to install a new stereo because I NEED PERFORMANCE!!!!

here is my second question...

i have removed my spare, the jack, the hatch shelf, the mat in the hatch, the insulation on the underside of the hood (now i am thinking my paint is going to come off and i shouldnt have done that) and that is all i have removed so far.

i am really considering taking out the power steering since my 85 gsl didnt have it and i like the firm steering feel plus the weight loss.

so what else is left for me? where else is there insulation? i read in my rx-7 book that the infini rx-7 had removed sound insulation for more performance but where is all of that located?? is it in the door panels? where is all of the sound insulation because i dont want it.

please tell me all the things you have removed in your car and give me ideas on the removing stereo situation and also how to make my FC as light as possible.

Yelow RX-7

whynot take out the cubbies behind the seats? that shouldnt take that long to do. i think there is stuff in the doors you can take out but im not 100% sure. also, under the steering wheel and under the glove compartment, there is some little speakers, you can take those out as well. wait, what gen rx7 do you have??

Yelow RX-7

check your pm's.

13B

How 'bout the washer fluid reservoir/s. My 2nd gen GXL has/had three seperate washer bottles. The two front ones hold 5.5 litres each I believe and the one for the rear hatch wiper holds about a litre. Then without the fluids you can lose the washer pump. This should shave an honest 20-25 lbs off the car.

787B

wow i never even thought about the washer fluid....thanks

Yelow RX-7

oh also on the under side of the hood, there is these little rubber flaps, you can just rip those off and it lets cold air in the engine and makes the hood lighter.

tweaked

iTrader: (4)

take out your a/c and all of it's components too. this includes the evap coil under the dash.
take out all of your carpet, then take a utiliy knife and cut away all of the insulation glued to the bottom. while you are at it take a heat gun and a scraper and get the tar like stuff from the floor boards. it is messy but you will loose about 20 pounds if you do it all
sub-zero starting...gone
TB mod
take out your kick panels, and remove the plastic panels in the hatch. if you don't like the way that looks. cover the holes with fiberglass and paint it. it looks pretty cool having all of those smooth panels the same color as the outside.
there is the lexan windows from mazda motorsports
loose the power everything. change your windows and locks to manual, this is about 25 pounds per door. while you aree at it. take off the door panels and make your own out of fiberglass. that way you can make them look anyway you want and paint them to match the outside color.
if you have a stock exhaust, trash it for a single 2.5" pipe and header, about another 25 pounds.
head liner... gone
remove the inner fender wells on the front
take off all the backing plates for your brake rotors. they really don't doo much anyway unless you are a off road or ralley racer..
trim up under your hood, take off everything that is unnessessary. vac hoses, air pump.
Unorthodox under drive pullys. they are lighter than stock and reduce parasitic drag
replace your water pump with the electric one. it is lighter and you reduce motor drag by 12 - 20% depending on cooling fan setup.
reduce battery size to a 550 CCA instead of that 850
replace your seats with the fiberglass one from summit. with the optional pads they are quite cumfy

787B

excellent ideas....i am going to be busy for awhile. But i still need ideas on what i should put in place of my stereo, i dont want to see a hole and wires!

xiaomingming50

mine doesnt hav power steering... its very fun to drive.. cept when trying to drift.. but i guess thats cuz i'm just getting used to it?
can anyone verify this theory??
or is it ALWAYS impossible to drift w/o powersteering?
cuz i cant get the countersteer in time..
and the hopping into a car w/ powersteering is so amazing
its like whoa, light as a feather, wheee

Yelow RX-7

about that hole, mazdaspeed7 is making carbon fiber parts that fit in there, pm him its worth it.

von

how about replacing your hood with an n/a aluminum or fiber. Painted plastic would be a good way to i think.. i also have a 89GXL. U can get lighter rims from a 89-91 t11 and lightweight flyweel. The hatch is very important to replace. Its weighed at 50pds so a plastic one would kick ***. Msd7 says the lexan one would be around 700 so dont go thier. Our dash weighs 35 pds i think and is heavier than the ealier models due to some metal suport bar for the airbag that they never put in...thats just something i hear. U might get a aluminum housing for the transmision but i dont know if they make them. U can replace your passenger side window with a plastic one since u dont nead it. I never use it... If u do all this stuff me and the other guy told u , u can be in the 25xx pd range wich would be a very noticible difference. Oh... replace ur sunroof with lexan or somthing. I think out cars weigh 2850-2880 for the 89-91 GXL models..

AcmeSkater

Wow you would take all that out just to make it lighter?? how bout keetming all that and just buying a tube chassis and get a CF body to lay over that?? It would weigh less and look better than a gutted 7. If you are going to gutt your car and are really serious about it, Put a 14pt roll cage in it, take off the door pannels and remove the metal breces and re install the door pannel. But before doing this put the 14pt cage in cuz if you flick the door it should dent so be careful, take out braces you don't need were ever you can. This should shave off some lbs. I have heard of this done before, just not to a 7. glovebox and all its componets can come out.

