What makes the FC so heavy?
 

Any ideas?

well, the TII's have all the beefy drivetrain components. FC's have lots of sound deadening bullshit... also have you ever picked up a stock seat? hahaha

but overall FC's really aren't THAT HEAVY, what are you comparing it to?

100lb doors :) 60lb steel hood :) Except for aluminum hoods.

Numbers are exagerated of course.

Could be the all steel chassis.

Me tippin' the scales at bill brasky makes my fc kind of heavy :D

Most of our 2nd gen 7's are around 2650-2850 lbs stock, depending on the model and optional equipment. An AWD STI, for example, weighs in at a rather hefty 3350 lbs. mostly due to the added drivetrain. And it's a smaller car. If you were to strip a 7 for track use, with 1 seat, no a/c, sound deadening, etc. you can bring it down to around 2300 lbs if I remember correctly, which is pretty respectable.

A lot of what makes them heavy is the result of Mazda's commitment to making cars and trucks that have a very solid feel, are rattle-free and quiet. It takes thick steel, multiple-rib and multiple-crease floor pans, large pillar posts and well-engineered stampings to achieve this, not to mention all of the sound-deadening and insulation.

Verts are even heavier with all of the added reinforcements and massive box construction on the crossmembers. But if you ever compared the driving experience of an rx7 Vert to say, for example, a Sebring vert or Camaro, the difference is night and day. Those sons o' bitches rattle, twist, and shake like a mofo. I'll keep my "heavy 7" and keep the Subies in the rear view mirror thank you! ;)

Bingo. Compare the sub frame on the FC to an economy car and you'll instantly see a difference. The FC was designed to take abuse and provide reliable service doing so.

Though I certainly would not describe a ~2500 LB car as "heavy".

the driver. :bigthumb:

The FC isnt that heavy. Hell my daily driver tips the scales at 3629 and still manages to get to 60 in 6.5 seconds. Just nevermind it handles like I'm driving an arm chair while blind folded.

yeah, they're pretty light.

They're heavy compared to, say, a miata... but even then, they aren't that much heavier (what, like 400lb?) And they're twice as big.

compared to a miata theyre not even that much heavier. maybe 200 pounds. my car weighs in at about 2500 pounds due to a little removal here and there but looks to be stock inside. most sedans weigh about 3400 pounds and coupes like the 300zx weigh around 3200. "muscle" cars like mustangs and camaros weigh close to 3600. a police car weighs around 4300. trucks and SUVs weigh like 5000.

heavy! i weighed my car at the track with myself and a half tank of gas 2748lbs. thats heavy compared to a mini cooper i guess.

I believe one reason is the chassis.

A TII is heavier than an FD - which overall is not much smaller dimension wise. Heavy (and similar in weight) drivetrains, sound deadening, etc. leaves little reason for its lower weight. I don't know the names of them, but I believe the chassis style was switched to a lighter and stronger type.

Heavy? Compared to a motorcycle maybe.

Our FC's ARE heavy

the GC WRX STi for example

is lighter than the FC AND FD... and it's a bloody awd 4 door saloon car!





i dropped the Rear subframe on my FC..

that THING IS MADE OF RECYCLED ANVILS...

rear sub complete with diff axles and brakes..

it takes 3 ppl to carry the damn thing.. and it still takes a ton of effort...


it was sooooo much heavier than my friends S13 rear end...


mine became impossible to put back on... I had to put the car on a Lift.. and Lower it onto the Subframe.. rather than raising the subframe on to the car..


it's rediculous


I wonder what you could get an FC's weight down to if u used CF hood, fenders, doors, and all lexan windows completely gutted.. one non recling bucket.. sheet metal Dashboard..

not much u can do about the underlying stuff tho..

The minimum weight for an EP class racecar is 2350lbs (with driver, weight as raced). I do believe that some people do make that weight.

steel body, not fiberglass right?, like all the fenders and stuff?

i would love to have custom fiberglass body work done to first of all lighten it, and make it look just a little more like the concept drawings which look so bad ass

but then again im broke

is it easy to remove sound deadening things ? what are they even?

