Yes, I know it's been done before, but I've been doing some work recently and thought this might interest some of the autocross, road race, and other performance guys.

Our Autocrosser is an '86 SE. Aero nose, notchie. We didn't weigh it before we started because we brought it home and started cutting it up.

We had it to the point of the V6 installed (auto), lower trunk cut out, direct true duals out the headers (no muffler or cat), battery moved up front, front lower trunk gone, headlights removed, interior gutted and a Corbeau race seat and 5 point harness installed, stock passenger seat, stock dash and instrument pod but no console or radio/ac pillar. The doors still had their skins, glass, and were intact.

We weighed it at that point and it weighed 2,540 pounds, 1,500 on the rear, 1,040 on the front.

We worked on it today and gutted the doors. Glass is out along with everything inside the doors but the latches. All of the interior of the doors, including the inside release levers, are gone. Mirrors were removed. That amounted to 31.5 pounds per door, so we dropped 63 pounds.

We pulled both Facias off and took out the bumper I beams and egg carton. That was 17.5 pounds rear, 18 pounds front. Total of about 35.5 pounds.

We also removed the inner wheel liners, horns, turn signals, air box/water separator, etc. That, along with a small tub of miscellaneous nuts, bolts, screws, and rivets amounted to another 24.5 pounds (part of that is 10 pounds for the sunroof glass. We don't autocross with it in, but we had it in when we weighed it). I'd guess we also dropped about 3 or 4 pounds of sand, dirt, etc., but I didn't weigh that. It looks like we lost a total of about 125 pounds today from the 2,540, so we should be down to about 2,415 or so, and probably pretty evenly distributed between front and rear.

There is still more things we can lighten. The dash is coming out and being replaced either with aluminum or a fiberglass one we build ourselves, that should save about 20 pounds, at the most. We can trim more of the trunk out as well, saving another 15 or so. I may take the rear window out, it will probably weigh about 10 pounds like most of the other glass has.

We have the Grand Am brakes on this car and they work very well for autocrossing, but those calipers are HEAVY. They will probably be changed over the winter to something lighter (especially important since it's all unsprung weight). There's some metal that we can lose in the front of the car but, realistically, not more than about 20 pounds. I still have to remove the a/c evaporator, but that's only 3-4 pounds at most. I'm keeping the heater unit for the defrost (those that ran at Wheatstock in the rain on trackday know why). I'll probably remove the passenger wiper arm since it's not of much use for this car. The stock passenger seat will be replaced next week with an inexpensive, but safe, lightweight race seat. Those two things will probably save about 20 pounds, maybe a little more.

In looking the car over, if I want to keep the space frame intact, it looks to me like there MIGHT be another 100 pounds to lose without resorting to a lot of exotic materials or some wild procedures. I'm thinking right now that if we're lucky, for an automatic car, we may be able to get close to 2,300 pounds, with a half a tank of gas.

So, if any of you wondered what this stuff weighs, there you are.

John Stricker

+ for this info.

Those bumpers at ~17lbs are worth every pound on the street, I had heard that they weighed much more.

Looks like it is hard to remove weight on a street driven Fiero.

Just looking at them, you'd think they weigh 20 pounds or more, but the don't. At least it isn't much work to take them off so it's kind of easy weight savings. I'm trying to keep track of the weights of items I removed but I didn't start keeping track until a little late in the game. I didn't weigh the a/c parts, for instance, but still could I guess since they're all still piled up together.

From here on out, other than the passenger seat and the dash, the weight reduction gets harder and is going to be measured in ounces and not pounds.

John Stricker

PS: the class I've been running in, E Mod, can get as light as 1500 pounds. I don't think I'll make that.

quote Originally posted by DanielKJenkins: + for this info. Those bumpers at ~17lbs are worth every pound on the street, I had heard that they weighed much more. Looks like it is hard to remove weight on a street driven Fiero.

Since you run in Modified, does that mean rollbar or cage?

Pretty cool, John.

Be sure to post pictures of your dash when you build it. That sounds neat. I think losing 20lbs may be optimistic, though. I've had the dash out a few times and although I didn't weigh it, I'd be surprised if it weighed 20lbs. It's surprisingly light.

------------------
Doug Chase
Chase Race
Custom roll cage and exhaust fabrication

Doug,

You have me curious now. I have another dash out in the spare parts pile, I'll throw it on the scale and see what it weighs.

