weight reduction (88 FC)
 

im doing a weight reduction. and i was wondering if i should go with as much carbon fiber parts as possible. i meen like the the things that weigh the most. i am going with an alluminum hood for now. I heard there are carbon fiber interior panels and door panels. is there any place on the net where i can buy them? ive been searching for the pas 2 hours and cant find anything.


thanks for the help

honestly carbon fiber interior panels arent gonna be that much lighter than the plastic interior panels..best way to reduce weight is to just remove all the interior panels and door panels!

k thanks. what about gutting the doors

Iwouldnt gut the doors to much, as the door openings on this car are flimsy as it is and believe it or not the stringth of the doors helps, Unless you cage the thing than it all good.

Lexan rear hatch is good for about 20+ lbs
sunroof delet 15lbs
cut the spair tire tub out, but leave the side next to the gastank as it holds the tank up. thats aboout 10lbs. thin sheet metal covers the hole,
fiberglass front and rear bumpers might as well go, and then the suports.
There is alot of sound deadaning as well as about 7 layers of carpet, a most you only ned one,

The stock exaust is super heavy
That totaled about 250 lbs. when i did it.

Why are you gutting the car? What is your application? This helps determine what your best path is.

For a full-on track car (non streetable)

0) gut the full interior, and everything behind the dash. You may want to consider leaving the heater/defroster unit.

1) Do a search on how to get rid of the sound deadening material that's underneith the carpet.

2) If you are running a cage, then gut the doors. Come to think of it, just gut the doors anyway. If you leave the window tracks in place then you can insert/remove the window glass for transportation. I would recommend leaving the stock side impact door bar in.

3) Stock seats - gone. Replace with lightweight race seats.

4) Battery relocation to passenger compartment. Use a lightweight sealed battery.

5) Headlights and associated brackets and motors - gone.

6) Don't forget the radio antenna.

7) Lightweight wheels - could save 20 lbs and it's all unsprung weight. :-)

My track FC w/ an Autopower roll bar is supposedly around 2400 lbs.

-b

friend of mine has a n/a '87 FC and its under 2400 pounds with full interior and stereo, tokico/gc suspension, no p/s, no a/c, no spare. its a nice streetcar, with bumper supports still in place.

a lightweight exhaust, lightweight flywheel and lightweight wheel choice are key in losing weight on a streetcar.
there are plenty of thick fiber mats under the carpet that can be removed, there are extra wires and relays and connectors throughout the cabin that can be removed.
in the engine bay there are several parts and bolts/studs that can be removed or cutoff to save weight.

you can save some weight running a fiberglass race bucket seat instead of the stock seat, I modified my stock sliders and used those. the race seat was almost a 20 pound savings.

that 2400lbs thats with you in it right?

this is for autox and drag racing. i weigh 204 and i havent gotten my car weighed yet. i can do that at a truck stop can't i?

All of these weight reduction mods you are talking about are going to bump you from C Street Prepared into F Prepared. You better read the rules on SCCA.com before you do anything else to your car. Just an fyi.

Remove the excess wiring too... there is a $#!* load.

Nope. I should have been clearer - that's 2400 lbs with real power windows, glass hatch and a working power sunroof. ;)

Not for long, though. :)

-bill

so true! my car is prewired for every option and accessory... thats a load of extra crap right there that I was able to yank and I still have more to remove!

my buddies FC was under 2400# but thats without driver. I think it was 2370 or 2360, I cant remember, but it was wet / ready to drive.

True - the original poster did not indicate his intent.

Most of the mods I described (except headlights and battery reloc) *are* however legal for SCCA Improved Touring. But since this is auto-x/drag and not roadcourse/track some of these recommendations are not appropriate.

-bill

You could follow my route: www.rxracing.com It starts at the bottom of the page with a shell and a plan on what it should look like.

-Trent

is 2000-2100 reachable f you completly remove the interior and all unnecessary items?

Yeah, some guy is 1900lbs in his race FC. I was 2470 with just the rear carpet removed and I had a sound system in it.

2100 lbs.?

Probably not without removing all the glass and replacing with lexan along with fiberglass bodywork. My 91 is 95% stripped, but with full glass and comes in around 2400. And if you are going to strip it that far, you will want to cage it.

That last 300 lbs is the toughest to remove.

i dont think i want to go that far, im planning on keeping functional head/tail lights so i can keep her registered. but i will be using an Alum. fuel cell. Do you have a dash and all the hvac stuff still?

My car was just over 2000 lbs dry but that was with the cage. So figure just over 1800 without. This is a car with nothing. Dash, bumpers gone one seat, 16 gal alum cell, lexan front and rear, composite body work, NA motor/trans/rear (none of that heavy turbo crap!)

i dunno man, my sunroof assembly felt like it weighed like 40+ at least.

Have a dash, but no HVAC (logicon, motors and all the ducting pulled), a single lightweight race seat for the driver (but I'm putting another seat on the passenger side for an instructor). Still have the power windows and sunroof (previous owners small consession to comfort :) ). Previous owner actually weighted car, I have not weighed it myself.

For comparison purposes, the SCCA ITS minimum weight for the FC is 2680 with a 180# driver - so they are assuming it is possible to get the car down to 2500 legally (with full cage, gutted interior, stockish engine, open exhaust). In E-Production, which allows fiberglass fenders and lexan, etc., minimum weight is 2250 with driver.

I'm not saying you can't get below these weights, this is just an indication of where other people are running.

-b

i see, Luckily im in iowa and i will be just driging around cones in parking lots for quite a while, so i dont thingk theres a sanctioning body or anything for those... Id have to look into it more to be sure