dbcooper292

Almost put this in the 'club sport' thread but I guess it's a separate idea. Reading that thread though, that seems like a great project, but expensive and time consuming of course. Taking things OFF the car has always appealed to me as a way to improve the handling, brakes and power all at once for next to nothing, and I came from light cars and I love the feel of a light car. Cars are SAFE now, you can't deny it and thank goodness, but it's also fascinating to think of the performance and mileage of an Ur Scirocco, right? I mean like zero progress in 30 years when you wrap it all together, and you feel like you're in a barrel going over niagara falls now with the beltline up around your ears and pillars like the Jefferson memorial all around you.

Anyway, have any forum members lightened their cars and what was worth taking out and did it make the difference you were looking for? The best thing to lose would probably be the top but that's a big sacrifice. I've wondered whether ditching the seats for a racing pair would save a bunch of weight and get my helmet under the stock roll hoop without an extension?

HVAC?

Exhaust?

Has anyone put their 986 on a diet and care to share? Does it turn out for all the trouble and lost convenience the car feels the same? or is it awesome.

Macster

The car is pretty light to begin with. 'course for track use making it lighter is a goal.

I've never lightened a Porsche but I lightened another car, a Datsun 510, and frankly it wasn't worth it. All I suceeded in doing was making the car sound like a tin can. It was a mostly street car with just a couple of auto-crosses tossed in during the year and then for only a few years until I got so busy with a business I had no time for auto-crossing any more.

My advice/recommendation is if the car is going to serve as a dual purpose car, be used on the street for anything other than pleasure when you get to pick the right time and weather or track to leave the HVAC intact. I'd leave the carpets intact too. It was removing the carpets/sound deadening in my Datsun that had the thing so noisy on the road the car was no longer suitable for anything but short trips.

You can explore replacing the seats with lighter examples. The soft top is pretty light to begin with and unless you are sure you will never either on purpose or by accident drive the car in bad weather best leave the top alone.

My Boxster has some kind of a storage compartment that lies on top of the area under the rear window. If your car has this remove it. Saves a few pounds.

You can also explore lighter wheels possibly going down a size if the smaller wheel/tire combo is lighter of course than the larger wheel/tire combo. Or staying with the same size or even going to a larger size but with lighter ($$$) wheels. Still to state the obvious you want to make sure the wheel/tire combo weighs less. Not much sense in buying expensive light wheels and losing the weight advantage by going to a larger size and having the larger tire add weight back you paid dearly to remove by buying the lighter wheels.

A lightweight battery can be used too to remove some weight.

Show up with just a half tank of fuel. Gasoline weighs in around 7lbs per gallon IIRC so 8 gallons weighs 56lbs vs. 112lbs a full tank of fuel weighs. Easiest 56lbs you'll ever remove from the car. Be sure you monitor fuel level during the event and add some if the fuel level gets too low. Under high g-forces you do not want the pump sucking air.

'course, if you track you have to consider adding a 3rd radiator if the car doesn't already have one. This of course adds weight but brings with it better cooling which is important. The lightest car is no good to you if it is sidelined with overheating problems.

JayG

look at some of the threads on 986forum.com, especially http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-r...ter-build.html . Tom was doing some weight reduction on the last few pages IIRC

Of course, you can go on a diet and reduce driver dead weight

dbcooper292

Good point! Oh man we used to talk about this racing motorcycles all the time, we'd be up late swapping oem hardware to a titanium bolt kit and drinking beer, and look at each other and realize we could have just skipped the beers for a total savings of $8 instead of a cost of $600.

Still, beyond all those general ideas, what I'm hoping is someone could say they got a specific amount of weight off a Boxster and it did/did not make it more fun, I'll check out the string listed above. Thanks.

dbcooper292

"The car is pretty light to begin with."

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it doesn't feel that way to me, it feels sort of porky.

