hey guys.
i hate heavy cars!
i have a 92 legacy sedan non turbo.
what are some possible parts of the car that i could remove to lighten the car without compromising safety?
my goal is to build a tight, light, fast little subie. a sleeper if you will.
gonna leave the rusty front fenders on it. i dont like flashy lights and stuff just performance.
any ideas???
"wishiwasawd" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...
Remove the passenger seats front & rear. Pull out your carpet and scrape any sound deadening material that is present away. Some vehicles have a weighted plate in the glove box, disassemble it and remove that plate if applicable. Remove your headliner and again scrape away all sound deadening material. Pull the interior panels out (from doors, a pillars, etc...if its plastic and covers the interior metal remove it). Again remove the sound deadening material under said panels. Pull your spare tire out, strip the trunk of any liners it has. Remove the radio and speakers, along with all their wiring. Find if there are carbon fiber replacement parts for the rest of the vehicle (hood, doors, trunk, bumpers, etc...) Get some ultra lightweight wheels of the same diameter as your stock wheels (SSR Comps come to mind). Check w/ flex-a-lite and see if they make window kits for your car. Remove the stock fuel tank and install a smaller capacity fuel cell centrally located in your trunk. If you never ever plan on having rear passengers, cut the crash bars out of the rear doors. Remove the power window modules (motor, wiring, control units, etc..) from the rear doors. Replace the stock header w/ a lightweight aluminum header instead. Remove the ABS system including the sensor rings on the wheels. Remove your Air Conditioning system. Remove the power steering pump (but make sure to cap off all the hoses). If you are overweight, go on a diet. I'm sure there are other things that could be done, but I think you get the point.
hehehe... That last line reminded me of something.
I was at a party once with a couple people I knew, and a bunch of people I didn't. There was this other group of guys who were talking cars, so I was naturally listening but as I could tell they weren't import-friendly, I stayed out of the conversation.
Anyway two of these guys apparently had the same car, and they were discussing the outcome of a (recent?) drag race between the two of them. The loser of this event was mystified as to why he'd lost, as his car was "identical if not slightly better" and concluded that "something must be wrong with the engine." It took all my willpower not to say anything in response, and I'm surprised the other guys kept their mouths shut too, because while the other guy could have been a jockey or something, this guy was @#$! huge, I mean 350, maybe even 400 pounds easily.
-Matt
Run a few miles each nite and get stronger, you'll control the car better too.
I'd have put this one *first*. Most American males can easily stand to lose more weight off their bellies than the headliner and all the sound-deadener would amount too.
wow man that was pretty good.
i pulled the air conditioning today. now for the abs... how do i do that? i already diabled the crap anyway so why not pull it??? what do i do exactly? just pull the abs module and join the lines?
and i found it very interewsting that you mentioned the driver. most people overlook the fact that you are, in fact, a part of the car and if you are 20 lbs overweight thats an extra 20 lbs you need to accelerate.
anyways, the abs? lets get some ideas.
We're they talking about mustangs by any chance? Not to say all mustang drivers are fat but almost all the fat drivers in sports cars I know drive mustangs. Hell when I was in school 10 years ago there was an entire fraternity that I swear must have been a requirement to be fat and drive an 80's mustang.
Stu
Especially if you're pulling the power steering!!!
Stu
Not sure exactly how to do it on your ride, but most have little sensor rings in the wheel hub area that can be removed. I'm not all that familiar w/ pulling them out though (I had a mechanic friend do it on my vehicle 2002 WRX). I *THINK* that the method you mentioned would work, but I cannot say for sure. In other words, DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, I am not responsible for anything that you do, I am just offering advice. Having said that, I have done all the mods mentioned above, except that I keep the plastic pieces and carpet and headliner in until race day, then I pull them. My next mod will probably be carbon fiber driveshafts if I can find some that will handle the stress that will undoubtedly be put on them.
Oh, and does anyone know where I can get a closed deck 2.2 litre block? I have this crazy idea of building a stroked 2.2 (stroked to ~2.7) and mating it w/ an easystreet transmission along with a good set of LSD's...oh, and then run a T66 turbo off of it :-P
hahahahaha...
Actually, you're dead on. It was an 80's Mustang. I almost had a '91 5.0 LX hatchback myself so I was almost in that group, except that I'm not fat, I'm just really tall. heh.
-Matt
I'm not entirely sure, but I think some of the early 90's turbo Legacies had them.
-Matt
i was a little hesitant to pull the abs system at first because i thought i would have to use compression fittings to join the lines but now that i think about it i should be able to a joiner with two femaly threaded ends to do the job, which is both safe and legal. i will attempt this myself (brake work is very simple) and post the outcome.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.