LoSRx7

What does the Lexan Hatch look like for the Rx-7??
Is there a website??/

C. Ludwig

iTrader: (27)

1)Here's one for the center console. Maybe, I'm not good at attaching files!
2)Don't worry about the paint on the hood. The insulation is a sound deadner.
3)Like others have said, remove the carpet and pull out the insulation. The way you sound to me you could do without the carpet all together. It is VERY heavy with all the insulation attached. The dumb-dumb insulation on the floor comes off best when it's very cold. I've done it both ways and using heat or a solvent makes a HUGE mess. If you live in the north go out and do it now. It'll flake right off in large chunks and leave no residue. If you're in the south get some dry ice or bottle nitrogren to cool it. The wack it with a hammer and putty knife.
4)Ditch the power steering and save a bunch of weight but be warned that the manual rack is pretty slow compared with the power rack.
5)I just heard that there was a non-tilt steering column on some cars that's supposed to be quite a bit lighter than the tilt column. I'm wanting one of these myself.
6)If you're thinking about taking the A/C out go ahead and pull the dash and take out all the ducting, fans, motors, A/C evaporator, etc. Be warned that a defroster is sometimes a must have.
7)Gut the sunroof if you have one and hard mount it.
8)Take all the wiring harnesses out and remove all unused wiring. If you've eliminated all the emissions crap and all power accessories you can save ALOT of weight here.
9)I've said this a 100 times. If you're going to spend money making you're car light the first thing to do is lighten anything in the powertrain that rotates. Light flywheel and the lightest wheels you can find. Unless you're building a strictly drag car in which case a heavier flywheel has real merit. The correlation in rotating weight to static weight is something like 5:1. Meaning that for every pound of rotating weight you remove you'll get the same acceleration benefit as removing 5 pounds of static weight.
10)Go on a diet and work out. Skip McDonald's on the way home and use that money toward a light wieght flywheel.

Chris

jarrod

Iv'e gutted my rx-7 I have tossed everything you can imagine...
I even have rci plastic seats and I am still looking for more stuff to toss
,since this is no daily driver,not even a windshield wiper assy
a hole saw drill can also work wonders!!!
also I pulled the vinyl layering on the dash to bear plastic
its cool, lighter the better!!!







jarrod
-------------------------------
Are you gonna race it?or drive it to church on sudays:p

tesla042

There's a boatload of stuff under the hood that you can take out, especially if you don't have emissions testing. See your engine? Ok, leave that. See everything else? Is it REALLY necessary? Pull the EGR, ACV, BAC, cold start, washer resovoir, a/c, p/s, omp.. Replace the stock airbox nightmare with a cone.. Remove that hugeass snorkel, and make it as compact as possible. Not only better airflow, but lighter!

You may want to move your battery to the back.. The spare tire place is a nice place to mount it, but make sure it's dry...and use a battery case. I hear a 51R battery, the ones that miatas use, works rather well, and weighs some 10 pounds less.

I've seen pics where people cross drill their DOORS. Pull off your inside door panel.. See all that metal right there? Drill thru it, a lot.. It's a lot safer that completely cutting it out, and you can save some weight like this..

Actually I hear that POWER windows are lighter than MANUAL.. kinda blew my mind with that..

If you don't mind, replace all carpet and insulation with walmart felt..

A lot of these are pretty petty, and alone won't do much.. but, all in all, you can get a damn light FC out of this--especially if you start with a base series 4, like I'm doing!

-Tesla

swoop

1) You can decrease the tire pressure you run and save a lot of weight that way. (36psi down to 30psi is 6 pounds x 4 = 24pounds.)
2) You can also drive naked and leave your wallet at home.
3) Take off your license plates.
4) Remove you rear view mirror.
5) Remove the padding from the steering wheel.
6) Remove your tach needle. (It weighs a ton.)
7) Take off your shift ****.
8) Remove the light bulb for the dome light.
9) Replace your ignition key with a light-weight carbon fiber key.
10) Replace your stock seats with inflatable chairs.
11) MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS DRIVE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

Felix Wankel

I have one if you want it.

C. Ludwig

iTrader: (27)

Felix, you got a PM.

Tesla, I've got both regulators at the shop and though I haven't weighed them the manuals have to be lighter. They're basically the same except the power have the motor. The weight difference couldn't be a whole lot though.

Chris

NCsublime

IMHO- Some of these suggesstions are ridiculous. Oh well, whatever floats your boat I guess. . .

SaabGuy

Make sure your car has the bigest erection set wing you can fabricate. Make it lift instead of downforce. The faster you go the lighter you will wiegh, and you may even get off the ground!

Dak

Is this car a daily driver or a project.Some of these things would be crazy to do on a daily driver.IMO.