a buddy of mine told me an old street racing trick: to use plastic headlights instead of the heavier glass units. i am on a quest to make my ride as light as possible without taking out street equipment (ie: full interior, etc. etc.) so i am looking for everything that i can take out to lighten the car. i still need to go with some fatties/skinnies weld racing wheels combo, and a fiberglass hood, but right now i am looking for cheap things to do. the a/c is gone, replaced with an a/c delete box (heat is considered necessary street equipment in my book.)

anyone know what cars came with the plastic lights that are a direct bolt in to our cars, or at least with minimal mods (so they don't look out of place)

car weighed 3105 with a half tank of gas and me not in it. that was with the subwoofer out and the front sway-bar off.

any other tips? want to get my 13 second 305 into (or as close to) the 12's!

 

3105 is a good race weight if your not really competing. Man if you really want to get into weight reduction you can take the dash out and cut some pieces out there. Pull up the carpet and remove the sound detoning material. If you or anyone else for that fact has looked at the parts on these cars and how heavy they are, it's rediculous. I mean a simple cover for under the dash is atleast 8 pounds.

And for the plastic headlights. Don't waste your time. You MAY save 3 or 4 pounds. It's just not worth it for that fact alone. Your stock headlights work fine and your not going to gain much.

I say just buy a tubular K-Member and spring purches and call it good.

Just my $.02

Sean

 

wished i could buy a tubular k-member, unfortunately, the class i run with in the NSCA doesn't allow it.

3-4 pounds is worth it to me. dash is staying in the car, but i may do something about the stuff behind it. when i do my interior color swap, i may pull it down and look back there to see what i can remove. 3105 is good, but i want lighter, i want under 3000. like i said, i still have to put a hood on it and wheels. say i loose 50lbs for the hood, that's 3055, then anothe 50lbs rotational wieght for the wheels, well, that' 50lbs standing wieght, so the car is down to 3005, plus the rotational weight i loose will be huge. but what are the smaller things i can do? the interior has to stay complete, but i can do a rear seat delete.

 

Apc makes the plastic housings for my ta but i don't know for sure if they do for camaros, but I think they do.

 

aluminum driveshaft, i recently got one and what a differance holding one in one hand and one in the other. I also have aluminum drums (don't know if your car is disc or drum rear)
I also am shooting to drop weight on the Formula, i was looking to get to 3000 lbs with full interior etc...

 

pull off the bumpers and put lighter weight custom bumpers on it. or no bumpers at all. them just put the bumper covers back on. aluminum driveshaft, pull carpet and remove sound detonating material, rear seats, spare tire & jack. lighter alum griffin radiator, cowl hood, and alum rims. all i could think of right now. im pretty tired. most of the gain will be from the hood and innner bumpers

 

3105? have you gutted the car already?
cause that is pretty light if you still have your full dash and interior......

 

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...71&prmenbr=361

Those should DEFINATELY save some weight!

 

car has full interior as of right now. that 3105 was without me in it, the front sway bar pulled, back seats out and no subwoofer. interior is a must, i have to have it in. when i do the red to gray swap, the sound deadening stuff is coming out, along with everything else that i can live without. but carpet, center console, both front seats, all of the dash, blah blah blah. i am considering pulling the current guage cluster and replacing it with all pro-comp ultralite guages from autometer. so i would be loosing the factory guage cluster and all it's guts and replacing my current autometers too, so i would go back to one set of guages instead of two (the stockers and my aftermarket setup)

have to run full glass. windows have to stay operational.

the bumper thing interests me though, especially the one for the front.

i do have drum brakes, and have had my eyes out for aluminum drums. i actually went from a 3.73 disc rearend to a 4.10 drum rearend, and the drum rear weighed less (or it seemed to anyhow)

 

is the heat and a/c still in the car? i just cant see one being that light?

i have an 88 thats completely gutted underneath, but has full interior and LOOKS like everything is complete. i tip the scales at 3090. thats without heat. a/c PS, sway bars and i have a tubular front end.

 

heat yes, a/c no,

car is a hardtop and also has manual windows. very low optioned car. does p/s though.

anyone know if the non third brake light spoilers wiegh less then the brake light spoilers. (have both, brakelight one on the car) i kinda like how the older style without the brakelight is a little more aggresive (same height, but it is steaper)

 

im sure w/o the brake light is lighter, its not as wide. less material, so less weight. makes sense.

my car also has aluminum heads, waterpump. only thing i have is power windows.

i thought my car was light, but if yours is full weight and is that light, id be scared of that with a motor and have it lightened up.

have fun with it!

 

well, the goal is to get my car into the 12's so, and that's with my n/a 310.

do you have a bar/cage? all i have is sub-frame connectors.

 

subframes and a d/s loop is the only thing added. put on a set of dragbrakes if you are looking for weight and rolling resistance. i lost 74 pounds front and rear with my aerospace components kit.

 

Where did you get those brakes at? I am going to remove anything that is not necessary when I rebuild my motor...including: P/S, A/C, possibly the sound deadening material, and anything else I can come across to remove that I dont need.

 

well, the car is driven everyday right now so, drag brakes really aren't an option either. man, i am making it difficult aren't I?!?!

those brakes can be obtained through www.jegs.com

 

jegs is a good place, as well as dealing with aerospace directly. they will modify your spindles for the brakes for 60 bucks to save all the guess work for you. its well worth it.