Weight reduction

Nobody ever accused a T-Bird of being too light! I'm tossing on a lightweight jackshaft pulley but I want to reduce weight by a fair bit without gutting the interior. Are there any replacement hoods or trunks for a 1995 SC that're either aluminum or fibreglass? I've seen the Mach 1 for the earlier SC's but not one for the 94/95.

You can get a fiberglass hood for the 94/95 SC's. That should save you about 50lbs.

The next thing you can do is move the battery to the trunk. That should get rid of at least 40lbs from the front, and put that weight where it is actually kind of useful.

If you have power seats, get rid of them and install the non power seats....not sure how much is the weight difference but I'm willing to say at least 20 - 30lbs.

That's over 100lbs right there.

speaking of the battery , get a optima it weigths a lot less than the stock group 65 one.

I put my sc on a diet and lost about 245lbs

front seats almost 70lbs each =140lbs
replaced them with Jegs racing seats about 7lbs each
back seat was 50 lbs.
carpet was a massive 55lbs. replaced it with auto zone carpet 3 rolls less than 3lbs
Batteryin trunk.
Hope this helps. With a hood you could be about 300lbs lighter.

Do you have any pics of the interior with the different carpet in it?

Here are some ideas...

If you are looking to put your SC on a diet like me, then you've already come to the conclusion that the best way to improve performance in just about every measurable dimesion (Acceleration, Handling, Braking even Economy) then you need to make a choice.

A. Gut the crap out of anything that is not-essential for racing. Invariably this means the nice and quiet interior.

B. Find Alternative parts that are lighter/stronger than stock and replace those without sacrificing the interior.

The Fiberglass hood will save you some weight. Even more if it was carbon fiber. There was someone here who was selling custom made fiberglass trunklids.

I went with a Hawker Odyssey battery. My stock battery was 34lbs. This battery was 14.5lbs. Although this new battery doesn't have the CCA that the stocker did, I've had it start my car below freezing.

Aluminum is lighter than steel. So I have an aluminum Drive shaft. It weighs about 11lbs. The stock unit seemed to weigh about 25lbs. ALso consider a lighter flywheel too. Not only are you saving weight but you are also increaseing RWHP and powertrain responsivness.

The Mark 8 utilized extensive aluminum in the suspension. See what could be swapped out...

Someone here was also making fiberglass door skins.
Randy and Connie is also testing a Tubular Front Subframe. Serious wieght savings there too.

There are ideas out there to really reduce the weight of our fat birds

Go to the( Race/track result) FORUM.Then click on the post

=The Before Picture(Road Racer)= or do a search with this title.

You will find infor for the weight of different parts.

I think the thumb rule is for every 100lb removed you
may take a .10th off your drag time slip.

Thumb rule: for every pound removed for engine rotating mass
you can gain 2 to 2.5 hp at the crank.

RANDY

I don't have any pics yet but I will take some and post them here tomorrow. I'm not good with the computer so I let my wife post the pics. You probably won't be able to see a difference.

go to www.hairyglass.com. They have glass hoods, doors, and decklids for our cars. A set of glass doors I think was like 550 or something. That would make a big difference too. If you have the money that is.
Tad