Hey all. I'm looking to turn my car into a track bucket over the next couple years, and was wondering what some of you have done to take some weight out of the car. So far, I have started with the basics... Removed A/C, Cruise, No carpet, no sound deadening, no trunk board.... The car will remain a daily driver for a couple years still, so I would like to try and keep it street legal whatever I do.

I plan on removing the power steering as soon as I can find someone in the area that wants to trade racks...

Any other ideas? The car is a 2000 CivSi.

 

Are you planning to compete? If so, the rulebook should be your primary guide for weight reduction.

 

Probably just recreation, so no rules. It'll probably spend some good time on the drag strip too, but I would like to lean primarily towards recreational road racing.

 

In that case, check out the Civic forum or the drag racing forum where there is a lot more weight reduction going on. There are people in this forum who are actually adding weight to their cars to stay legal.

 

thanks for the pointer

 

"Road racing" denotes rules and classes and structure and wheel-to-wheel racing for lap times and trophies. I believe by "recreational" you mean high performance driving events and open track days on road circuits where fewer rules are imposed and no wheel-to-wheel racing takes place for times and trophies, correct?

If this is your goal, why worry about making the car lighter at all? As in, why remove creature comforts that will make your daily drive less enjoyable, if the car is not being prepared for any particular kind of competitive racing?

No offense intended, just trying to understand, thanks

Jon

 

One of the main reasons I don't mind getting rid of comforts and ammenities is because I just don't really care about them. I could care less honestly. Like i said, it will be brought to the drag strip too, where weight is very imperative. Also, my chassis is known for being a "heavy" car, and just taking out the carpet and sound deadening was noticeable to me. Hope that helps a little.

 

Start my removing one of the wiperz, y(). Stage 1 weight redution right there.

Sorry. Had to do it.

 

That helps a lot, thanks! You're a braver man than myself for doing without the creature comforts, btw. It gets HOT here in the summer so I *require* A/C in my daily driver (which could only see track time while pulling stuck racecars outta the mud, luckily.)

As a general guideline you will get the most benefit from weight removal that is at the corners of the car (to lower the polar moment of inertia), or higher up on the car (to lower the center of gravity.)

Since you mention street legality you can't gut the bumpers and replace their covers, nor can you remove all the airbag stuff.

How about cutting the structural undersides out of your hood and trunklid?

Also if you have a glass sunroof you could replace it with something lighter.

More to come...

Jon

 

Back seat, interior plastic, sunroof motor and tracks. Lose the stock front seats and get lighter better ones. If you haven't already, lose the stock air intake, exhaust manifold and exhaust.

That being said, I haven't done any lightening to my 2000 Si, and it makes a pretty good track car with just i/h/e, decent tires, and some suspension work.

Also, Chuck a roll bar in that puppy.

 

Yea I really dont do anything significant in attempt to lighten my Si for HPDE's. I usually take out the back seat in order to put my harnesses in. But other than that and remove the spare tire and the muffler (axle back) I just run the bitch into the ground and it works OK.

 

To be honest with you its not worth it. After you remove all the stuff - seats, e-brake, a/c, etc... you may have saved 100 lbs, and at some point you will regret it.

Just pull the p/s belt at the track and forget about the rest.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just pull the p/s belt at the track and forget about the rest.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree, for a street car you will regret it, especially when no fly hunnies will wanna roll out.

As for P/S,, it is awesome on-track. It is definately a bish around town, but the feedback is really great. If you decide to do so, leave the PS fluid IN, despite all the talk about it. If you are really serious about removing the PS, rig up a resivior like RTR does and T it to the in and return line.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To be honest with you its not worth it. After you remove all the stuff - seats, e-brake, a/c, etc... you may have saved 100 lbs, and at some point you will regret it.

Just pull the p/s belt at the track and forget about the rest.</TD></TR></TABLE>


do not remove EBRAKE cables!!!! ever!!! that is the only way i was stopping on saturday at beaver run......that is how i kept the car from creaming the tire wall instead of just grazing it!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To be honest with you its not worth it. After you remove all the stuff - seats, e-brake, a/c, etc... you may have saved 100 lbs, and at some point you will regret it.

Just pull the p/s belt at the track and forget about the rest.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree with RJ. Have you ever thought about buying a cheap car and making it a track *****? Maybe an EH2 hatchback or CRX?

 

send your a/c to me.

space saver spares for rear tires, cut off the roof, remove the bumper covers and bumpers, remove the seats, the windsheild, etc.

oh wait, didn't scc do an article like that?

nate

 

To remove the power steering in my teg I didnt switch racks, I removed the pump, left the resevoir, and spliced the lines together. It feels like manual rack now. On the car before I did this I just removed the belt, and it was a beast to control, after taking an exit ramp at speed, I had broken a major sweat, and fought to keep it on the road.

 

You could move the battery to the back, which redistributes the weight.

Another additional measure is to use the Hawker Genesis lightweight battery (less than half the weight of stock, with no offgassing)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SicNA94TegGsR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To remove the power steering in my teg I didnt switch racks, I removed the pump, left the resevoir, and spliced the lines together. It feels like manual rack now. On the car before I did this I just removed the belt, and it was a beast to control, after taking an exit ramp at speed, I had broken a major sweat, and fought to keep it on the road. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Just loop the rack.

The reservoir is just dead weight.

 

Better yet, run both lines into a catch can full of fluid, leaving both lines open and free to flow fluid.