OK, the dash itself weighs 11.5 pounds and the instrument pod, with instruments but NO switches, weighs 6.5 pounds so a total of 18 pounds, maybe a few more ounces with the odds and ends that weren't included. I can make a dash that I know weighs no more than 2 pounds, but the instruments will probably weigh another 2 pounds (tachs are heavy), so we're looking at a net loss of maybe 15 pounds instead of 20.

I'll have to look at my other project car with the dash out to see what else I can lose from that. Perhaps a portion of the HVAC ducting since all I really want is the defroster, but that savings will be measured in ounces, not pounds.

Harry,

In Mod a roll cage is recommended, but not required. Eventually I'm probably going to have Doug bend me one up, at least a rollbar braced to the strut towers. I think, since I'm leaving the spaceframe intact, that should be sufficient. I'd like to pull the steering column and substitute something lighter, but I'd have to check the rules because I know some require the stock column for it's collapsability. The stock column is very heavy, but sometimes safety is worth the weight.

One thing I THOUGHT I saw was that a master electric shut-off in the past has been a recommended, but not required, item and I think I saw a rule change from SCCA that made it mandatory in Mod. Do you remember reading that, Doug?

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Doug Chase: Pretty cool, John. Be sure to post pictures of your dash when you build it. That sounds neat. I think losing 20lbs may be optimistic, though. I've had the dash out a few times and although I didn't weigh it, I'd be surprised if it weighed 20lbs. It's surprisingly light.

Looks like you got a nice project going, John.

I've been working on my interior over the last few months, and have weighed several of the components on my bathroom scale. Here is some data:

-- Stock carpet (both sides, including firewall cover): 40 lb
-- Stock seats (per seat, includes sliders): 35 lb
-- Stock console (the whole thing, including the skeleton): 20 lb
-- Stock dash (including air duct and speaker grilles): 13 lb
-- Grand Am brakes add 8 lb per wheel to the front, 4 lb per wheel to the rear (not including the weight savings from removing the e-brake hardware)
-- Stock headlight assemblies (both of them, with bulbs): 10 lb

Your weight saving plan is going the same way as mine for solo 1.
I am also taking out the gas tank and mounting a cell where the spare wheel used to be.

I thought about using just the door skins fixed in place and climbing in and out the window opening, but as I am getting older my back is not as flexy as it used to be! I think I will do what you did so they stil can open and close!
How about cutting the hood and deck lid down to just the plastic skins and holding them on with hood pins?
They have to be realy heavy!
Griff.

I'm actually planning on making a new hood and deck lid this winter out of either carbon fiber or lightweight glass and pinning them with no hinges. On the decklid, I'm going to make a mold that comes down the back and incorporates the tail light area as well so it will appear to still have the tail lights but they'll just be painted on. I expect those two items to save some substantial weight since the stock hood with headlight doors alone weighs 44 pounds. I don't know what the decklid and tail lights weigh, but I'd estimate in the 30 pound range. The hood should be possible to be made to weigh less than 5 pounds and the decklid, with tail lights, about the same.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by dagriff: Your weight saving plan is going the same way as mine for solo 1. I am also taking out the gas tank and mounting a cell where the spare wheel used to be. I thought about using just the door skins fixed in place and climbing in and out the window opening, but as I am getting older my back is not as flexy as it used to be! I think I will do what you did so they stil can open and close! How about cutting the hood and deck lid down to just the plastic skins and holding them on with hood pins? They have to be realy heavy! Griff.

The gentleman at Wheatstock who's door banged open on the solo2 run, how much does his car weigh and what class is he in, do you remember?

JazzMan

Jazzman,

I don't remember anyone's door flying open but I suspect you're thinking about Tom Hill's car and, IIRC, he's running a quad 4. I don't know what his car weighs.

John Stricker

Are you weighing all these parts with a Fish Scale?

Archie

Scale? I'm supposed to be using a scale??

Actually, for the little stuff I'm using my 240 oz postage scale, for the bigger stuff my digital shipping scale. I'm sure some of the weights aren't exactly on the money, but it gives me an idea of their relative weights.

Hurry up and get my speedster kit done and quit screwing around on the forum.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Archie: Are you weighing all these parts with a Fish Scale? Archie