goldminer

Does anyone know how much weight can I lose by removing the A/C? What other "easy gain" weight loss items are there? I've removed the rear seats and swapped out the fronts already.

333pg333

Battery, Hood, rear hatch to lexan (easy enough process but a bit tricky to get down under. PM me on this if you're interested) lighter alternator, some carpets. Theses are the easier things to do, some more than others. Then you start getting into c/f or fibreglass panels which have their own issues.
What car do you have?

goldminer

I've got an '88 Turbo S. It's in at the workshop now.

Van

Remove window glass and regulators. Custom exhaust. Light weight torsion tube carrier and coil-over shocks. Lighter wheels. Remove air bags & control module and cruise stuff. Remove headlight motor and windshield washer tank. Replace front bumper with a fiberglass one.

I'm sure you get the idea!

Porschefile

The a/c isn't a huge weight loss if it's basically just the engine bay components, which weigh something like ~20-30lbs IIRC. Some other weight loss measures you could do are the ones Patrick mentioned as well as manual steering conversion (something like ~25lbs lost), cruise control (this is a sports car, who uses it anyways?!), sunroof motor and associated components (not much there but every bit counts), eliminate the pop-up headlights, eliminate the afm with a maf or map (that thing is heavy!), aftermarket exhaust (the stock double-walled exhaust is heavy as sh*t!), Tial wastegate, run a Braille or Odessey battery (you could potentially save like 20-49lbs), eliminate the fogs and either block off or run brake ducts......and the list goes on. There are a lot of little things. Myself, I've tried to focus on eliminating "novelty" type items that I feel Porsche would have if they had made an "RS" 951, such as cruise control, rear seats, sunroof, manual steering, etc etc.

Weston Dillard

Porschefile:

>>I've tried to focus on eliminating "novelty" type items that I feel Porsche would have if they had made an "RS" 951, such as cruise control, rear seats, sunroof, manual steering, etc etc.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Bring that thing to a PCA event so I can see it! :-)

West

2bridges

don't forget about spare tire well. If you have wleding capabilities this is easy enough and will save a few

Techno Duck

Is the manual steering really that much lighter? I figure the two racks weigh exactly the same, the only savings is taking out the pump and reservoir and the 3/4 of a quart of ATF or so.

Anyhow regarding the battery, my stock size Diehard battery weighed 43lbs using the bathroom scale. The Odyssey PC680 is about 16lbs. Thats 27lbs taken off, relativley high up on the car.

Another big drop is the rear bumper. The stock US aluminum bumper with pads and shocks weighs about 30lbs, the euro bumper weighs about 13lbs total with the hard mounts. Thats another 20-22lbs. Total cost for me was about $230 including the shipping from the UK.

Im trying to dump as much weight off my car without compromising to much every day drivability. The a/c is coming out in a month or two when it warms up (that sounds retarded!) and i can comfortably work on the car again. The next big step is going to be the seats.. my 4-way power leather sport seats are like 55lbs each. I can drop an easy 50lbs going with a Recaro SRD (Speed) or one of the Momo street racer seats. I just love the sport seats so much...cant bring myself to part with them.

I still need to remove the rear portion of the rear seat, but frankly im to lazy to take out the 4pt roll bar in the back again.

Guns951

Also remember that it causes drag on the crank pully, so the fewer things being driven off of the crank or associated pullys will help.

Ski

If you're going AC delete, why not get a smaller alternator, depending on V and A needed, you can save almost 10 pounds with a race alternator.

mein51

If nothing else, the AC delete moves the alternator to the bottom side of the motor. Helps move your CG down and you get tons more room for working on the motor.

Weston Dillard

Techno Duck:

The manual rack is lighter, but only by a pound or two as I recall. In the end, I chose to go with the quicker steering power rack with no power and really like it. Losing the leaky pump, cooler and reservoir add up. Even with 275 Toyo RA1s up front, it isn't that hard to steer.

West

Porschefile

Will do. Now if I can just stop procrastinating with putting the turbo on so I can get this thing back on the street. In USPS time that will be 6 to 8 years. Seriously though, hopefully in 2-3 months. BTW Wes, I've been pretty interested myself in seeing your car. I do hope to see you at an event soon. Mind if I bum a ride off you? I've driven S2's and 968's but, I'm curious what a 3.0l turbo feels like.

The manual rack? Yeah, I could have sworn it was ~20# lighter all together, including the removal of the lines, pump, etc. Most of the weight difference is in the rack from what I remember. It's been so long I forget. Either way it was worth it to me as I was tired of constantly fixing p/s leaks, not to mention it helps clean up the engine bay. I still wish someone would post a believable weight for the stock hood. GT Racing states ~79# I believe, and I've heard others mention ~40#. Personally, I tend to believe GT Racing's numbers because after holding mine without hood struts it certainly feels damn heavy! I've also heard multiple times that the whole rear glass/hatch assembly is ~80#, which sounds realistic too. The Kokeln rear crossmember/TB eliminator is probably the most cost ineffective weight removal on these cars. IIRC they're something like ~$2500 (if they even produce them still) and you only loose something like 20#. Personally, unless you could find a good deal on a used one, IMO that's something better left to the hardcore track guys out there looking for those last few pounds.

95ONE

Two thumbs up for the rear bumper. Man that thing is heavy.

tifosiman

It's more than a couple of pounds saved, but I can't remember what the difference was when I did the conversion. The manual rack itself is somewhat lighter than the power rack, plus all of the extra bits that you get rid of including the fluid (and an extra bit of parasitic drag on the motor of course). Below is a shot of all of the junk that I pulled from the car during the swap (except for the pulley on the crank of course). All of this was replaced by the manual rack and manual shaft.