Weight reduction on camaro?

[GTAwheelman]

Originally Posted by MikeZ28

Does the Camaro have any "unnecessary" bracing or parts like the GTO that is easy to remove? The GTO has a heavy skid plate covering the oil pan, and some easily-removed braces around the gas tank and under the trunk pan. Pull those parts, plus the spare and jack, and you've shaved 90-100 pounds off. Of course you might want some of those parts back on if you crash...

too bad the SS doesnt have a spare or a jack.

[canadian ss]

Tell the bitch to get her own car or simply divirce her. You got what you wanted , right?

[kga10734]

If your going to spend that kind of time and or cash, just put a bigger engine in it and don't worry about the weight

[Number 3]

Well you aren't specific on WHY you want to remove the weight.

There were several posts on this same topic a few months ago as well so check those.

Anything you remove will certainly degrade the car for everyday performance or cost you $$$ once you get past the basics.

One, the Camaro has a 19 gallon fuel tank. Full that's 152 pounds of petrol. If you run with 1/4 or less you would save over 100 pounds right there.

Two, start by taking the dressing off. Engine cover, trunk and floor matts, trunk liner and hood liner. Your car will look less dressed and be a bit noiser, but there are a few pounds there.

But much more than that and you are impacting comfort, operability and safety in a big way. So unless you are going to the track or are loaded....................let it go. If it were easy, the car would already weigh 200 or 300 pounds less.

[ffrcobra_65]

easiest way...push the car instead of getting in and driving it. Instant weight loss! More weight loss? Drain the gas tank, oil pan, coolant, power steering, etc. You won't be needing them fluids.

[blackedout010]

does anyone know what these side airbags and airbag skirts weigh???

[Tag Lane]

Take off the mufflers. That's already 30 lbs lost. The wheels are pretty heavy as well. Other than using the carbon fiber somewhere and the aforementioned gutting of the interior, I'm not sure. Anything other than that could cost a fortune.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by 69 Hugger

Doc, you had until you said for 8 or 10 Grand wow Sounds like you have some experience in shedding car pounds.

Well you don't have to do everything, or even exactly the same things. Pick and choose; do as much as you are willing or your budget allows. The biggest differences would be CAI, headers and exhaust, followed by cf driveshaft. That would run around $4k, lose about 100 lbs and give you another 70 hp roughly.

My post was to show you don't have to gut your car to lose weight, which incidentally also guts the resale value if you ever sell it. Do some or all of what I outlined and you'll have a serious performance street machine that looks almost stock, drives like a dream and will be worth more after mods. Just start gutting it to lose weight and it will be worth less after that.

I'll be posting a journal on the forum once I get my car and get started if anyone is interested in following the project.

[Analogy]

Originally Posted by Doc

Well you don't have to do everything, or even exactly the same things. Pick and choose; do as much as you are willing or your budget allows. The biggest differences would be CAI, headers and exhaust, followed by cf driveshaft. That would run around $4k, lose about 100 lbs and give you another 70 hp roughly.

My post was to show you don't have to gut your car to lose weight, which incidentally also guts the resale value if you ever sell it. Do some or all of what I outlined and you'll have a serious performance street machine that looks almost stock, drives like a dream and will be worth more after mods. Just start gutting it to lose weight and it will be worth less after that.

I'll be posting a journal on the forum once I get my car and get started if anyone is interested in following the project.

I would be very interested in your project post it up when you get ur car!

[Doc]

Originally Posted by THE EVIL TW1N

I seriously doubt you will gain 3-4% rwhp from a carbon fiber driveshaft. When people were switching over from a stock steel driveshaft to a much lighter aluminum on the old 5.0's, they were gaining pretty much 0% more.

That's true on the old single-piece steel driveshafts. The best you could hope for would be maybe a 1% gain but that would be due to the lighter weight and better balancing as opposed to an efficiency gain.

The new Camaro has a 2-piece articulated driveshaft which has a third articulated joint in the middle. In effect that acts like a dampener to help control harmonic vibration but it also has to dampen the efficiency a slight amount. It was easy for the designers to control harmonics this way and in a $30k car it's a good solution. I'm going to have to do some more research on the practicality of replacing that with a single-piece carbon fiber shaft but if that's possible with no issues, then I'm guessing between the weight reduction, balancing and elimination of that third joint there should be a 2-3% improvement in overall efficiency. It might only be 1-2% but even that would be a clean gain of 5-10 hp to the rear wheels, plus improved engine response. And the cf shaft will be about 50 lbs lighter which helps improve the p/w ratio.

Considering that some people are paying upwards to $800 just for a better sounding muffler, this would be a very worthwhile mod.

[stovt001]

Doc, please keep us updated on this. I'm very interested in what you're saying.

[fad1]

If you want to use it as a track car, then might as well go for the Camaro in white and fix it up from there

[pruettfan]

All the carbon fiber in the world will not bring this car down 300 lbs. Best advice is to lose human weight it possible and drive with less fuel. You can take equipment out but what is the point of that unless you want to use it as a race car. Luckily there are some affordable ways to build a Camaro race car versus buying a complete car and striping it.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by kga10734

If your going to spend that kind of time and or cash, just put a bigger engine in it and don't worry about the weight

Bigger engine is not an easy mod, and that would change the weight balance of the car. If you only want to go fast in a straight line, a bigger engine is one way to go. If you want a performance road car, you don't want to screw up the weight balance by putting more in the front.

What I'm going to do will give me a well-balanced road car with very strong performance, great handling and stopping power without me having to go into the engine or trans to make changes.

Headers and exhaust are easy on this car from what those who have done it say; lots of room to maneuver. Carbon fiber driveshaft is easy. Forged rims are easy. Most difficult mod is actually changing the brake rotors but that's not exactly difficult. I'm going to change to steel braided brake lines too while I'm at it.

If I want to go further I can start looking into removing the electric motor system in the front seats, lighter flywheel, lighter engine pulleys, etc. but those mods are more involved and time consuming. I'll do the others first and see how the car is. There's other small things you can do that add up like titanium fasteners but those are the kinds of things you can do in the evenings on your days off. They are small changes but add up over time. If I get bored and want to do more I may keep going lol. I'm not looking for a flat out race car on the street; just a bit of a sleeper that can hold it's own and barbeque a few mustang burgers.