Material under the carpets to keep road noise down.

It's absolutly retarded to remove it on a street car.

It will only save you a couple of dozen pounds (which is nothing on a 2600+ pound car) in exchange for a much louder cabin. It's also not easy to remove since the carpets need to come out and the sound deadening material is glued to the chassis.

IMHO anything under 3000lbs and classified a sports car is "light"

Dream on. A 1990 Miata (closest year to your car) weighs under 2100. With "a little removal here and there" can be under 2000. Both the Miatas and RX-7s got heavier as the years passed, due to extra equipment and increasing crash standards, but a 7 is substantially heavier. That's fair enough because they're also substantially bigger.

So why are the FB's so much lighter, besides being somewhat smaller with a couple less extras? I mean, the FC was 2800-2900lbs. before they added all that aluminum to combat the extra bulk. And the FB is, what, 2200lbs.?

It's this pad of tar-ish stuff. PITA to remove unless you have an air chisel.


How much exactly does the rear hatch weigh? One of my struts blew out + I went to lift it. Holy shit that thing is heavier than I though. I bet w some lexan you could lighten that thing up alot. Or if you do the good 'ol truck back end mod hahahah

my seven is heavy because i choose to keep the luxury on my car.. even though its a n/a... its nice and comfy. except for the solid motor and tranny mounts.

i guess i can always buy a 1990 miata... and cut the firewall for a t2 motor :).. if im that rich.. which im not. lol

anyway. i am looking to get a 1988 honduh crx for dd... mad lightness yo.

If you have a s4 turbo TII get rid of the stock rims, swap on s5 GTU aluminums, you WILL instantly notice a differnce.

and to the guy with the rx8 rims, that look is sweet :bigthumb: , i have been working on getting that same look on my black s4 TII. so far its just been all swaped to s5 exterior parts minus tail lights and mirrors (I like the TII mirrors). it looks like you have the CS bumper caps, i dont know what kindof side skirts are they s5 turbo OE? and i was wondering about the look and fitment of rx8 18" wheels on a fc3s, did you have any fitment issues? PM me please and thank you.

In a word, crash standards. Well, 2 words....

The Gross vehicle weight of my FC is 3595lb, its 2700 on my 93 Miata. The Miata's curb weight is 2070lb, and the FC is about 2600lb depending on options such as A/C, PS, PW, and others. I have been wanting to convert mine to manual steering because its lighter and has a quicker ratio. As for the FC being way bigger than the MX-5, It really isnt. The 5 is 156.3" long and the FC is 168.9" (S4) the S5 is about an inch longer. As far as width, there about the same.

also for the fact that the fb wasn't necessarily intended to become a hit. when they where building it, they threw n any radome part to make it work, thats why why was light.

yea crash standards really put a damper on cars these days in my opinion. those huge bumpers look retarded. i think people just need to realize that riding around in fast moving metal is dangerous and big fat bumpers wont save you if you are an idiot and change lanes without looking. I think those fatass bumpers are a ploy to make people feel better about buying SUVs, as they now looker less gigantic by comparison to the 2008 model sedans.

And in addition to what everyone is saying, the HUGE rear hatch. That thing is hefty.

tar is easy to remove all you need is a couple bags of dry ice ,a hammer and maybe a chisel.

^You also forgot lots of time.

the doors are pretty heavy, but probably mostly b/c of the glass..

my S4 TII weighed 2800 lbs even with no weight reduction beside AC removal, with a mostly full tank of gas. and it was even a little rear biased. I suppose the 51/49 front/rear bias rating you always see is with empty gas tank

Im riding light. No A/C Gutted Interior and Dry Iced out the sound deadening material.

