I notice in VB's new catalog they now sell Aluminum hubs with bolt on rotors.
The only problem is they are $250 each!

Does anyone know where to get them cheaper???

 

Hey 427V8, sounds like your puttin' the ol' girl on a diet! :D

Wonder who on the forum has trimmed the most weight from their "built for the street Vette"?

 

I've never seen them any where else. They are expensive, but the quality is really good. I have them on my 76. The are 5 lbs lighter than the stock hub & rotor. I also changed the front calipers over to Stainless Steel Brake Corps. aluminum calipers for another 5 lbs savings. Not a bad way to loose 20 lbs of unsprung weight off of the front suspension. :crazy:


http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c3/greatwhite/

 

Jason, What performance difference did you notice with the weight reduction?

 

Well, I can't give you any numbers on how much they actually help the performance. I'm always looking at loosing more weight on my vette since this seems to be a big problem with these "sport" cars. With other mods such as Willwood calipers on the rear suspension (-10 lbs per side), 17" wheels, and tubular front a-arms, the car seems to be much more responsive, nimble, and just plain more enjoyable to drive down twisty roads. I hope to get the car to some low speed autocross events this year to see how it compares with newer vettes. Currently, I'm down to 3350 lbs without loosing any comforts except for A/C which didn't work - maybe I'll use a retrofit kit this year or next and get the A/C working again. That will probably put me back to 3400 lbs. Still too heavy for my taste, so I'll keep looking . :D

I'm still trying to find the best tuning for a street car that has to accomodate rough roads. This spring I'm going to try out my new 1" front sway bar and see if I need a rear - maybe go with a 5/8". I use to have 1&1/4" front & 7/8" rear and they were just TOO big for the street - made the car unpredictable :sad: .

FYI: I purchased the aluminum hubs with the slotted rotors. Between the new calipers, SS lines, and front rotors, the car stops a lot straighter , smoother, and the brakes don't make noise. I've had them on my car for about a year now and love them - much better than my stock rebuilt system. I got a G-Tech from my brother last year, and this spring I'm going to test out the brakes to see how they compare to today's standards. I'll post the results when I get to test the car in April-May time frame. :)

 

Are you using Vettebrakes A Arms?
Or did you find another place??

 

aerospace components makes acomplete front assembly for a c-3, it consists of rotors aluminum hubs alum. calipers and alum.brackets,very light but does not stop as well as factory.Price is about 650.00

 

Yes they are Vettebrakes A-Arms that allow for extra caster ... bought them when I installed the front leaf spring kit.

 

Jason, After experimenting with several combinations of stabars, I like 1 1/8" front and 5/8" rear for a small block. If you have a 1" front, I suggest a 1/2" rear.
I had a conversation with Paul Lisinsky of Vette Brakes last year and he pointed out that reducing unsprung weight has the same effect as maintaining the same unsprung weight and increasing spring rate. Said another way, reducing a C3s unsprung weight by say, 10 lbs per corner, would have the same effect as increasing spring rate say 20% +/-.
I had the same experience as you with a too big rear bar. I was running a 3/4" for a while and it induced a lot of oversteer.
Addco has a chart that compares resistance of various bar diameters. It is surprising how a small change in diameter can affect resistance. For example, resistance doubles when stepping from 5/8 to 3/4. I verified this by running the numbers in the formula.
Removing your spare tire will drop about 80 lbs. Converting to a GM ministarter will drop about 12 lbs.
Regards,Will


[Modified by flynhi, 10:24 AM 2/16/2002]

 

I agree 1/2" would probably be better, but the 5/8" bar is sooo cheap compared to most 1/2" bars I've seen. All of the 1/2" bars are stock type and cost nearly $300 OUCH :eek:

So I figured I'd do it kind of a poor mans way:
Front:1" bar with poly chassis bushings & end links with hard spacer between poly bushings
Rear: 5/8" bar with rubber chassis bushings & end links with hard (or spring) spacer between rubber bushings

I could always upgrade the front later using heim ends from Guildstrand (sorry for spelling ????) to fine tune the system if it was absolutely needed ($100 so definitely not my 1st choice).

 

I just weighed the spare tire and carrier from my '80 and it was 50 lbs. but it may be lighter than previous years because of the weight saving measures taken by GM in the later C3s. My spare is the original "TEMPORARY USE ONLY" and it is a full diameter tire but very thin in overall width and made with thin rubber as well.

 

Yes, the earlier vettes like mine had a full size spare ~70 lbs. I'm looking at using a temporary mini spare to save about 50lbs. I think this will help the handling considerably since all of this weight is behind the rear wheels. This weight reduction reduces the polar moment of inertia of the car and makes it less prone to over steer. Weight savings is nice but when you can do it to either the unsprung mass (ie. suspension) or at the ends of the car to reduce the polar moment of inertia, its even better :yesnod: :yesnod: .

 

Yes, the earlier vettes like mine had a full size spare ~70 lbs. I'm looking at using a temporary mini spare to save about 50lbs. I think this will help the handling considerably since all of this weight is behind the rear wheels. This weight reduction reduces the polar moment of inertia of the car and makes it less prone to over steer. Weight savings is nice but when you can do it to either the unsprung mass (ie. suspension) or at the ends of the car to reduce the polar moment of inertia, its even better :yesnod: :yesnod: .

Some other weight reduction ideals are:
Light weight starter
Aluminum drive shaft (or carbon fiber if you have mucho $$$'s) :lol:
Light weight wheels (I screwed up here because my aluminum wheels & tires weigh as much as my stock ones) :bb
Smaller battery
Aluminum radiator
Aluminum heads
Aluminum waterpump

 

My OEM aluminum wheels with 255-60 R15 tires weigh 47 lbs. each.
All four of my brake calipers boxed up for shipment weighed 49.88 lbs. on the UPS scales.

Without it really being a concious decision I have reduced a fair amount of weight by using aluminum heads, GM mini starter and headers. I did not weight the old starter vs. the new starter but it felt like a BIG difference. I think the aluminum heads are about 40 lbs. lighter for the pair.

For my needs, I'm not willing to spend a WHOLE lot of money for reduced weight parts but I will do what I can when and where I can.
I enjoy reading about the weight reducing tips and tricks here on the forum.