About to shed weight - (CAR and DRIVER)
 

Hey Guys,

My car at 3,000lbs is a pig so I need to shed some serious weight.
I'm going to be removing all the interior bits in the rear (who needs them anyway) as well as the carpet and all teh sound deadening.
Now, in order to remove the carpet in one piece I'd have to remove my seats (which I may need to do in any case), remove the DAS roll bar, disconnect my Moton reservoirs etc.
So I'm thinking, is this all worth it for a used carpet? How much does an RS carpet kit cost? Maybe I'll just slice the carpet as needed and then toss it away?
I don't think I would ever put it back in the car but is it worth something if I sell it?

Thanks for the help! And good weight saving tips are appreciated!

Gonna have to put my self on a diet as well to justify tossing away all that stuff from my car...haha!

The market value of a complete used carpet set with sound foam attached is approximately $3.50. When you start pulling it out, you'll see why nobody would want to buy it...

+1 on what Eric said. Worthless....

Thanks guys!

I removed my spare wheel, the tool kit and the compressor yesterday. The trunk lining was already gone. This is what I have as far as weight savings go:

* trunk lining removed
* spare tire, compressor, tools removed
* Sparco seats
* Sparco steering wheel (airbag removed)
* Rear seat backs removed
* Lightweight flywheel (rotational)
* Kinesis K28 and Turbo hollow spoke wheels (rotational and unsprung)
* DACH-X cat bypass
* RSR mufflers
* 3.8RS composite decklid and wing
* DAS Rollbar (added weight)


This is my on my list:

- remove carpet in rear
- remove rear seats
- remove all sound deadening from rear
- remove rear interior decklid and speakers
- remove rear quarter panels
- replace doors skins with RS
- remove speakers
- remove radio


With the spare wheel, compressor and tools the car weighed 2900lbs with 3/4 tank. Is it possible to get under 2800lbs after removing the items on my 'to do list'?

Also, what next?

Do you plan to drive this car on the street or to the track? I did pretty much what you plan to do. Drove the car to the track with my IPOD for some tunes. Next day purchased front speakers and installed in RS door panels. The weight savings of the head unit and front speakers does not out weigh tunes during long drives to the track. I think you can be creative and look for other ways to save weight that weight.

Here's my best guess:

- remove carpet in rear - 4 lbs
- remove rear seats - 12 lbs
- remove all sound deadening from rear - 12 lbs
- remove rear interior decklid and speakers - 12 lbs
- remove rear quarter panels - 5 lbs
- replace doors skins with RS - 15 lbs?
- remove speakers - 5 lbs
- remove radio - 3 lbs

Total = 65 to 70 lbs roughly.

For me, it wouldn't be worth it. I like to drive my car so I personally wouldn't do any of the stuff on your TO DO list. You already hit the biggies.

Good point! I do drive the car ocassionally on the street; I'm actually at work today with the car.

I guess I'll look into some smaller speakers.

Yep, not even close to 200lbs. Loosing weight is not easy huh?

Some other ideas:
Replace roof with unlined non-sunroof item may save you 40lb.
Lighter battery
Lighter exhaust

BTW, I thought the spare tire was necessary for crash safety.

They say that it'd intended to absorb impact. In a big hit, I'd definitely want it in place for that reason. In a small hit, maybe not, since it'll smash the abs controller and maybe the suspension pickup points. Pick your poison.

I think the simple components you'd need to look at are (numbers that can be saved in lbs):
1) Hood 20+
2) front and rear bumper-supports 12
3) Lighter wheels and brakes (30+) and it's unsprung weight
4) Battery 22
5) Engine undertray 14
6) Windshield washer tank 12
A lighter exhaust would be nice too. Basically, I'd focus on un-sprung weight (wheels, tires, brakes, shocks) and what's at both extremes (bumperbars, exhaust, bumpersupports, battery, undertray etc)

Front seats will save you 60lbs + if you install race seats.

You could also weight yourself and lose some pounds, if you have some to shed!!!

The spare appears to do just that :) it took an air chisel and the two bars to prise the 20" x 16" oval spare ( and trapezoidal battery) out via the customized front door ..... :D

IMHO these estimates are very optimistic.