I know our cars are insanely heavy and I'm trying to figure out some ways to loose weight on the car. I don't want to strip the interior but are there lighter panels out there? And I was thinking about removing the the spare, but I'm afraid removing weight from the rear would be counter productive and make the car too squirrely. Any insight?

 

If you are concerned about the rear end being too light, remove the spare, and move the battery to the trunk. Use HD aluminum cable to run the power to the front.
Next, delete the rear seat.
You can also, replace the front buckets, with aluminum racing type seats, they have harnesses, and are legal.
The spoiler is really for looks, that will elimanate more weight.
Switch to an aluminum driveshaft, that will increase HP, also.
If you don't care about music / sound, take the speakers out, fr and rear, and reinstall just the grill in the doors.
If you take the speakers out, might as well take the radio out. (carry a portable when you want tunes)
Replace the pullies w/ aluminum ones. (less wt and more HP)
Remove the AC system, the compressor is pretty heavy. You will need a custom belt and probably a reflash so the OBC knows the AC is gone.
Anyway, that's about all I know. I hope some of these ideas help you.
[sm=signs003.gif]

 

Here is a past thread about weight reduction. Many of the things in this list are very easy to do and are FREE.

https://mustangforums.com/m_1514960/tm.htm


Beware of pulley sets claiming to be lightweight. I bought aluminum idler pulleys from RPM Outlet becasue they were advertised as being lighter than OEM. Well, they're not. I weighted them after they felt heavy in my hand--it turns out they are actually HEAVIER than OEM, by about 30%. I am now in a battle trying to get my money back.

 

I've done a search, and I don't want to start a new thread, but does anyone know how much the Shaker 1000 system weighs?


The closest I could find was that it was 60 more pounds than the Shaker 500, but I don't know what that weighs.

 

About 37lbs. It's easy to remove. Four bolts and two pugs.

Besides the spare, jack, trunk cover & shaker, I also drain the windshield fluid reservoir.

I also try to have no more than 1/4 tank of gas.

 

Not mentioned are the power window motors. A creative person could convert these windows to roll up manually, and save some weight. Or just remove the motors and keep the windows down all the time. [&:]

 

or you could just build a car for only drag racing and not rape the crap out of a nice, relatively expensive automobile![]

 

I have to agree. You just paid close to (or maybe more than) thirty large for a modern street car. that means you have hundreds of pounds of safety and emissions crap. There are a lot more effective ways to build a race car than buy buying something that doesn't fit your needs then tearing it apart....

 

just starve yourself for a couple days

 

I think the issue depends on your needs. For the average customer, there are a LOT of weight saving opportunities that can be had for free (or for a very low cost), without impacting their comfort or convenience.

For example:

1) How many of you actually carry infants in your back seat? Well, if you don't you can remove the child safety seat tie-down brackets under the back seat. That's a few lbs for FREE.

2) The back seat in general. How often does a passenger sit back there? Never? Well, then pull the seat and all the associated belts & latches and so forth and get about 50 lbs saved.

3) There are various "Deflectors" and brackets under the car that can be removed for free. The post that I liked to earlier describes them.

4) Have a roadside assistance plan? Carry a cell phone? Then why bother with the spare? Ditch that sucker for free. Ask yourself, how often do you really use the spare?


Many other methods of weight savings are co-incident with common mods. For example, the stock panhard bar is filled with sand. Aftermarkets are lighter and stiffer, giving you a suspension upgrade and weight savings at the same time.