Blue Angel [COTW 5/30/11]

[Doc]

Doing some upgrades to previous um...upgrades. Yeah I know.

At any rate, I just received a set of Pfadt's gorgeous Tri-Y headers and cats. The workmanship is beautiful; even the box they came shipped in was nicely done!

The headers themselves weigh 12.52 lbs each, and the high-flow cats weigh 3.42 lbs each. The collar clamps to connect the headers to the cats weigh .625 lbs each so the combo of header/cat/clamp weighs about 16.57 lbs or basically 16 1/2 lbs each. That is very light! Compare that to the factor exhaust manifold and cat combo which weighs 23 lbs. The combined Pfadt set saves 12.8 lbs compared to stock.

Header on the scale:


Cat on the scale:


I'm planning on a before/after dyno/install session in a couple of weeks so I'll have the upgrade comparison between the Bassani headers and cats which are currently on the car, and the new Pfadt setup. I have to take the car in next week for some paint repair (hit an orange cone at speed on the racetrack which busted up the lower yellow accent stripe in the front) otherwise I'd get the headers installed next week.

I'm also putting together a lighter track set of tires and wheels; the wheels are at the paint shop right now. I got a set of Enkei RPF-1 19x10's and some Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires in 275/40-19. The Enkei's weigh 20.175 lbs each:


and the Michelin's weigh 29.275 lbs each:


The Enkei RPF-1 came in silver but I got the rim lip polished and I'm having the centers painted to match the yellow on my car.

Enkei in silver:


Enkei with rim lip polished:


I should get those back next week and I'll get the tires mounted and do a final weight measure. Even with the TPMS unit, valve stem and balance weights I'm expecting these will be 49 lbs each plus a few ounces. That's over 7 lbs lighter each over what I have now, so the combined set of 4 should save me about 29 lbs of unsprung rotating weight. That will have the same effect as pulling roughly 140 lbs of dead weight out of the car.

After I get all this new stuff installed I'll take the car to the truck scale and get it weighed again. I'm estimating about 3,658 lbs with a full tank. I'm looking at Sparco racing seats, tank plates, harness bar and 5-point harnesses and I estimate I can save about 44 lbs there. The seats I'm looking at weigh 66 lbs less than stock but the tank plates, harnesses and harness bar adds 22 lbs back. If I go that route that should put the car at about 3,614 lbs with a full tank. It would be nice to find another 15-20 lbs of weight savings somewhere so I could get the car under 3,600 lbs but I'd have to think about that carefully to see what and where would be the best place to find that.

Anyways...the car just keeps getting better and better.

[vroomapunk]

Originally Posted by Doc

Doing some upgrades to previous um...upgrades. Yeah I know.

At any rate, I just received a set of Pfadt's gorgeous Tri-Y headers and cats. The workmanship is beautiful; even the box they came shipped in was nicely done!

The headers themselves weigh 12.52 lbs each, and the high-flow cats weigh 3.42 lbs each. The collar clamps to connect the headers to the cats weigh .625 lbs each so the combo of header/cat/clamp weighs about 16.57 lbs or basically 16 1/2 lbs each. That is very light! Compare that to the factor exhaust manifold and cat combo which weighs 23 lbs. The combined Pfadt set saves 12.8 lbs compared to stock.

I'm planning on a before/after dyno/install session in a couple of weeks so I'll have the upgrade comparison between the Bassani headers and cats which are currently on the car, and the new Pfadt setup. I have to take the car in next week for some paint repair (hit an orange cone at speed on the racetrack which busted up the lower yellow accent stripe in the front) otherwise I'd get the headers installed next week.

I'm also putting together a lighter track set of tires and wheels; the wheels are at the paint shop right now. I got a set of Enkei RPF-1 19x10's and some Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires in 275/40-19. The

I should get those back next week and I'll get the tires mounted and do a final weight measure. Even with the TPMS unit, valve stem and balance weights I'm expecting these will be 49 lbs each plus a few ounces. That's over 7 lbs lighter each over what I have now, so the combined set of 4 should save me about 29 lbs of unsprung rotating weight. That will have the same effect as pulling roughly 140 lbs of dead weight out of the car.

After I get all this new stuff installed I'll take the car to the truck scale and get it weighed again. I'm estimating about 3,658 lbs with a full tank. I'm looking at Sparco racing seats, tank plates, harness bar and 5-point harnesses and I estimate I can save about 44 lbs there. The seats I'm looking at weigh 66 lbs less than stock but the tank plates, harnesses and harness bar adds 22 lbs back. If I go that route that should put the car at about 3,614 lbs with a full tank. It would be nice to find another 15-20 lbs of weight savings somewhere so I could get the car under 3,600 lbs but I'd have to think about that carefully to see what and where would be the best place to find that.

Anyways...the car just keeps getting better and better.

Cool! Great to see some action in this thread haha

[The Stig]

You had the Bassani headers previously right? How do these compare to them weight wise?

