A.J. - 95 993

I hope this hasn't been discussed too much to repeat, but I was interested in the best ways to reduce weight in the 993. I use my 993 as a daily driver, autocross, and hope to make it to the track soon. I am interested in the extremes, like lightweight hoods and doors, if anyone has experience with them. I also am aware that there are extremes that are not livable on the street even for the wildest enthusiast. I am a little disappointed with the difficulty/price of upgrading the engine, and am slowly realizing that lighter weight is probably more cost effective, and actually improves more than just acceleration. Thanks.

A.J.
95 993

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi A.J.

Good questions, and well worth repeating.

I'm sure you understand that everything you do will be a compromise and you are the only person who can decide what's worth the tradeoff.

I would strongly suggest that you install close-ratio gears before you entertain any notions about enegine upgrades. For improving your 0-100 times, there is nothing better or will make the biggest difference.

That said, here are some things that can be done to save weight:

1) Install fiberglass or carbon-fiber racing seats. Figure about 25 lbs per side.

2) Carbon-fiber hood & doors. This is a biggie. You will save about 175 lbs or so.

3) Light-weight mufflers. These do carry a serious compomise in loudness. Many folks do not like that,......

4) Carbon-fiber front fenders. These will save about 45 lbs.

The rest of the things we do now get very expensive and impractical for street cars.

Removing 200+ lbs is a very big change and affects acceleration, handling and braking. Plus, it has no effect on emissions compliance.

Doing all of the above including that close-ratio gearbox (2nd-6th) will make your car very quick!

Enjoy,

Anir

Steve,

I could sure use a carbon fiber belly to replace the overweight, bloated part currently affixed to my body. That would be good for at least 25 lbs, I should think.

David T.

175 lbs - really!!!

Do you know how much are savings for hood alone?

For the doors, do you loose power windows, etc.?

A.J. - 95 993

Steve, how about some ballpark prices?

A.J.
95 993

Gert

I don't know for the aftermarket parts, but the factory 993RS hood (in aluminum) is around $1800 !

Ran

Anir,
For wt savings start by letting the cat out of the bag Replacing belly is the last step and you will need to pay Cutts the butcher for such surgery.

A.J. or Steve,
Seriously though - what about the rear seat delete option. Does that save any wt. Or is the substitute piece that goes there to maintain a finished look almost equally expensive. Then again, one could just do away with that seat.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Gents:

My apologies, I totally forgot to mention the "diet option" to effective and cheap weight reduction,......
There is no question that giving up certain food groups will have a positive affect on corner weights and overall weight.


Seriously tho,......look at GT Racing, Getty's and Mike Shaw's ads and catalogues to see current pricing on the various FB or CF body parts. There are many door variations and some of them retain the stock window frames that allow the window functions (manual). Its possible to keep the power windows but we usually install a manually activated pull-up window or sliding window for maximum weight loss. We also build our own RS-type door panels as a part of the whole program. Replacing the door glass with plastic also helps.

Deleting rear seats saves very little, overall. Maybe 20 lbs or so.

I do not know exactly what the breakdown is between a pair of doors and the hood. We normally replace all this stuff at the same time for maximum effect. I'll tell you that if you can go somewhere and pick up a stock complete door, you will simply stunned how heavy they are.

Weight reductions are really effective in everyway. Last weekend at our annual Rose Cup race and PCA Club race, one of our guys with an RSR-bodied '70 "T", and a bone-stock but chipped 93 3.6 engine, simply blew off all of the late model cars in his class due to that combination of 247+ HP and 2150 lbs. I won't even mention how well the TT Big Red brakes stop a car like this.

Hell, its only money,......

A.J. - 95 993

What material are the doors made of? I'm sure most options would be aluminum, fiberglass or carbon fiber. Would it be wise to replace the doors for every day street use? I work in the auto industry, and there is lots of emphasis these days on side intrusion and things like that. Would it be advisable to use light weight doors only with a roll cage or other driver protection to go with it, or are the doors structurally sound? I'm not looking for anything legal here, just an opinion - are the doors reasonably rigid, or are they made of minimum material to bridge the gap from the front fender to rear quarter panel?

...I suppose answers to these types of questions are readily available in the catalogs you mentioned, and surely there's some compromise between weight and safety. It's just something worth discussing.

A.J.
95 993