Ok, I need help.
'92 Civic Si is weighing in at 2270 with me in the car, 1.4 tank of gas.
I'd like to get it down to about 2000lbs.
Any ideas?
So far, the following is out of the car....

front and rear bumper supports
rear seats
passenger seat
spare
tools
rear carpet
rear plastic panels
PS hose
all AC parts

Not looking to totally hack the car up, but would like to reduce weight.
Thanks in advance.

 

How much does the whole dash weigh?

 

Hey terry, holla at me on the im. That car should be weighing in at least 2100lbs. What did you run this weekend?
EVIL

 

heater core
blower
stereo
speakers
windshield washer motor
all seat belts
all plastic from the front seats back
scrape all the undercoating off under the car
floormats
remove sound deadening material
carbon fiber hood
remove one headlight

you can find some weight in there still i bet. you just gotta look. or you can hack the car up behind the driver and glue your panels back on. ghetto and unsafe, but effective.

 

Plenty of weight to take off this car terry. Let me get to it like i did gregs crx. i bigtime tortured that car...safely

 

I wanna hack those rails on the inside of the doors. Any way of doing that without the doors caving in, and at the same time keeping the lock and window mechanism working?

I'm gonna take out the heater core this week. It's busted anyway. Didn't have heat in this car all winter. Brrrr

Another question... if I get those FAL windows for the back 3 things of glass, will I still be in the street class? I know glass weighs a lot.

 

Aren't those just bolted in...?

 

the door won't cave in, but the door will lose a lot of it's rigidity. I suggest a door skin of some sort, if you put in a skin, then you have someplace to mount your handle. Otherwise, you can try and use JB weld or something..

if you cut out those supports, might I suggest you get a cage, if you don't have one already.

 

No cage yet. I'll get one if or when I'm well into the 11's (maybe at around 11.7 or so). I've known people that slowed down because of the cage, so I want to make sure I'm deep in there first.

Will the car feel flimsy without the door beams? Like on turns. This is a street car.

 

what u got under the hood of the blue HB

 

Some stuff not yet mentioned

Convert rear disc to drums. About 15-20lbs saved there
Take out glass roof, should check regulations though
Cut out webbing in rear quarter panel area

 

Well I would start with the sound deadening material...

Then I'd go for hood, fenders. You can also save some weigh on suspension components, perhaps you already have.

Sunroof, which I think you have, is like 100 lbs... could replace it with a sheet metal, fiberglass or lexan peice.

Another thing to look at is wheels and tires... much weight savings can be found there.

But if this is your street car, I gotta wonder if it is worth it.

 

Incognito, you have mail.

 

you cannot run anything other than oem glass in the street class. any street class. and although i highly recommend it, cutting anything is also not allowed. just don't tell anyone.

 

driver

 

Under the hood lies a motor. It is naturally aspirated, ergo the car has to be super light.

I don't think I can lose too much weight off myself. I'm 5'9" tall, 145lbs. If I lose any weight, the bones in my right arm may snap on shifts, and my left leg might break while pushing down on that heavy *** clutch.

Who makes lighter suspension components? Right now, allz I have are Neuspeed Race springs. Stock (original) Civic shocks. Are Tokico shocks lighter than stock shocks by any chance? Also, about swapping from disc to drum, I'm not sure if I want to downgrade like that. The brakes on the car are weak enough.

My hatch is an Si, so it does have the power sunroof. I kinda like it, even though it's heavy. Maybe I'll take it out.... at least the motor and stuff.

In street class, am I allowed to clip out the trunk area where the spare tire well is, and replace it with a flat piece?


[Modified by Incognito, 2:45 AM 8/27/2002]

 

are you even allowed to do that in pro class? Like kubo's class?

 

Gosh man... THe sunroof is the single biggest thing you'll be able to do probably. No kidding, the whole mechanism out of the CRX was like close to 100lbs when you got all unbolted.

It is sorta a trade off as it always is. Do you want it light, or do you want it comfortable? Which is why if I originally said if its your street car, I'd just leave it as it is and have fun with it.

Aftermarket suspensions are usually lighter then stock. I am not sure who makes lighter springs, but H&R makes some kick *** stuff. I think they offer a cup kit for your application, as well as at least one coil-over kit.

 

sound deadening, power stearing and AC (u prlly already have that out) get lenso rims for the back to and get less rotational mass from the lighter wheels umm yah thats all i can think of for now

 

As i told you on the phone....there are many things you can do. Some legal...some not so legal but thats up to you.

