KobaltBlau

Hello,

I haven't posted here much as I'm more of an 80's 911 guy, so please bear with me if I do something silly.

I'm looking for examples of 996 cars that have been significantly lightened or re-built as lightweights, but not full time track cars.

There was a 9ff built 3.4 911 in Excellence years ago, I believe they quoted curb weight in the 28XX range, but I no longer have the article. This is the car, though:

http://www.autosportengineering.com/9ff/jet_blue.htm

I would bet that you could do better than that; one of the spec 996 guys is at 2550, but that's race car with almost no interior - not so fun on the road.

Thanks in advance for any inspiration!

Andy

redridge

this will give you some idea of weight loss in a 996....

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...urbo-list.html

mglobe

My SP996 weighs ~2600 lbs with no ballast in it and an empty tank. That includes a full cage.

You can save a fair amount of weight by going to GT3 Euro seats. Somewhere around 45 lbs I think.

A lightweight battery can also save a fair amount. The stock battery was IIRC 45lbs. My Odyssey weighs 13lbs, though I'm not sure I would want to rely on it for much street driving.

Speakers, stereo head unit & amp will save a bit.

Remove the rear seats.

Muffler bypass if you can stand the sound.

LWFW.

Wheels

Once you get done with this, rip the rest of the crap out and build an SP996. You know you want to...

V225

My C4S is 3110 with a full tank of fuel & a 4 point roll bar. Without the bar, It'd be around 3060. I know this isn't exactly the lightest 911 out there, but I think it's pretty good for an awd car.

Weight loss mods include:

Recaro Profi seats
Muffler Bypass
Interior strip/spare tire removal
OZ Alleggerita wheels

I'm planning on a lightweight flywheel, cf roof for further weight reduction.

himself

Is that the whole list of what you've done? That's over 100 lbs lighter than my GT3 - which is almost 3250 lbs with fuel. (I just had it corner balanced about 3 weeks ago). And I have no sunroof, GT3 seats, limited sound deadening from the factory, and relatively lightweight wheels. I do have a bar and carpet, but not much else. Your car also has an entire forward transmission that I don't, so 100 lbs lighter than a GT3 in a C4S is pretty impressive.

-td

jrgordonsenior

Ahh mine's about 2425 without driver but not very streetable.....

onefastviking

That's an interesting thought ....... a CS Club Sport 996 , the car they never built. Throw in a 3.8X51 motor and it could get real interesting. Maybe I should do this for a street car for me. As the prices keep dropping on the 996's I think I will consider this more.

jrgordonsenior

I know you know all this Viking, but for others interested in a motor swap just remember to use a 02' or later donor car with the 7.8 DME. It can be programmed to run the X51 motor where the earlier 5.2 DME's can't activate the variocam plus. Yes I know you can use rev activated switches, but even so the 5.2 brain is limited in it's ability to tune the more powerful motor. You can also switch our the harness and brain, but by then you should just buy a GT3....

PS: Someone I know just built a 3.8 out of a 3.4 motor setup to run in a 99' car with cable TB . Heads are decked but with OEM vaiocams. All the right stuff, should be a very torquey motor and perfect for a GTS4 car ....

V225

Your GT3 is 3250 with fuel?? That seems really heavy for a gt3 doesn't it?

I deleted my rear windshield wiper as well, forgot to mention that. Naturally the subwoofer & all rear speakers went out with the strip.

I've had the car weighed at a few different places, so I'm pretty certain of the 3110 weight. The Recaro profi seats are lighter than the gt3 seats by a little bit, but my car does have the sunroof.

Alleggerita wheels save about 36 pounds over the stockers & I get about 55 from the muffler delete.

Edit:
Breakdown:

Muffler bypass: -55
Interior strip/spare tire removal: ~ -90
Alleggerita wheels: -36
Seats: - 75
Roll bar: +45
Total: ~ 210 pounds of savings, so my starting curb weight was around 3320.

himself

Nope. They are about 3100 dry. Add in 100 lbs of fuel and a roll bar, and poof, close to 3250. Also, I had no speakers, woofers, no back seats, no spare tire, etc.

Maybe one day I'll put it on a diet...