[Mindz]

It's about time I caught up with your build. It's been about a year since I checked in here, and you're still finding ways to pull the weight out. I love your dedication and the direction you've chosen to go Doc. I will definitely follow in your footsteps with a few weight reduction mods with my blank slate. Glad to see you're still up to your old tricks.

Just one real question I have for you.

If you were to start over knowing what you do now, which reduction mods would you prioritize? Seats, exhaust, battery and drive shaft first, or go for things like Wheels, rotors, and clutch that increase performance also?

[Pro Stock John]

Nice, like your updates.

If you dyno with lighter wheels, you would see some sort of gain from that too so if you dyno with the header/ cat swap and lighter wheel/tire combo it would only be fair to point that out.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by The Stig

You had the Bassani headers previously right? How do these compare to them weight wise?

The Bassani headers and cats are 17 lbs so the Pfadt are just about 1/2 lb lighter; no appreciable gain in weight loss compared to the Bassani combo. Where I hope to see a gain is in torque which the Tri-Y configurations are known for.

Originally Posted by Mindz

It's about time I caught up with your build. It's been about a year since I checked in here, and you're still finding ways to pull the weight out. I love your dedication and the direction you've chosen to go Doc. I will definitely follow in your footsteps with a few weight reduction mods with my blank slate. Glad to see you're still up to your old tricks.

Just one real question I have for you.

If you were to start over knowing what you do now, which reduction mods would you prioritize? Seats, exhaust, battery and drive shaft first, or go for things like Wheels, rotors, and clutch that increase performance also?

That's a tough one. If I was starting over I'd be starting with a 1LE with the dual mode performance exhaust.... so I'd say CAI, wheels, rotors, brake lines and fluid, battery, Pedderize the suspension, driveshaft. When I got to upgrading the power, while the engine is dropped out I'd do cam, headers and engine mounts, Fluidampr, clutch and flywheel, plugs and wires all at the same time because it's a lot easier and cheaper to do all that while the engine is dropped out of the car.

Originally Posted by Pro Stock John

Nice, like your updates.

If you dyno with lighter wheels, you would see some sort of gain from that too so if you dyno with the header/ cat swap and lighter wheel/tire combo it would only be fair to point that out.

Absolutely, that's the plan. The "before" dyno run will be with the new wheels so the "after" run will only show the gains from installing the Pfadt headers and cats. The last time I had it dynoed was with the wheels and tires I have now and it was 468, so it's going to be interesting with the "before" run to see exactly what difference the lighter wheels and Michelins actually make in acceleration response and grip.

[Pro Stock John]

Cool this is one of my favorite build threads, lots of great ideas in here. I'm still at 3960 with driver so I have a ways to go.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by Pro Stock John

Cool this is one of my favorite build threads, lots of great ideas in here. I'm still at 3960 with driver so I have a ways to go.

By far one of the BEST threads on here! Doc's build has been an inspiration for G5.R.

Doc did you end up taking the wheels to Geronimo?

[Doc]

Originally Posted by Nathan Moreno

By far one of the BEST threads on here! Doc's build has been an inspiration for G5.R.

Doc did you end up taking the wheels to Geronimo?

Thanks. Yes I did, thank you for the referral! He did a great job at a great price.

[Doc]

Got the new wheels and tires back and on the car. I'm really pleased at how they turned out. I want to put white lettering on the tires; I think that would really give it that "race car" look.


I weighed one of them and in order to keep the wheel from rolling off the scale I put two pencils on the scale and set the tire between them. For some reason the scale had difficulty getting the weight; it toggled between 49 lbs 11 oz and 48 lbs 9.6 oz for about 30 seconds before it stopped at 48 lbs 9.6 oz. Based on that I'm going in the middle and figuring on 49 lbs.


This is good. These new wheels are 8 lbs lighter each than what I had. They stick out a tiny bit more though but it's not bad. The Michelin Pilot Super Sports mount wider than I expected. These are the same size (275/40-19) as the Hankooks I had on the 9.5" wheels but even though these new wheels are 1/2" wider at 10" wide the Michelins still stick out past the rim edge.

I only did a short driving test but my initial impressions are the Michelins are a more responsive tire. The turn-in is definitely sharper and the tires, even brand new and not broken in yet, still communicate steering, cornering and handling better than the Hankooks. The Hankooks aren't bad by any means; they're quite a bit cheaper than the Michelins so the value is very good. But with the Michelins (so far) you definitely get what you pay for. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do on the track.

Hopefully next week I can get the Pfadt headers and cats installed.

[Moreno1]

SWEEEEEEEEET!!!!!

[CHMSC]

Looks great! Where did you get the Enkei wheels and what offset?

[Doc]

Originally Posted by CHMSC

Looks great! Where did you get the Enkei wheels and what offset?

Size is 19x10, 5-120 bolt pattern, 25mm offset. I'll have to check my bookmarks when I get home but I got them from European Motorsports or something like that.

[CHMSC]

Originally Posted by Doc

Size is 19x10, 5-120 bolt pattern, 25mm offset. I'll have to check my bookmarks when I get home but I got them from European Motorsports or something like that.

Cool thanks! I take it they are the same offset all around?