As far as the doors go. Look at the teg doors you currently now own. They have to be cut out and you can see where the beams are cut from that door. the rubber type of sound deadening/bond that is on the backside of that beam will just pop off the door when you start tugging on the beam pulling it out. Use those teg doors as a template to do whatever you need. They did take some time though. The issue is....if you do take out the beam as suggested....get it caged at that point or leave them in for now. The other issue your going to have is...if you do remove them...i'm not sure you can access the cutting area while still keeping the inside skin for window mounting purposes. When your cutting that beam out....water, water, water. As your torching keep the outside skin as cool as possible by constantly spraying water on it.

sunroof. its heavy. not 100lbs heavy...but more like 50-60 with all pieces. that **** isn't needed. I think MB is making an insert for that...check with them. You already know what to do about the front brakes....just get a spare hub for the drag setup.

I'm not sure if you want me to tell you the real illegal stuff on this message board because if you I do..then people will know what to look for. Its a few things that were pulled on me at the track. People cheat...its just the way it is. Its cheating when you get caught or it comes down to your own morals. I remember one time i raced this black teg at ETown. There were two of them on display side by side in the vendor area. They were identical with the exception of one thing. One was allmotor and the other was turbo. from the outside it was impossible to tell them apart. I was the fastest car out there allmotor street. the allmotor black teg was number 2. I was like 3+ tenths faster all night. Came to the finals and it was me and him. at 3/4 track i was almost 2 car lengths in front. he then passed me at the finish. I never complained...but i'm like thats wrong..something is messed up. I then found out from a mutual acquaintence i was racing the turbo teg and not the allmotor teg in the finals. I'll never make that mistake again.

heater core and all vents. Don't be worried about a sunroof if your not worried about these parts. The way i feel about the removal of the heater core etc is that its not a big deal. I know some will say its illegal lightening but the way i see it is....the removal of possible broken parts isn't a big deal. Lets say i don't want a radio....i'd yank it especially if it broke. Now i'm not talking about loosing door beams because they just don't break loose. Personally i'd start writing to those sactioned bodies about another street class thing that pissed me off. Ask them to allow fuel cells in the street classes as long as stock fuel tank remains in place. tank doesn't way too too much...but that fuel does and you don't want to run out of it like i have in the past trying to run the pro class with stock tank. put in a fuel cell and drain, empty, half cut whatever you gotta do to the stock tank.

There are small things that add up. seat belts. those weight probably 10lbs combined. If the Si has abs(don't recall) get rid of it. keep that rear wing on the civic. Object is to get the air going over the car to wrap as fast as possible and meet up with air coming under the car as quick as possible. it literally will help stop that back drawl and almost like help push the car. Skinnies...get them or use the VX rims and tires like i told you. CF hood ...get one. take out passenger light and get that piece thats made to take in air on 5g civics. Now connect that to the air box you need me to get. manual steering rack. you gotta do that. Dont raise up the rear end...keep it low like the front.

Get the z10(they sell a chromoly version). Tune tune tune tune. That civic will see mid 11's really quickly. as mentioned...go with rear drums. Use my 4" hole saw and put in defusers. take out insulation. Empty window washer fluid before events. work on that gearing. Get electric water pump. see if they now allow crankcase pumping which they didn't when i was racing. Find out for next season if they are going to allow fuel cooling...as in ice tanking.

yo....there is alot to do.

 

take all the srs crap out and get a lighter steering wheel, or just gut your stock steering wheel.

 

OK, I really don't see myself converting back to drums. Not at the moment anyway.

Sunroof might go in the future. I'm going to try to do the sound deadening stuff first.

What's the best way to get the undercoating off the car? I know the sound deadening stuff on the inside will scrape off, but the stuff underneath looks like tar.

 

i belive they used dry ice on teds car and it came right off they did 2 cars in 2 hours pretty damn good if u ask me. oh yeah heres another one take a big fat dump before u run. i droped a tenth from that once lol

 

So from this quote.. i would assume that if you run a fuel cell, you cant run in the street class anymore... does this automatically push you into the proclass?

a 10lb fuel cell sure beats a 50lb fuel tank...

 

I have a 93 Si that I really need to lighten up a bit. Ive had some ideas here and there, most are stated already.

Only ones I didnt see, or read over.
Remove the front sway bar.
Kinda rice, but the projector headlights or JDM headlights are not made with glass, but rather acrylic or plastic--much ligher than oem.
Rear windsheild wiper.
Swap in standard mirrors for the power ones.