986Prozet

Your 986 feels porky? What are you comparing it to a crotch rocket?

dbcooper292

Well, you know, a 986 is 40% heavier than a Scirocco. Now I understand, times have changed, but that doesn't make a heavy car light (in classical physics anyway, fixed frame of reference and all). But it's not just actual weight, that car just has a heavy feel to me. I recently had a ZX3 Focus that in fact only weighed 200 lbs less and to me felt like half as much. I mean it's nice, German solidity and all that, but especially with the way the power and clutch work together, it just feels like a load to get going and everything's so thick on it and all. Maybe it's just me.

Macster

Well, there is always a lighter car. The Scirocco is a car from another time, for a different market. And the same applies to the Ford. While they are or were in their heyday nice cars if you believe you can get the Boxster to feel like they did I think you are in for a disappointment.

Might mention my Datsun 510 was a very light car, around 2000 lbs. But no way I would return to the Datsun and give up the Boxster.

If you want to try to get your Boxster weight down you might research Boxsters modified for hillclimbs. Hillclimb events are popular in the UK and Europe. Hillclimb cars are some of the lightest cars around. Even the lightening holes have holes...

burglar

Only because this was linked to me yesterday.



2300lb, and eventually down to 2080.

Macster

That is pretty damn light. Stock weight is 2800lbs and change. To remove 500lbs is impressive. To remove nearly 800lbs (provided you are successful in this endeavor) will be beyond impressive.

insite

mine is down to around 2600lb (2,589lb, but who's counting....) and it still has a lot of decent looking interior bits & the OEM interior bumpers. the biggest stuff for me (from memory):

- Exhaust (OEM is VERY heavy)
- Sound deadening over the engine & behind the seats
- OEM seats
- Secondary air pump
- Convertible top transmissions & motor (i put it up & down manually)
- Flywheel

i did delete the AC system, but it wasn't NEARLY as heavy as i thought it would be. weight does make a huge difference in the driving experience. there are, after all, really only two things that affect every performance metric on the car: weight & tires

gyuill

Us spec boxster guys get to around 2450 with a full cage, cool shirt systems etc. You could get to 2300 easily without a cage. We aren't allowed to use CF panels, so you could probably make 2200 with CF parts.

We pull out EVERYTHING that doesn't make the car go faster. heating/cooling, carpet, doors are cut down, wiring harness cut down, secondary air, exhaust, cooling fans, e brake, etc.

Not very comfortable, but much more fun.

dbcooper292

ok thank you this is great b\c this is about the amount of change I'm considering, so my question is on this particular car, could you feel the change once you did it? thx

insite

of course! the car just does everything better without all that mass. i notice a bit more acceleration, but to me, the performance under braking & in corners is more significant.

GVA-SFO

In my side, (thinking on this quite deeply), basically, I did shoot first on the battery (easy, and OEM Lead is a lot of weight and very badly positioned). Now I run on Li-ion since about a year.
I use light rims (OZ Alleggerita), but I do not think this make a substantial difference on total weight, but this is unsprung mass, so, here, this is quite important !
Also, out the OEM heavy seats, to use Sparco, (driver with original rails (heavy), but passenger with fixed aluminum frame). This was another easy and good gain.
Next will be roof, but not ready yet with the solution to have something light and easy.
One thing is clear, when arriving in a track, I open the (front) trunk and remove spare wheel and tool box.
I may change the side windows into Perspex, as my roof solution could request different to shape/profile of the side windows, will see.
But then, I have no serious interest fighting for the "grams" ! (OK, the "double carpets" in the car are no longer there, but here also, no big deal !

By the way, imo, the biggest and most efficient gain you can do (to decrease lap time) are simply the tires ! Switching "regular tires" against "R compound" tires, (I use now Nitto NT01) gave me 5 to 6 sec in Laguna Seca ! ..But this is a ticket to call for Accusump, as even with a sump extension and "X51 oil baffle", I can have "flashes" of the oil pressure lamp !!! (YES, ..VERY VERY SCARY.)

(Photos and explanations/evolution of the "animal", i.e.: battery and seats are all in the topic "PIWIS reading, R1 and R2, then what ??")