Mercutio
SCCoA Member
Last year at the Shootout, my car weighed 3,441 pounds. Even though I'd weighed the car lighter than that before (thanks to fuel), I decided that was too heavy. I wanted to see if I could get it down below 3,400.
Some of you may remember posts from last year about things like "What does this connector do? What about these wires? How about this bracket?" I was looking for places to remove weight a little bit at a time, since the car just doesn't have many more easy-to-find weight in large chunks. Some, like the sound deadening and AC, I'm determined to keep.
But I saw the unused connectors for the electronic suspension sitting there in the engine bay, and it irritated me. Just how much wiring in the car was no longer necessary? My car didn't have power seats, a stereo, or fog lights anymore, either. So I began removing wires. Lots of them.
In the process, I found other things to remove. There were these brackets above the rear package shelf, but below the package shelf carpet, for the stereo amp. These weighed 1.5 pounds.
Then there was the dead pedal. It's kind of ridiculously overbuilt and serves as a bracket for some other stuff. It weighed 2.75 pounds.
To get to some of the wiring, I had to remove the carpet and rear seat. These brackets fit around the perimeter of the rear seat trunk opening. I had been under the impression that only cars with flip-down seats had these brackets. My LX came with a V-brace, not these, so I swapped them. That saved 2.75 pounds.
Years ago, I thought it would be necessary to add this rear diff cover in place of the stock piece. Well, I've never seen guys with more power than I have break the stock diff cover, so I put the stocker back on. That saved 4.5 pounds.
There were a few other little things, too. I won an aluminum water pump pulley at the Shootout. I even swapped out the electrochromatic rear view mirror with the standard mirror from my LX. Those two changes saved another .75 pound.
And oh yeah: the wiring. I got rid of the wiring for the stereo, power seats, fog lights, electronic suspension, rear view mirror, sun visors, and even the remote entry system (that last one was probably a mistake, as it took a some work to rewire the door locks to work). That project took a lot of time and electrical tape, but as best I can tell, ended up saving about 14-15 pounds of wires, switches, relays, brackets, etc.
I also replaced the rear sway bar with a custom tubular piece, which I discussed in another thread. That saved 3.75 pounds.
I found all of the weights I've mentioned by actually weighing individual pieces on a digital postal scale, so I had a good idea of what I'd taken out of the car: my notes said it was a bit over 32 pounds.
Today was the first time I've actually been able to weigh the car this year. I genuinely didn't know whether it would be below 3400 or not. I thought it might be within 10 pounds, and it can be hard to estimate fuel load. I believe it had less fuel today than it did at the Shootout, but nonetheless, I was pretty pleased. I know you guys think I'm nuts for looking for a pound (or less) here and there, but it all adds up.
Some of you may remember posts from last year about things like "What does this connector do? What about these wires? How about this bracket?" I was looking for places to remove weight a little bit at a time, since the car just doesn't have many more easy-to-find weight in large chunks. Some, like the sound deadening and AC, I'm determined to keep.
But I saw the unused connectors for the electronic suspension sitting there in the engine bay, and it irritated me. Just how much wiring in the car was no longer necessary? My car didn't have power seats, a stereo, or fog lights anymore, either. So I began removing wires. Lots of them.
In the process, I found other things to remove. There were these brackets above the rear package shelf, but below the package shelf carpet, for the stereo amp. These weighed 1.5 pounds.
Then there was the dead pedal. It's kind of ridiculously overbuilt and serves as a bracket for some other stuff. It weighed 2.75 pounds.
To get to some of the wiring, I had to remove the carpet and rear seat. These brackets fit around the perimeter of the rear seat trunk opening. I had been under the impression that only cars with flip-down seats had these brackets. My LX came with a V-brace, not these, so I swapped them. That saved 2.75 pounds.
Years ago, I thought it would be necessary to add this rear diff cover in place of the stock piece. Well, I've never seen guys with more power than I have break the stock diff cover, so I put the stocker back on. That saved 4.5 pounds.
There were a few other little things, too. I won an aluminum water pump pulley at the Shootout. I even swapped out the electrochromatic rear view mirror with the standard mirror from my LX. Those two changes saved another .75 pound.
And oh yeah: the wiring. I got rid of the wiring for the stereo, power seats, fog lights, electronic suspension, rear view mirror, sun visors, and even the remote entry system (that last one was probably a mistake, as it took a some work to rewire the door locks to work). That project took a lot of time and electrical tape, but as best I can tell, ended up saving about 14-15 pounds of wires, switches, relays, brackets, etc.
I also replaced the rear sway bar with a custom tubular piece, which I discussed in another thread. That saved 3.75 pounds.
I found all of the weights I've mentioned by actually weighing individual pieces on a digital postal scale, so I had a good idea of what I'd taken out of the car: my notes said it was a bit over 32 pounds.
Today was the first time I've actually been able to weigh the car this year. I genuinely didn't know whether it would be below 3400 or not. I thought it might be within 10 pounds, and it can be hard to estimate fuel load. I believe it had less fuel today than it did at the Shootout, but nonetheless, I was pretty pleased. I know you guys think I'm nuts for looking for a pound (or less) here and there, but it all adds up.