-td

jasper

Good thread. My plan all along was to lighten my 996 but so far I only got as far as deleting the centre console and one of the rear seat backs. I had both seats out but my wife made me put one back in for my little girl who sits in the back with a booster seat.

My car is basically a no option car. It weighed 3050 pounds when I weighed it witha half tank of gas. That was before the console and seat delete.

V225

So it seems like options make a big difference in weight. Your 996 is about 3100 with a full tank let's say, while TD's gt3, with some weight reduction, is 3250 with a full tank. This comes as a pretty big surprise to me.

KobaltBlau

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I forgot to subscribe to the thread so I got a bit behind...

Replies
================
redridge, thanks for that - it's a great resource. I had seen it before but forgotten about it.

mglobe, Thanks for those details as well. "You know you want to..." Totally right, and the full race cars give me a good idea of the limits, but this concept is to build something more streetable

Varun, interesting. that seems quite light for a C4S.

JR, dang. That's light. Interesting tip on the DME revisions.

Jasper, could you give any more details on your options (or lack thereof)? Does the car have a sunroof?
================

More thoughts

The concept I have in mind here is an early 996 interpreted as a 73 RS Lightweight type car. Not much in the way of creature comforts or sound deadening but still with carpet. Shell seats, probably replace roof skin if it has a sunroof, that kind of thing. No A/C, stereo, etc. Airbags and ABS not needed, though removing them may be more trouble than it's worth. Like the 73 RS, remove the glovebox door (just kidding!)

The 9ff car is the closest example I've seen of this, does anyone have the Feb 06 Excellence that this is in? Seems like there would be other examples of lightweight street or street/track 996s out there, there are lots of different lightweight early 911 builds.

A 1999 is supposed to start around 2950 or so but I'm sure that's with no sunroof or other options. Any other weights on early C2s?

So take a cheap 1999 or 2000 996 C2, leave the motor as is, do some suspension upgrades, tear out most of what you can find. put a lightweight carpet kit and shell seats back in, try to make it a hard-edged but streetable car. I wonder what this would weigh.

For example, what weight you'd have to add back to JR's car to make it a streetable hot rod. I know, it's a race car, you wouldn't do that, but you get the idea. 200lb? 300lb?

• carpet
• passenger seat
• maybe a little sound deadening
• steel doors if his aren't since you wouldn't have door bars
• what else?

Mfletch

I really enjoyed the article on the 996 Club Sport in the Feb. 2005 issue of Excellence (Issue #135) http://www.excellence-mag.com/back-issues?year=2005 It inspired me when I was rebuilding my current 996. The stock seats, cats, and wheels weigh a ton. My car weighed 3103 with a full tank of gas, spare, stock cats, and solid spoke wheels.

jasper

This exercise has a lot to do with the accuracy of the scale used to weigh the car.

The scale I used is a truck scale at the front gate of our industrial plant. It's use for trade and is checked periodically for accuracy. As a test I stood on it and it correctly weighed me at 100 kg (220 lbs).


My car does have a sunroof, but no rear wiper, a plastic dash, standard leather seats (power rake but manual fore-aft) no BOse, yes litronics, it has the 18" Carrera III wheels (the liteweights, not the sport classic II wheels in my sig photo - those are my track wheels. It has air con like all of the US cars. That's about it.


I'm totally with you on this. I'm planning a liteweight "light"...if that makes sense. Using the turbo weight loss thread for guidance..

I simply don't need AC in my neck of the woods - it's nice once in a while, but i prefer the windows and roof open. It can go. That's 25 lbs for everything including the pipework.

I like my heated seats, but they don't offer much support and I'm probably going to get a winter beater anyway. That's 30 lbs if I swith to GT3 seats (or equivalent)

Both rear seats - that's 22 lbs.

The sunroof - I really like it so it stays.

The spare tire and tools...40 lbs

I'd like to lose the rear lid and tail and replace it with a fibreglass ducktail type of lid. I haven't seen many of these, but they do exist. Not sure if there's much weight to be saved...lets say 10 lbs..

I could go in and dig out some sound deadeneing...it's pretty light nowadays though. Another 10 lbs?


When the clutch goes I will be doing a LWFW and clutch - that's 30 lbs

That should get me down to 2880 or so.

After that and it starts getting to be a lot of work for small gains or just plain expensive.