I know they say every 10lbs you shed, you lose .1 seconds, but that can't go on forever. If you lost 1 second per 100lbs you shed off, that means you would lose 10 seconds by dropping 1000lbs.

So when does weight reduction start becoming futile?

 

I believe it is .1 per 100 lbs. someone correct me if Im wrong

 

thats what ive always heard. and i dont think it would really every stop working unless you started messing up the cars overall balance and costing urself traction... (just a guess) so correct me if im wrong plz.

 

As the car gets lighter, the more weight you take off, the more gains you get. It's a percentage thing.

 

You are missing a 0 Kurt!!!!

Minimun seems to be about 2600 LBS,start shedding weight!!!

All you need is a 800HP engine and you can be in the really really fast club!!!

 

Oh, oops. So every 100lbs you drop, you drop .1 seconds off your track time??

So, I can gain 1 full second by reducing my weight to 2600lbs. What do I have to remove or change to get my weight down to 2600lbs?

 

Go here !!!

 

You would have to make your car more than just a shell. Ive seen completely gutted 4th gens with lots of lightweight parts that weight 2800 lbs.

 

Everything.

Full tubular front suspension.
No AC or heat, remove the whole HVAC system from engine bay the dash.
No power steering.
No ABS.
Strange light brakes.
Manual brake booster.
Rip out all of the interior.
Light seats.
Alot more.

If it isn't vital to making the car stop, go, or turn, it comes off the car.

 

If its a drag only car then whatever you can get rid of thats not needed to run and stop the car or anything needed for safety can go.
If your on the street then it depends on how insane you are. I keep getting closer and closer to the edge.
My car weighs less than 3200 lbs right now and I still have the stereo in it.
I have removed the following.
Front bumper support
cruise control
HVAC
front sway bar and brackets
fog lights
emergency brake (its an auto)
passenger seat and rear seats and seatbelts
spare and jack
swapped stock carpet for lightweight aftermarket one
put in a B&M pro stick shifter
both air bags
put a grant GT wheel in place of stock one
Theres more but thats the major stuff. Before you start unbolting parts though seriously think about what you want out of the car. Most guys will think your nuts if you do what I have done and they will look at your car as a gutted piece of junk. I don,t care but some people do.
Its a PITA to reinstall some of that stuff, especially the HVAC so be honest with yourself before you pick up a wrench.

 

To answer the original queston, you never stop increasing accelaration by removing weight..... the governing principle is Force (at the rear wheels) = M*** (the weight of the car - sort of) X Acceleration[/b]. Rewriting that expression, you get:

A = F / M

When you hold the force at the rear wheels constant, every time you make "M" smaller, you increase the rate of acceleration. The limit is reached as you approach "0" mass. As weight drops, the gains in acceleration increase for each unit.

The "1/10th for each 100#" is a "rule-of-thumb".... an approximation for your average street car. Using the widely accepted emperical formula for ET vs weight and HP, for a vehicle like a 4th Gen Body, you will find that at a starting weight of 3,600#, you will gain about 0.116 seconds for the first 100# loss, 0.118 seconds for the next 100#, 0.121 for the next 100#, 0.124 for the next 100# (now we're down to 3,200#)..... you can see where this going.

 

I know this is unrelated but gutting your car to make it faster is ghetto unless its an all out drag car.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

- Z28WannaB

 

That's your opinion

 

I respect a car alot more when it can run good times and still turn the AC on for the drive home from the track.

 

Personally i feel that you should keep increasing your hp until the car is no longer reasonably street driven. After that you might as well gut it and build an all out drag car. Thats what you call getting the horse before the cart.

Just an opinion.