me and good friend are lightening our f-bodies this winter. he says if we can reach our goal of 700lbs, it should be good for about 7 tenths. with me running an average of 13.7-.8 right now, that would put me at the door of 12s!!

WITH A 99% Stock LT1!!!!


wish me luck fellas!

jon

 

I didn't think you can take that much weight off without removing the glass. Keep us posted on the weight of each item removed. My porker need to loose some lbs. this winter and so do I

 

i will def. keep u posted. from what i understand, theres about 2-300 lbs in the dash. the framerails and alot of the support in the doors is coming out as well, amoung other things.

lets just hope i dont get in a accident!!

jon

 

700 is a hell of a lot!!! Good luck though. I'm sure everyone here can make some suggestions. The quickest I dropped in one day was 102 lbs, nothing radical... back seat, spare, jack, subwoofer (35 lbs), floor mats, & misc trash from the glove box & console.
Front sway bar is long gone and skinnies are my full time tires.
I'm looking into dropping the front bumper support (27.5 lb) and fabing a molly replacement like the BMR Turbo car.
Please keep a record for us. Also I'm about to gut a 98 Z28 that a budd and I just picked up... I'll be going a far as removing the stock floor pans and replacing with alum... should be a SERIOUS project since the car will be strip only. I'll let you know how that goes.
Steve...

 

Good luck man. I hope you don't get into any wrecks.

My father said that we could take around 500-700 pounds off of my 90 mustang that weighs(3200-3300lbs w/driver). I would rather leave it stock weight, so I am leaving it stock weight.

 

The front bumper is a good one. I removed mine and replaced it with a 1/8 x 1 x 1 angle structure to hold up the nose.

 

The front crash support isn't a bad idea to remove...unless you're a daily driver. Too many morons on the road these days.

Don't forget excess fluid. Wiper fluid is the first to go and since gas goes around 6.3#/gallon, I'd either run a fuel cell or keep it around a 1/4 tank.

Good luck on the project.

 

-Carpet weighs a ton.... Go to Home depot or the like and find some of that thin carpet usually get it for about 30 bucks and it weighs alot less,
-there is a mat above the fuel tank under the carpet that is heavy ditch it.
-Rear bumper support.
-If strip only get the pass air bag out and all the supports there is alot of weight there.
-take the windsheild washer tank out with the fluid easy to remove.
-Take all brackets off for the sway bar as well.
-I did aftermarket brakes on the car was amazed how much lighter they were than stock... The rears were insane heavy too.

I don't think there is 2-300lbs under the dash but there is quiet a bit. Even with taking out the full air system in the car it is still not that much. Are you planning to spend money to make the car lighter as some things would drop your weight but make it more of a strip car or very lil street car.

Steven

 

Stay away from everbody if this thing is a daily driver.I wouldn't want to wreck that thing.Anyhow good luck,and please keep us posted.P.S.-lol did you ever try making fake doors out of card board thats alot of weight off there.

 

700 pounds is a lot in an F-body. How "streetable" or factory original are you going to keep it?

As mentioned above, there is a lot of stuff that can be removed or changed to shave off weight but there's only so much that can be removed before the car becomes unsafe or not very streetable.

My third gen is a very stripped down race car. It has a big block and a 6 point roll bar (70 pounds for the bar). Last year at the start of the season it weighed around 3200 pounds with me in it. Total weight with driver (about 170 pounds) is what the engine has to move so the car weight alone doesn't mean much. My car originally had power everything. Although it was never weighed I think the factory weight is in the 3500-3700 pound range so even with the extra weight I've added, the total weight hasn't come down that much. Fourth gens are not much better.

 

well, i drive mine alot, as does he. i drive mine more than he does though. im basicaly going to follow him along and watch what he does. if i see somthing that i think is a little too radical, then ill prolly skip it. i figure if i can get down even to minus 4-500lbs that would be great. we'll see! get my pro stars in a couple of days. then the front sway bar is coming out.

thanks, jon

 

100 pounds is more then 1 tenth 200 pounds is about .27 seconds off your 1/4 time so 700 pounds would be about 1 second or maybe a little bit less.

 

Well, yanking the basic stuff (jack/spare, rear seats, carpet insulation) is a given.

For me, I will be lightening the car up next year (it is REALLY heavy w/ the 6-pt cage, stereo system, etc.), but I am a little picky on what I will sacrifice....I mean, this is an all around street car.

- Of course skinnies and lightweight rear rims w/ stickies are a must for loosing weight. My current street rims/tires weigh 51lbs EACH. I run my Centerlines w/ ET Streets at the strip, but have still been running my street rims/tires up front. Easy 50+ lbs shaved right there.

- Lightweight K-memeber and A-arms are a given, if ya got the money.

- Yank the A/C. In a week or two, I'll be prototype testing something of major interest to some folks. Basically, replaces the bracket that holds the A/C compressor, PS pump, and alternator. The new bracket relocates the alternator to where the A/C compressor is AND allows you to keep the PS pump. I never use my A/C, so I'm more than happy to rid my car of it. This new bracket will be lighter than the stock bracket, and allow the use of any centerbolt aftermarket valve cover w/ out notching the cover. Plus gets the stupid alternator out of the way.

Of course, if you are going to the ultimate weight savings, that isn't for you anyway, since yanking the power steering would be a must-do, and just use the bracket from Madman that lets you just keep the alternator.

- Dunno if anyone has used that Percy's auto glass, but they claim 64lbs with it, while being scratch resistant and shatterproof.

- Front seats. Toss some aluminum seats in there, and save a nice chunk of weight.

- I've also considered yanking the airbags, but I don't think I'm willing to go THAT far quite yet. I've hears you can trim a decent amount of weight doing it, though. Of course, I would ONLY suggest doing that in conjunction with other safety oriented mods (like a cage and 5-point harness you wear all the time). Hell, if you think about it, up until the early-mid 90's, most cars didn't even have airbags.

- Aftermarket brakes, if you can get a lighter set. Nice weight reduction there.

- Hood. If you have a steel hood, go fiberglass.

- Most headers weigh less than stock manifolds, so that is less weight + more power....need I say more??

That's all I've got off the top of my head. I won't be doing all of that, simply because there is a lot of stuff I want to KEEP in my car. But everything I listed is still well within the realm of a street car, and a would save quite a chunk of weight.

 

Good start Joe...

smaller diameter torque converter
anything but a 4L60E or 700R4(VERY heavy)
lightweight carpet w/ no insulation
smaller battery
eliminate unnecessary wiring
If you want the absolute lightest wheels, go w/ a Bogart or Monocoque(basically the same wheel). My rear D-10s weigh 15#s and they're 15x9.75". The fronts are around 8#.
Run an ET Front instead of a metric radial tire
!radio(won't be able to hear it w/o the insulation anyway)
VFN makes a rear hatch piece for the TAs
door bars
only need one seat in the car.
Grant steering wheel
aluminum or carbon fiber driveshaft

Also would help if you started w/ the Formula or Z28. The TA ground effects and spoiler are extra weight. I would think a hardtop version would be slightly better than a t-top.

Sounds like a fun hacksaw project.

 

How's it going so far?? How much weight've you got off of it so far? Any noticeable difference yet?