SinisterC6

I am looking for ways to loose as much as possible w/o drastically changing the appearance of my car. At what point through weight reduction does my street car become a race car?

Personally I don't need fancy leather or creature comforts but on the same hand I don't want my car to appear "hacked" The car is not daily driven but i like having a radio and HVAC for some comfort

the car is not stock and will actually have a twin turbo system on a built motor and drivetrain when it returns, my goal is to return to my original 3190 lbs even with the now extra 150lbs of turbo kit on board

Whats done so far for weight reduction:

2 piece rotors
non run flat tires
LG coilovers

what im considering

removal of insulation (c6 coupe) but replace carpet material
sparco pro 2000 seats on aluminum side mounts
5 point harness
sparco steering wheel
air bag deletes
carbon fiber zr1 body kit
CF hood
CF rear deck with lexan window

thanks guys

PaConehead

I don't think you'll be street legal if you delete air bags and install lexan window - so I'd say you crossed the line to almost race car, but not quite street car, maybe a HPDE car

TMyers

You need to check you state laws to determine is removing airbags is legal or not. A 5 point harness will not meet seat belt laws.

Charley Hoyt

Loosing weight doesn't make a car a race car. The conversion starts with a full roll cage.... But, to be a full race car the car needs to be prepared to meet a specific race class. On the other hand, it stops being a street car when it isn't street legal.

harrydirty

Street driving with a full cage can be risky due to possibility of contact with hard surfaces in an accident. Having roll cage components covered in foam helps, but in the end, it's a personal decision/compromise between comfort for the street vs. safety for the track.

bosco022

Just my.02, .....keep your street car a street car and save your dough to build or buy a race car.

reece146

Don't do any of that stuff.

Just drive faster.

clubracer6

95jersey

just think if you go to resell, the cost of reinstalling airbags is like $2000. I would leave the air bags, you can always re-install the carpet

hamdog

Light weight batteries like Braille 2015 can save you 22-25 pounds. Just know that you'll have to keep it on a trickle charger.
Other weight saving mods, windshield washer tank and fluid worth about 9 pounds, AC system if you choose to do is about 70 pounds, Lexan top vs hard top 8-10 pounds.
There are a lot of good posts about this subject. Do a quick search.

FASTFATBOY

I love these posts, this is a hard lesson to learn.

Can't have both.....one or the other. You will spend a bunch of money on a car that you will come to hate stripping all that out and trying to enjoy it on the street.

I like my streetcar that I trackday, so much more fun.

I did this with a drag/streetcar....never again.

trapp

It is less expensive to buy a used track/race car then to convert your street car to a race car. If you just plan on doing track days you can do a few more things to your car and you will be plenty fast. If you looking at a lightweight race car you will see them for sale on this forum for a fraction of the cost to build yourself...

el es tu

Bedouin

The posts above are good advice, but here's some good reading for you;

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...llenge-34.html

The CF hood & CF/Lexan rear hatch would be very nice, a Shorai lithium battery & lightweight race seats would help too...

RDnomorecobra

Kurt at Phoenix told me it is not illegal to remove the air bag, replace with a different steering wheel. In PA anyway. He had a customer's street legal car there at the time and we were discussing so I have no reason to doubt him. However, I think your insurance co. would have a nice out if you got injured in an accident after having removed your airbag. I hate the stock c5 wheel and would replace with a smaller diameter Sparco in a second but my car is street legal and that whole topic is not worth it IMO.

rfn026

This is a long slippery slope. I've ridden down this slope. When you reach the bottom of the hill you'll be driving a truck and pulling a trailer behind it.

My goal at this point is to buy a street car with a/c that I can just drive to the track and then drive home. It might not happen but I can dream.

Richard Newton
Car Tech Stuff

PushinTheLimit

If you ever decide to just buy a good used track car, mine is for sale and ready for the track. So much cheaper to buy a purpose built track car than building your own.