Even when I get the Roll cage in, and swap over to a fuel cell, I bet Im roughly @ 2400-2500 lbs. :D

I can swing my FD's front subframe over my head with one arm :D

YOU THAR, DONT BE SHOWOFF WITH YOUR FANCY SHMANCY CAR :icon_no2:

...boy is that thing gorgeous. :crying:

Hood 60 lbs
engine emissions crap (air pump)??? Estimated 10lbs
power windows 5lbs each (heavier than non power)
sunroof 22lbs (high up, bad for cg)
power seat belts 15lbs each
powersteering 25 lbs
dash 35lbs heavier than S4 dash
rear hatch 100lbs+ or so
twin exhaust (cats, emissions again); conservative 25lbs
assorted sound deadning 15lbs total

lets do the math, that's close to 302lbs and we have not went bare bone; no A/C, Heater core, radio...

Me personaly I just compensate by making more power (for a street car) I want to be comfortable if I had a track car that would be something else all together

To each his own I am sure there is some happy median for good power to weight

so lets say you remove the hood and rear hatch.... then what do you use to maintain the car's aero profile? Im not sure you can just subtract that weight quite so easily.

WRONG......

I just read the other day in a tuner mag I have at work that an AWD STI curb weight is 3350-ish lbs.

As I said i my earlier post up there ^ our 2nd gens are around 2600-2800 lbs in stock form.

All this comparison to the Miata doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Miata is a much smaller roadster, the FC is a larger sports coupe. Things like a roof, a few feet more body and a rear hatch glass tend to add weight.

Also the FC is a well made car. Subframes are very thick (Maybe that's why we can put down 500+ HP and not worry about tearing things up?), body panels are thick and structural, etc. The car could have been made lighter but it would not meet crash standards (and anyone who has been in a serious accident in an FC knows how well they stand up).

The FC is simply a well made car. How many other Japanese sports cars from the '80s are around and not rust buckets these days?

Still, it's not like the car is heavy by any means. There will always be a lighter car. Every car on this forum is a pig compared to my 1800 LB Insight, but it doesn't mean they are heavy.

If you want a heavy RX-7, look at the S5 vert or the early SAs (with 200+ LBs of thermal reactor exhaust).

Amen Aaron!

Our cars are tough. As for the comparison to the FB. A guy i know hit a lady who pulled out in front of him. H was doing like 55mph, and without the full roll cage, he might have lost his feet. They're just not as tough.

True. But i know a lot of people who have s13's that they drift. The car might be lighter, but i've drifted s13s and FCs and i'll tell you what, FCs are just way more solid.

GC WRX, not the GD WRX which is what the American spec STI's are. The GC does not have the bug-eyed headlights.

One correction from what mazda.junkie said, the manual steering has a slower ratio, not faster.

heh,heh!..You forgot to Mention all that Military Training there GoodFella!..Tossing Privates and Corporals all over the place can give you Muscles in no time flat!..and now for some Thread info:the steel FC hood is 56 lbs,and the aluminum I believe is 23 or 28.!

s13 coupes are about 50 pounds lighter, if that. fastbacks are at least 50 pounds heavier.

the FC is heavy because the mazda engineers in charge of the FC project could not remove anymore weight without compromising the integrity and driveability of the car.

I think the final project was called "ounce per head" where every mazda engineers disassembled a complete FC and were told to remove 1 oz. each from anywhere in the car.

And comparing an FC rear end with a 240 rear end is like comparing J-Lo's ass with Paris Hilton's ass.

lol, there's something to that

one is DEFINITELY more refined than the other...

MKIII supra weighs around 3600-3800lb. So I dont know why are you guys are complaining

well most people focus on weight and use it as a crutch while others are happy with good POWER TO WEIGHT RATIO.

unless your car is track only dont worry about it. The car is not that heavy, however if you must I do feel there are a few things here and there that can be done to trim the fat with out to many compromises

:rlaugh: at your avatar!!

Kinda like the single vs. dual argument using the weight difference as a deciding factor. Useless unless you plan on making a dedicated track car.