Weight saving with compromise


Gee

Gee

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Joined
Dec 7, 2008
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1,246
Hi guys,

I went a bit mad with my last car and totally stripped it out of rear seats, carpet, spare wheel,sound deadening, air con and even the stereo!

I have promised myself that I would keep this car 'street' but the bug is getting to me again.

I am contemplating removing the following so far:

Air con
Spare wheel

These two things are the only parts I can think of right now that won't make the car become unbearable or not 'street' :D

Does removing the air con really make that much of a difference though? Is it worth having for those rare sunny days?

I don't know what to do.

The car is faster with the B18C but I want more :nice:
 
removing air con not only saves weight but its one less pulley that the engine has to drive so reduces drag on the engine so you may gain a couple of bhp. i have removed all of what you have mentioned from my eg but more, the full list is as follows

all stone chip and underseal (re-sealed with a thinner cleaner coat)
all internal seam sealer (re-sealed but thinner, after seam welding)
all stereo and wiring, speakers etc
abs inc all wiring and control units and sensors
removed dash and removed all internals and heater ducts
removed heating inc matrix and all pipings and controls
removed power windows and wiring
gutted doors and removed side impact bars (yes im running a cage)
all interior apart from 2 5kg cf bucket seats
all un-necessary brackets (spare wheel holder, rear seat bracket)
all sound deadening and under dash matt

ive read alot of people also cut down bolts that are to long and also drill brackets out so they are lighter
also people swap glass for plastic(looks **** and scratches easily)


as for your question at hand yes removing air con will make a difference as every kg saved will make a difference but i cant imagine it being unbearable as you have windows that open, and lets face it how often do we get aircon weather lol
good luck
 
A lot of weight saving there. I did remove more than I mentioned, but didnt want to go on!

Hmm..spare wheel is getting ditched. Probably air con now too. My mechanic mate will go crazy at me, as it made the B18C conversion more painful and he has always wanted me to get rid of it.
 
I been thinking of taking out the air con to..I have the spare wheel and jack out and the rear seats.I did leave in the carpet in the boot and folded it down to where the red carpet ends.. Any other simple ones to do?
 
lightweight drive train parts make more of a difference than taking out weight fro. the shell

lightwight wheels, lower profile tyres, leightweight flywheel even lightweight flywheel

if you want to get an idea of the power gain of no aircon then simply cut the belt running it

I cut mine and did notice a nice difference
 
Hey Lee,

Yeah I do realise that. But I won't be investing is lighter rims etc as yet. This is why I am looking for other idea's.

I do have a lightened flywheel now though :)

jdm_3383

Not sure what else. I won't be taking out my rear seats again though, not in a million years unless I have another car. The 9 is my daily.
 
I might get sick of it to and put them back in.. But my 9 is usaully only driven on Friday and saturday nights and sundays
 
This is the dumbest thing you can ever do, i doubt you can remove more than 10lb and keep it street friendly, stop being crazy and focus on making power instead of removing weight, i will NEVER sacrifice comfort for speed ever again...
 
Removing weight has many benefits.

What's so crazy?

Last time I removed my air con and spare wheel, the two of them must of weighed about 40kg together.

A spare wheel and air con in a country that always rains is not that much of sacrifice.
 
Lose the spare get some tyre weld. Rear seats weigh bugger all so keep them. Loss of aircon is not worth the couple of extra hp imo. Pointless stripping unless you want a race car or are a drag king.

How about a gearset or an S300 for that B18? :D
 
I have found that stripping the car TOTALLY makes a big difference. It allowed me to run good times with poor power. However like Blinx said if you are only going to remove little bits you may be wasting your time!... Why don't you just have a $hit before you go out racing that will save you a few lbs ha ha
 
haitch said:
Lose the spare get some tyre weld. Rear seats weigh bugger all so keep them. Loss of aircon is not worth the couple of extra hp imo. Pointless stripping unless you want a race car or are a drag king.

How about a gearset or an S300 for that B18? :D
Click to expand...

S300 is next ;)

Maybe stripping is not worth it for a road car after all..think I will stick to the promise I made to myself!

Still need to sort my airbox, fit the twin loop and get a tune on a S300. We'll see how we get on with that.
 
Last edited:
Gee said:
Removing weight has many benefits.

What's so crazy?

Last time I removed my air con and spare wheel, the two of them must of weighed about 40kg together.

A spare wheel and air con in a country that always rains is not that much of sacrifice.
Click to expand...

Its crazy because there is not much weight to remove unless you go full race with lexan windows and all!!
 
Every little helps :D :p

I think the air con and spare wheel would be a good saving, but I'll go for a S300 tune instead after my Mugen TL is fitted.

Thanks for making me see sense people.
 
I just don't want you to make the same mistake i did, before you know it your removing sound deadening/carpet etc and you end up with a loud uncomfortable car :(
 
blinx9900 said:
I just don't want you to make the same mistake i did, before you know it your removing sound deadening/carpet etc and you end up with a loud uncomfortable car :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did all this with my last car and regretted it after a while. The noise, no stereo, not being able to give people lifts etc.

Better not start as I might start going crazy like you say!
 
A mate of mine took out almost his complete interior too. Awful loud car. Maybe save 15-20kg, I would NEVER sacrifice that much comfort for a gain that might just fall into the error margin.

Where I live the aircon is very usefull. When not on the highway I like to drive with open windows, but on the highway I get crazy of the wind noise, especially if it blows right into my ear. And I even know for sure that your car on the highway is faster with aircon than windows fully open. In the autumn/winter it's also very handy to make your windows clear.

If you want to save weight, take out the spare tire, get a CF hood (improves your weight distribution too), maybe other cf or fibre glass parts likr your front wings. Put in lighter seats.
 
if you're going to do a job, do it right! rip it all out, no point stripping half of the car out and then stopping. but personally i dont see the point in doing this if you're going to use this car everyday, its still only a road car and has been designed for the road,not the track. but everyone to their own:nice:

anyways if you just drive about with 1/4 of a tank rather than half a tank there's your weight saving!
 
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