who has done alot of weight reduction? A buddy and I are going to turn our cars into more of a C6R like track car and would love to drop the weight to 2900 without driver. How can this be done without changing panels with CF and lexan glass?

 

I read a thread on another Website, a corvette forum, where a guy had his C5 down to 2900#. He did just about everything you could imagine!(and some things i never even thought of) He took off everything he possibly could, including inner door panels. Its doable, no doubt!

 

hum....Id like to retain the stock look though...

We did think about ditching all the carpet in back and having CF panels put in. But cutting the body up might get sticky

 

If you are talking about taking 300# out of the ride - It will take major removal of interior and im sure a few other things that you dont want to do if you want to keep "stock appearance". Impossible to remove weight without major gutting and perhaps major cf panels IMO.

To start with your looking at removing passenger seat, passenger seat belt, perhaps lighter driver seat, dash cover, carpet, insulation, glove box, center console, door panels, anything cosmetic (plastic round windshield and roof), any junk in trunk compartments, cd changer, radio, speakers, compartment covers, pop up headlights (convert to c5R type), lighter battery, Ac system, lighter tires and rims, lighter brakes (rotors + calipers), gas tank covers (the aluminum guards?) inner plastic fender well covers front and back, convert to z06 windshield, use the lighter glass targa top (vs. insulated body color top). And all of this would only be 200 - 225 # if your lucky without CF and lexan glass.

Im sure there is more obvious things that need removal but you get the point.

If your not into racing - no worth it IMO. Add more HP to get the performance level up.

 

2900 ? no but close

Remove carpet,
replace seats with light wt racing seats
AC and condenser, heater core behind the dash, take them out
air bags and brackets, gone. Put in race steering wheel
Stereo and speakers, gone

inside body panels, wheel well liners.

door glass and motors

any excess plastic under the hood. windshield washer fluid tank, windshield wipers and motors.

Change to a light wt battery

change to 17" wheels all around and light wt R compound tires

Get rid of your head lights and motors. Just put in some small head lights in the grill by the fog lights

In other words, YES you can get the weight down, but it is not easy without replacing the front and rear glass with lexon, and CF body parts.

It cost money, LOTS OF MONEY, to take wt out of your car and still have it run.

 

Look at this sticky:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...ngths-etc.html

Also do a search on this subject, its been discussed before. Let us know your progress - I think this is interesting.

 

Does anybody here know how much the stock runflats weigh? I know this won't get him close to his goal, but it seems like one of the easiest weight reduction mods out there.

 

see the link I posted above. Many weights to look at.

 

i already run diff tires and wheels, a 416 LS3, C5R headlights, Lt heads, and about every other mod known to man...just need to start looking outside of the box

 

remove carpet and change seats to aluminum seats. This can be close to 150 lbs removed 60 lb for carpet, and 40 some pounds per seat

Get rid of heavy wheels and tires. NO fricken 19" or Run flats. Both of those are too heavy

17" or 18" all around

or put yourself on a diet.

Racing cars are ALWAYS weighed with drive and some fuel

 

wow, didnt knwo seats and carpet weighed that much. I run 4 18' LG wheels, which are about stock Z06 weights...so pretty light 20-22 lbs

 

My FRC weighs 3070 lbs (without driver). I dropped some weight with long tube headers & no cats, TI mufflers and swapping to a Tex Z-grip clutch.

 

Wheels are v. good. but what tires? run flats are too heavy.

CCW classics run 17-18 lbs per wheel. BBS magnesium are 13-14 lbs per wheel, but Mega $$ per wheel too

Coupes carpet and insulation wt ~60 lbs. FRC & Z06 carpet and insulation 40-45 lbs. Down side is the NOISE and heat.

Seats and motors are heavy. Even the passenger seat in the Z06 is heavy compared to a light weight race seat. No not leather covered, but nomex fabric covered fiberglass or aluminum seats. Much lighter and really more comfortable. Fixed seat brackets bolted to the floor, no sliders.

Not saying you cant reduce the wt of your car, you can. I did as well.

 

I run pilots up front and Nitto 555R in back

 

most of these posts are spot on...taking out 100 pounds or less shouldnt be to difficult, but 200 or more you will have to make some pretty significant changes to your car.

like most have said, start with carpets. then go from their

 

IMO, where to start

1. stereo and speakers. Speakers are very heavy
2. Stock seats - replace with Sparko Evo, Evo II, Ulta-shield or Kirky. No leather covering but a nomex cloth covering
3. Hard bar seat rails, no sliding seats
4. Windshield washer tank and fluid
5. then wheels. Light wt wheels and tires I dropped 48 lbs hear alone
6. Long tube headers and high flow cats PLUS straight pipes. Mufflers are heavy too
7. light wt battery. Keep on tender when not in use.
This combo above will get down around 135- 150 lbs and you still have your carpet for sound and insulation.

the above will run $6-7K

 

^Some good advice. I would add the following thoughts. Not all weight is the same. Reducing rotating mass has a bigger impact on performance than removing stationary mass. Also, where the weight is located is important. The farther and higher the weight is away from the car's center of gravity the more benefit you get from reducing the weight.

A couple of items I did not see mentioned were switching over to a lighter weight clutch including aluminum flywheel, and also considering lighter weight rotors (aluminum hats).

On the $$ side of things, if you have no intention of switching back you could sell off the items to recoupe some of the costs of lighter parts.

 

for each 1 pound take off the rotating mass unsprong mass ( wheels ) that is ~ 6.5 lbs removed out of the car, sprong mass.

Example my rear race wheels are 39lbs each, my rear street wheels are 51 lbs each that is 12 lbs each difference or ~ 78 lbs of sprong mass difference per wheel or close to 300 lbs difference of total sprong mass.

Taking weight off the wheels is vital.





no matter where the wt comes off, the car should be corner balance after too assure proper handling.

 

if you dont mind me asking, how much was your front splitter?

 

not much. 4 lbs or so. and I can stand on it too. all 200 lbs of me and not bend the splitter .it is an OVERLAY splitter. Not just under neath but up to the brake duct holes

Front facia, OEM is 12 lbs, fiberglass with kevlar weave facia 6 lbs with ACP splitter 10 lbs

OEM rear fenders 4 lbs each -ACP with 3/4" flair 3 lbs
OEM rear facia 12 lbs ACP rear facia with 1" spoiler 10 lbs

Carbon fiber is much much lighter, will make your wallet lighter too.

corvetteracebodies.com look under C5 World Challenge body parts.



Full carbon fiber body, expect front and rear facia $26K saves 20 some pounds.

Note: Front 2" splitter should not be use without a 1" rear spoiler pointing up at 45* angle

adding lightness takes a deep deep pocket.