383

There is a guy that sells tons of Ti bolts but that gets $$$
I use a Deca ETX18L and it starts great @ 17* for $80
The insulation is worth about 5* I did it and it makes the carpet look "deflated" but if you're ok with that...
Clean your rockers and fenders, all the rocks and dirt are easy 4*. mine was full of crap. Seats are worth 20-30* per side but $$$. Caloway is selling there take off carbon hoods for like 3K they only weigh 16*.

el es tu

You will drop 31 lbs with this model of Shorai battery: LFX36L3-BS12
540 cold cranking amps... Its cheapest on ebay.
here is how you mount it: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...f-the-car.html

There are foam sound deadening bags at the front of each rear fenderwell

There's about 5 lbs of sound deadening tar on the frame at the rear (on the frame facing toward front of the car and on the frame facing rear - this will wrap around behind the rear bumper) - just remove the fender liners and get scraping

Also while youre back there you can remove the foam lining on top of the rear fender liners

There is a small sheet of sound deadening tar on the central tunnel under the center console

as far as carpeting goes - you can remove the wool backing and reinstall, or just remove it all together and put some nice mats in the trunk area and in the footwells, that way you retain some civility in the car on the street, but can just remove the mats when you go to a track day

remove the fuel rail covers

remove the blanket attached to the underside of the hood

there are covers for the fender vents that you can also remove - this will also allow more hot air to be evacuated from the engine bay - you remove them by unscrewing them from the fender (screw is located between the door and fender) and then taking off the fender liner and carefully pulling the part away (it uses a soft adhesive).

The rear valence adds weight and drag, you can remove this then trim the lower sections of each of the rear liners to expose more of the wheel wells to the back - this should also reduce lift because of the extra air evacuation

aftermarket exhaust will drop weight off the stock unit

while youre installing the exhaust you might as well add some adhesive backed heat shield film in place of the metal heat shielding along the central tunnel

racing seats are all over the place in terms of pricing weight and quality
tillet and reverie make the lightest carbon seats at 5 to 7 lbs a piece but they are expensive

if you want to run a harness youre going to need a full cage or you can just get a harness bar that attaches to the b pillars - this will be much lighter than a proper cage, but if this isnt for wheel to wheel racing or any real competition, you can get away with it. keep in mind that if you do get a harness, youll still need to keep the 3 point belts to pass inspection - also when you run on the track it would be a good idea to get a neck support device to attach to the helmet.

as far as air bags go:
it varies by state and by the inspector. virtually none are going to concern themselves about the seat airbags after putting in a racing bucket (as long as the airbag light isnt on - this can be done with resistors that a few forum vendors sell). As far as the airbag on the steering wheel and dash - I would make molds of the skins and make carbon fiber replicas to put back in place, just in case the inspector is picky. If youre using an aftermarket steering wheel, you may need to make something that looks like an airbag unit but fits the shape of the aftermarket wheel. I havent heard of anyone selling resistors to hook into the steering or dash airbag plugs, but I am sure one of the forum vendors could put a plug/resistor together to take care of the light.

If youre willing to go the extra mile fabricating parts, you could remove the interior door panels and put flat carbon replacements in. Then you could just use the door pulls on the floor or make some simple mounts for the buttons.

If youre going with a ZR1 body, you might just want to get the 19/20 factory size wheels to run the larger factory Michelin Pilot Sport Cups these are 285 up front and 335 in the rear. They are runflats but are nothing like the goodyears, and will give you more grip than any other street tire available for our cars.

The other option is keeping the narrow base body and running pirelli trofeo tires (also a street r compound like the michelins) in the stock 245/285 sizing - you will still get a lot of grip, but also avoid adding all the weight of the wider body and wheels


if you can afford it you could drop more weight with the pfadt carbon driveshaft

also you could convert the removable roof to the mg frame/carbon roof skin (along with the b pillar) to drop significant weight up top.

Sgt.Gator

Two Agrees