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A Odyssey PC680 battery will save 30lbs over stock, I put mine on a trickle charger the day before a event just to be safe but have had no problems with it.
I would leave the exhaust stock until you decide to race it. The difference in HP isn't that much and it's much more pleasant to drive.
Totally agree with this and unfortunately many tracks are going the way of lower decibels. There's not much gain to the exhaust so why always wonder 'will I pass the noise test?"
As you pointed out upgrade to the halo seat. Critical mod.
I don't know how much the wing motor weighs but every f stock I know keeps the rear wing in the fixed up position and removes the motor. Also, as far as exhaust goes, you can certainly save weight there by taking out the stock muffler and replacing with maxflo which should still be quiet enough.
how much gas was in the car when you weighed it? Remember that the car is always weighed at the end of the session with whatever gas remains. I try to keep at least a quarter of a tank because my car tends to sputter on hard left-handers if my tank gets below that. My ballast is set up for me in the car with just over quarter tank to make weight.
it has always puzzled me why my car needs so much ballast even though I still have the stock Windows / Motors / Factory roof/ large battery. I think my cage is probably on the light side. Do you know who made your cage and what material? My car was also originally built at Deman Motorsports as well and they used JPM to build the cage. There is an oval shaped placard with those initials on my cage rear bar. Your door beams in your pictures look very similar to mine.
I also remove the passenger seat for races. That will help get your weight down and allows easier exit in an emergency if the driver's door won't open.
Today I went for tech for next week's end of season DE at NHMS.
My indy went over everything on the car - some surprises:
It has a PS Cooler and underdrive pulley - cool - saves me the job
It has race headers without the front Cat and O2 sensors have been removed.
This feed the factory exhaust.
The car weighed in at 2990 WITHOUT the driver!
We also removed the radio and discovered amp cables.
After some digging around the car, I have now removed the Spare tire and tools, Radio, wire and big Amp with heavy mounting plate.
Net 47lbs! Still wire and speakers to remove (dash)
However, the car is still 136lbs over the class min of 3005 with driver.
Any ideas on further weight reduction are appreciated!
- Battery?
- Headlamps
- Wing motor
- Fiberglass canopy and lexan
- Door glass and window motors
etc.
What get's me the most weight savings per $$?
Remove the fuel vent carbon canister and provide an alternate venting system for the fuel tank. That's an easy 20/25 lbs. Add a lightweight battery and remove window glass and motors.
Whatever you do, familiarize yourself with the PCA Club Racing rulebook. It clearly spells out what is legal and what is not for stock classes.
Yesterday I removed frunk and trunk trim along with dash speakers. The saved another 12lbs
I'm down to 125 overweight.
Battery is an easy 30; then fuel vent sounds like an easy 20.
That nets 75 overweight.
Fuel tank was nearly full when weighed, so that's maybe 50-60lbs.
That only leaves 15-25lbs overweight.
Spoiler motor would be nearly 10lbs.
Then HVAC blower, heater core and controls another 10 + and I'm there.
Now add back 30 for a coolsuit and ice!
In any regard, does not sound like I need to replace the roof.
I'll hit the scales with me on board and what I've done so far and lower fuel level this weekend.
Spoiler motor would be nearly 10lbs.
Then HVAC blower, heater core and controls another 10 + and I'm there.
As you DE a lot, I would reconsider pulling the factory HVAC unless someone has a better working defroster setup. Being able to see is important in the rain😉
Could someone please help me understand how to remove the spoiler motor?
Pic attached - I removed all the bolts circled for the assembly mounting brackets, but it seems like
the whole assembly is somehow secured by the 'pistons' extending out to the actual spoiler itself.
Yesterday I removed frunk and trunk trim along with dash speakers. The saved another 12lbs
I'm down to 125 overweight.
Battery is an easy 30; then fuel vent sounds like an easy 20.
That nets 75 overweight.
Fuel tank was nearly full when weighed, so that's maybe 50-60lbs.
That only leaves 15-25lbs overweight.
Spoiler motor would be nearly 10lbs.
Then HVAC blower, heater core and controls another 10 + and I'm there.
Now add back 30 for a coolsuit and ice!
In any regard, does not sound like I need to replace the roof.
I'll hit the scales with me on board and what I've done so far and lower fuel level this weekend.
DB
As I mentioned above, read the rules before you start removing too much stuff. Couple of other helpful points:
- Your scales don't count - hey only give you an indication. The scales at the track count and they can sometimes be low or high by up to 50 lbs so if you are close in terms of weight have a ballast strategy.
- Before you start taking stuff off the car, you need to focus on fuel management. This includes calculating your fuel consumption and required minimum fuel load to make it around the track. You should know exactly how much fuel you have in the tank at any one point in time and what your tank volume is. If your tank was "nearly full" that could have been up to 120 lbs (not 50 - 60 lbs) if you take into account the typical 2.5 gals of reserve fuel. Do the math an you might already be underweight.
- Suggest you do not take out the HVAC system until you have a good strategy to defrost your windshield
- the fuel vent is not an "easy 20" as you need to figure out an alternate way to vent your fuel tank and that can get complicated
- If you are conscious about weight, you don't have to run a 30 lb cool suit. Go with a smaller cooler or fill the larger one only half full.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of people winning races with cars that are 100 - 150 lbs overweight. Weight reduction is not everything.
Keep the HVAC as suggested by others. I clearly remember the Schattenbaum GA Support Race many years ago watching DP sitting on grid with his F Boxster with the windows up and AC running when others were sweating their butts off despite cool shirts and helmet blowers. Nothing tops factory AC in a race car, plus the defogging function.
+1 on making the heater core the last thing you consider removing. Alternate window defroster solutions can be sketchy.
It will stay, along with the fan.
What about the dash HVAC control panel. Is that all needed for basic defrost and some air circulation? Is there a simpler implementation that can drop the dash controller weight?
09-29-2018, 09:19 PM
