Where to remove weight from a track only car?
Elite Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,502
Total Cats: 146
From: Anacortes, WA
My car is still heavy it weighed 2283 with no fuel in it and the hard top off. At Packwood national tour this last weekend.
Bob
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I swapped to a Canadian Non Airbag column and combo switch and dropped ~4 lbs. The column is lighter the mounting bracket is lighter and there is no knee bolster metal backup plates under the dash.
My car is still heavy it weighed 2283 with no fuel in it and the hard top off. At Packwood national tour this last weekend.
Bob
My car is still heavy it weighed 2283 with no fuel in it and the hard top off. At Packwood national tour this last weekend.
Bob
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Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 413
Total Cats: 2
From: onion city,ca
i'm planning on making a harness from scratch, but since the car has a nissan motor and aim dash, its mostly an exercise in throwing out everything except for lights.
i was looking at these as possibilities:
http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/circular_hd38999.asp
http://www.fuzeblocks.com/
old s13, do u have any pics of your (i'm assuming) drift s13 harness? i'd like to see that.
i was looking at these as possibilities:
http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/circular_hd38999.asp
http://www.fuzeblocks.com/
old s13, do u have any pics of your (i'm assuming) drift s13 harness? i'd like to see that.
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Thread Starter
Elite Member
iTrader: (15)
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,034
Total Cats: 5
From: Incline Village, NV
i'm planning on making a harness from scratch, but since the car has a nissan motor and aim dash, its mostly an exercise in throwing out everything except for lights.
i was looking at these as possibilities:
http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/circular_hd38999.asp
http://www.fuzeblocks.com/
old s13, do u have any pics of your (i'm assuming) drift s13 harness? i'd like to see that.
i was looking at these as possibilities:
http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/circular_hd38999.asp
http://www.fuzeblocks.com/
old s13, do u have any pics of your (i'm assuming) drift s13 harness? i'd like to see that.
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Are you wanting to make the dash appear stock?
Here is what I did. Remove the passenger side air bag, unbolt the lid, and then glue the lid back to the dash. It will look bone stock. I removed the driver side as well, but I assume you will have an aftermarket wheel. The passanger air bag is seriously heavy. You can do the same thing to the glove box, remove the outer skin, and bolt the bottom hinge back to the dash. The latch is attached to the skin, and you will still be able to latch it, and when you are finished it will look stock. You can then put components that need adjustment like ecu or my Electromotive under the dash for easy access.
After I removed all of the a/c and heater components, unnecessary wiring, airbags, and glove box; the dash wieghed about 15 lbs or so. It was a lot work, but looks much better than an aluminum dash. All of my gauges still work too.
When I removed the dash to strip it, it was all I could do to muscle it out by myself. When I put it back in, the difference was incredible.
If you have an early year Miata, one of the motor mounts is a heavy cast peice. Replace it with a later year stamped steal one. I cut holes in both of my motor mounts to make them lighter. I will get a pic of it.
Another trick is to get rid of the fancy alternator tensioner, and cut the bracket in half. I will get a pic of that too.
I removed the parking brake, and even cut out the brackets that held the cable under the car. (I wish I had not done that) Get hood pins, and get rid of the cable and brackets under the dash and hood, and get rid of the hood prop. Hood props belong in the tow vehicle with your tools.
If I think of other things I did, I will post them.
Here is what I did. Remove the passenger side air bag, unbolt the lid, and then glue the lid back to the dash. It will look bone stock. I removed the driver side as well, but I assume you will have an aftermarket wheel. The passanger air bag is seriously heavy. You can do the same thing to the glove box, remove the outer skin, and bolt the bottom hinge back to the dash. The latch is attached to the skin, and you will still be able to latch it, and when you are finished it will look stock. You can then put components that need adjustment like ecu or my Electromotive under the dash for easy access.
After I removed all of the a/c and heater components, unnecessary wiring, airbags, and glove box; the dash wieghed about 15 lbs or so. It was a lot work, but looks much better than an aluminum dash. All of my gauges still work too.
When I removed the dash to strip it, it was all I could do to muscle it out by myself. When I put it back in, the difference was incredible.
If you have an early year Miata, one of the motor mounts is a heavy cast peice. Replace it with a later year stamped steal one. I cut holes in both of my motor mounts to make them lighter. I will get a pic of it.
Another trick is to get rid of the fancy alternator tensioner, and cut the bracket in half. I will get a pic of that too.
I removed the parking brake, and even cut out the brackets that held the cable under the car. (I wish I had not done that) Get hood pins, and get rid of the cable and brackets under the dash and hood, and get rid of the hood prop. Hood props belong in the tow vehicle with your tools.
If I think of other things I did, I will post them.
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Toss the headlight motors?
It seems you could easily fabricate a manual method to raising and locking the headlight frame in place (assuming you still have yours) e.g. - a removable pin.
In fact, if my memory serves me right there's a guy with the user name 'Adore' who removed his motors but has some sort of manual method to raising and locking his lights.
-Zach
It seems you could easily fabricate a manual method to raising and locking the headlight frame in place (assuming you still have yours) e.g. - a removable pin.
In fact, if my memory serves me right there's a guy with the user name 'Adore' who removed his motors but has some sort of manual method to raising and locking his lights.
-Zach
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Newb
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 33
Total Cats: 0
Are you wanting to make the dash appear stock?
Here is what I did. Remove the passenger side air bag, unbolt the lid, and then glue the lid back to the dash. It will look bone stock. I removed the driver side as well, but I assume you will have an aftermarket wheel. The passanger air bag is seriously heavy. You can do the same thing to the glove box, remove the outer skin, and bolt the bottom hinge back to the dash. The latch is attached to the skin, and you will still be able to latch it, and when you are finished it will look stock. You can then put components that need adjustment like ecu or my Electromotive under the dash for easy access.
