Quote:
Originally Posted by Modshack
You don't even own one yet and you're making assumptions that these changes will make it a lot better. You may be surprised that the car needs very little. Stripping it to save a few pounds and sacrifice its day to day livability is a compromise few here would make. Buy it, Own it for awhile, and then make some decisions depending on what direction you want to go with the car..
|
Quite- some people may take the fact that i'm not currently an owner the wrong way, I always mod my cars in some way to make them more suitable for myself, I work in the automotive design sector and i like trying things out on my own cars. Also i always spend ages researching a car before I buy and reading on the forums to decide if the car i'm looking at fits my needs.
Interesting what you said about loosing the day to day livability of the car by stripping it- this is EXACTLY what i want to avoid.. I'm not building a race car here, in many ways that would be easier, as the compromises are much more clear cut... whilst I always want to reduce the weight of cars I work on I dont want to make too many sacrifices to the day to day useage (even though i would like to go all out ala Forged performance, its just not practical for a street car). Example; my car had a complex active stereo system; double din HU, front speakers, rear speakers, subs, amplifiers and tweeters. Removed all that and replaced it with just a 1-din HU, fronts and tweeters and it sounds miles better and i've probably saved ~10Kg.
This is the kinda thing i'm talking about, areas that can be improved over the standard design where the OEM used something that wasnt optimal or was simply trying to hit a price point with a component.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theDreamer
Not flaming, but the issue is safety regulations are so high now that they are required to add so much extra weight to meet these standards. To really get weight loss you will need to start ripping out all the sound dampening components, A/C, radio, etc.
~Windshield washer fluid container - remove front bumper and it is on the left
~Rear hatch materials
~Lighter seats
~Remove radio/speakers
~New battery & aftermarket (performance and lighter body panels)
If you are not wanting to remove sound dampening materials you can invest into carbon fiber pieces, new wheels, but that is really about it. You mention it does not feel as "nimble," a nice fix to that would be sways & coilover upgrade.
|
Rear hatch- i wonder how much that glass weighs, I wonder if a plexiglass replacement could be used, if so you'd save the weight high up in the car.
Seats/Radio/speakers/battery I've covered
Wheels- looking at the quoted weights of the standard wheels, you'd have to downside in an aftermarket wheel to save any weight (and hence tyre weight) even with something like CE28s those sport wheels are damm light!
Coilovers would certainly be on the cards, i'm currently running KW V3s on my car and I was very happy with them (They need a rebuild after 2 years though unfortunately as 2 have developed a knocking) However even with the best coilovers in the world you're still managing the same weight transfer.
Once again I'm not knocking the car, just interested to hear what weight saving things people have done as I know you guys in the US have had the car a fair bit longer than the UK.