Weight

[ablackburn99]

Whats the cheapest way to lose wieght that will effect the car the most?

Other than wheels witch are pretty expensive

( best prices I seen where on the TSW nurbergrings and still look good onthe car)

[BMR guy]

It will be a while before we see any significantly lighter Fifth gens. There really is not much you can do to lose a sizeable amount of weight in this car without compromising drivability somewhat. When I mean a sizeable amount I am talking like 100-200 lbs. On a 4th gen car, a drag racer could buy our Ultimate weight reduction package and drop 114 pounds off the car. Eventually this will be possible for this platform as well.

We have plans to eventually develop a lightweight K-member and lightweight rear cradle for the Fifth gen. We will also be doing a solid axle conversion as well. I could see a lightweight K-member knocking 30 lbs. off the nose. If a drag strut were adapted to the car along with a traditional style spindle and lower A-arm setup you could run a light weight brake package and probably take 100-125 lbs. off the nose. Obviously these are extreme mods and I don't see anybody doing this for a few years.

I could see a hardcore street/strip car getting down to about 3250 and dedicated track car around 3000 lbs.

[ablackburn99]

Would be great to get these cars to see 3250 for the street.

Has anyone one out there noticed an improvement w light weight wheels and tires 19" and up?

[Crowley]

Originally Posted by BMR guy

Our 1SS manual with a full tank of gas weighed 3843. We corner scaled the car and came up with the following:

LF - 995
RF - 1013
LR - 933
RR - 902

That puts it at a 52.25/47.75 ratio, pretty close to 50/50!

For those interested, here are the weights after adding the Magnuson supercharger:

LF - 1021
RF - 1052
LR - 959
RR - 926
Total weight - 3958

That's right, the supercharger added 115 lbs. to the car!

The interesting thing was how little it effected the front-to-rear weight ratio. You would think that putting 115 more pounds on the nose would offset the ratio significantly to the front but this chassis distributes the weight very well because of the motor position. The new ratio is:

52.37F/47.63R

Just some useful information for those of you questioning all motor vs. supercharger power mods...

Good info .. thanks for posting this.

Crowley

[BMR guy]

Originally Posted by ablackburn99

Would be great to get these cars to see 3250 for the street.

Has anyone one out there noticed an improvement w light weight wheels and tires 19" and up?

Just to clarify, 3250 would be a "streetable" drag type application with minimal creature comforts. I don't think it would be possible to get one down that low and still handle like we like. Also, the car would probably not retain AC, power brakes, power steering, big brakes, etc....basically all the things that make the car fun .

This is probably what it would take to get the car down to 3250:

• Tubular K-member with with some type of adapted traditional spindle, A-arm and drag strut. - 75 lbs.
• Lightweight drag oriented front and rear brake kit - 60 lbs.
• Remove front sway bar and end links - 12 lbs.
• Convert to manual rack and manual brakes - 35 lbs.
• AC delete - 60-80 lbs.
• Lightweight bumper supports front and rear - 40 lbs.
• Lightweight drag wheels - 120 lbs.
• Lightweight drag seats - 40 lbs.
• Tubular rear cradle - 30 lbs.

Total 492 lb. savings, but look what you would have to give up to get it!
Another option that would allow you to keep some creature comforts and still be around 3250 would be a solid axle conversion. The IRS is very heavy with an 80 lb. cradle, multi-piece driveshaft and 5 link suspension. A solid axle conversion could easily knock off another 100 -150 lbs. and allow you to keep your power steering, brakes, and AC. That being said, all of these options are very expensive and have lots of trade-offs.

[BMR guy]

Originally Posted by Crowley

Good info .. thanks for posting this.

Crowley

No problem. I have seen a lot of concerns over supercharger weights effecting the handling of the car and was a little concerned myself. Once I saw how minimally it effected the weight ratio I figured everybody else would want to know too!

[|BLACKSS|]

Xtreme Innovation has a front engine craddle that sheds 32 lbs off of the car and they are building the a rear IRS
engine craddle-32lbs
coil overs-35lbs
rear IRS-50lbs (just a quess)
tsw nuringburgs-32lbs
light weight battery-15lbs
race seats-50lbs
grand total weight loss=214lbs
but for all of this i could buy a supercharger kit wish i had money for both

[GMRULZ]

2ss no sunroof, l99 w/ 160lb driver and 1/8 tank of gas raceweight 3985.