After I removed all of the a/c and heater components, unnecessary wiring, airbags, and glove box; the dash wieghed about 15 lbs or so. It was a lot work, but looks much better than an aluminum dash. All of my gauges still work too.
When I removed the dash to strip it, it was all I could do to muscle it out by myself. When I put it back in, the difference was incredible.
If you have an early year Miata, one of the motor mounts is a heavy cast peice. Replace it with a later year stamped steal one. I cut holes in both of my motor mounts to make them lighter. I will get a pic of it.
Another trick is to get rid of the fancy alternator tensioner, and cut the bracket in half. I will get a pic of that too.
I removed the parking brake, and even cut out the brackets that held the cable under the car. (I wish I had not done that) Get hood pins, and get rid of the cable and brackets under the dash and hood, and get rid of the hood prop. Hood props belong in the tow vehicle with your tools.
If I think of other things I did, I will post them.
Here is what I did. Remove the passenger side air bag, unbolt the lid, and then glue the lid back to the dash. It will look bone stock. I removed the driver side as well, but I assume you will have an aftermarket wheel. The passanger air bag is seriously heavy. You can do the same thing to the glove box, remove the outer skin, and bolt the bottom hinge back to the dash. The latch is attached to the skin, and you will still be able to latch it, and when you are finished it will look stock. You can then put components that need adjustment like ecu or my Electromotive under the dash for easy access.
After I removed all of the a/c and heater components, unnecessary wiring, airbags, and glove box; the dash wieghed about 15 lbs or so. It was a lot work, but looks much better than an aluminum dash. All of my gauges still work too.
When I removed the dash to strip it, it was all I could do to muscle it out by myself. When I put it back in, the difference was incredible.
If you have an early year Miata, one of the motor mounts is a heavy cast peice. Replace it with a later year stamped steal one. I cut holes in both of my motor mounts to make them lighter. I will get a pic of it.
Another trick is to get rid of the fancy alternator tensioner, and cut the bracket in half. I will get a pic of that too.
I removed the parking brake, and even cut out the brackets that held the cable under the car. (I wish I had not done that) Get hood pins, and get rid of the cable and brackets under the dash and hood, and get rid of the hood prop. Hood props belong in the tow vehicle with your tools.
If I think of other things I did, I will post them.
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One thing my car still has is the parking brake. I lost the front brakes last year (back when they were stock) at Thunderhill and the e-brake kept me from going into a tire wall. No matter what it weighs, for me it's a safety item.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 29,085
Total Cats: 375
From: Republic of Dallas
I went on this "park brake salvation" train a few months ago at about 130mph. If I didn't have that brake, I'd be in a different car today at the least. Suddenly the "stupidity" of a drum brake inside the rotor like a Mustang or Lexus doesn't sound so "stupid" if you ask me.
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Yeah the e-brake would not be a good thing to get rid of in my opinion.
In the CMRA (motorcycle road racing) they require all bikes to have rear brakes even though most people, even the fast guys, never touch them. It is effectively an emergency brake unless you have God-like riding skillz.
In the CMRA (motorcycle road racing) they require all bikes to have rear brakes even though most people, even the fast guys, never touch them. It is effectively an emergency brake unless you have God-like riding skillz.
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i removed lbs. worth of brackets and bolts under the hood. including the washer bottle and heavy bracket that held it and the fuse box. i now just have a small alum. tab holding the fuse box. also part of my winter remodeling will include replacing my heavy steel i/c pipes with an aluminum otr pipng setup, and replace the cat-back exh. pipe with aluminum.
on the wiring, i wish i could have this guy make me a new harness!
http://rywire.com/store/replacement-...ess-p-245.html
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Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 575
Total Cats: 1
From: Long Island, NY
Yeah the e-brake would not be a good thing to get rid of in my opinion.
In the CMRA (motorcycle road racing) they require all bikes to have rear brakes even though most people, even the fast guys, never touch them. It is effectively an emergency brake unless you have God-like riding skillz.
In the CMRA (motorcycle road racing) they require all bikes to have rear brakes even though most people, even the fast guys, never touch them. It is effectively an emergency brake unless you have God-like riding skillz.
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Some of the stuff I have done in my street car...
swap in 1.6 dash
remove radio
remove air bag system
remove wiring for above
remove power antenna
remove power steering
remove hood latch and cable, replace with pins
remove cruise control
remove cockpit brace, replaced with rollbar + weight, I know
drilled holes in cast A/C bracket
remove windshield sprayers/reservior
replace fuse box bracket w/aluminum tube
radio bracket behind dash removed
removed defroster wiring
probably other stuff I forgot
some time in the future I'd like to look into a lighter drivers seat, and manually raised/lowered headlights. I require A/C for a street car so that's not going anywhere.
swap in 1.6 dash
remove radio
remove air bag system
remove wiring for above
remove power antenna
remove power steering
remove hood latch and cable, replace with pins
remove cruise control
remove cockpit brace, replaced with rollbar + weight, I know
drilled holes in cast A/C bracket
remove windshield sprayers/reservior
replace fuse box bracket w/aluminum tube
radio bracket behind dash removed
removed defroster wiring
probably other stuff I forgot
some time in the future I'd like to look into a lighter drivers seat, and manually raised/lowered headlights. I require A/C for a street car so that's not going anywhere.
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This is a crude pic, since this was taken I have got everything bolted down and made a nice filler panel from ABS to cover the wiring below.
tucks it out of the way nicely, leaves room to mount something like aftermarket coils, etc. I guess the the "nawwwsss" overflow bottle saves an ounce or two, so does ditching the charcoal canister.
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