I figured we needed a thread on how to lighten up a miata, what others have done and what weight a track car can safely get down to.

Things i have removed:
AC
Power steering
front bumper support
Metal things between motor mounts and sub frame
Headlights/motors/relays and all related wiring
Everything behind the dash (heater core, ignition key thingy, all unnecessary wiring)
Carpet & all sound det is removed
Doors are pretty much fully gutted
OEM seat belts have been removed
Softop
Oem hood latch/cable ect.


Places i still want to remove weight:
Trunk lid skin
rear bumper (the pretty standard cut that alot of people do)
Exhaust (make a removable muffler via v-band)

I cant really think of anything else i have removed for the sake of lightness, maybe we can all ad to the list.

 

soft top
emissions components
ditch heavy wheels
hack up dash
start cutting away unnecessary sheet metal
removable cat to put in test pipe

 

Side mirrors and battery...

 

how about a plywood delete?

it *would* be sick to lay up some carbon fiber for your splitter.

should also add wiper motor and wiper arm delete to the list
possibly rear glass delete

 

OEM seats at 35lbs+ each. There are a whole bunch of little things that you can do that only net a pound or two, but add up. I put mine up on jackstands and just started looking at the car and if I didn't absolutely need it, then it got taken out.

I was at 2070 somewhat stripped with a rollbar, but since then I have taken about 150lbs or more out doing this.

 

2300+lb crew signing in from your GF's house.

 

Smaller fuel tank/fuel cell?
Ribbing inside the hood.
plexiglass windows

 

 

WHAT?! ****.

You need to keep labor in mind for all these things too. Mainly the lexan windows. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Don't replace your HT glass with lexan unless it's broken. Between labor, the fact that you have to replace it every ~2 years, looks, fairly minimal weight savings (~5lbs?), and the whole weather tight thing, it's just not worth it.

Lexan triangle windows on the other hand, are great. Again not much weight savings, but very easy (aka, flat) to fabricate, and are great for NACA ducts. Those two ducts on my car bring in A LOT of air.

Snowboarder, if you haven't touched your rear bumper, get to it. Although you'll probably be adding weight back there for corner balancing purposes (remember FM's track dog raced with a spare tire in the trunk), there's a good 20lbs to be had. Here's a hint: once you're back there you'll notice you need the black plastic beam to hold the trunk on. Hack it up, it's fun and wasy (way easy). That 20lbs is an estimate with a crappy scale (weigh myself, hold stuff and weigh again, subtract), and I hadn't hacked up the tow hook mounts at all. They're a little ugly with the bumper cut.

I'd hope by the time you're getting to the point where you need the hood gutted, you've upgraded to a CF or fiber glass unit. That being said, I'll be gutting it and adding a cooper scooper eventually, ala (****, railz? slutz? I forget now).

We've been over this a million times, the risk vs. price is in no way worth it. You save some weight yes, but it's pretty much the least important spot to loose weight, beyond the fact that it's in the front. That and the risk of ripping it off and destroying it is way too high. If he keeps a jig saw, along with the battery powered drill I know we all have for removing wheels, as long as the rest of the car is fine, he can be up and running with a brand new splitter in the next session for $20. Only problem is it won't be painted until the next track day.

 

parking/ebrake and parts
hood latch and cable
gutted doors (door bars on the cage right?)

 

Brake dust shields, fender liners, forgotten nuts and bolts...

Edit in exhaust shielding.

 

I've seen an APR CF splitter and a 12mm Birchwood splitter for an Elise in the same pattern. Any guess as to which one was lighter?

The big weight in these cars is in the doors. If your doors support themselves, they are too heavy. Glass, quarterwindow support, window sliders, power window motors, the entire inner skin structure, hell the crash bar alone is like 4lbs a side. Get rid of ALL of it. I'll have to remove one of my doors sometime and weigh it compared to a power window, power mirror door.

-trunk hinges/latch
-headlights
-all glass except for windshield
-lexan windshield
-remove dashboard
-de-wire car (worth 15-20lbs)
-mufflers are for bitches
-seatbelt towers
-all crash structure and everything that crash structure attaches to
-fiberglass trunklid (I'm having one made that weighs <2lbs, stock lid is ~15lbs)

If you're talking about removing carpets, emissions, and HVAC in this thread, you're behind the curve. That's all easy to remove - the hard stuff is what you can't see or what nobody else thinks about.

 

Eh?

edit: I get it now, run nothing in the back or sides, and a lexan windshield?

 

It's amazing how heavy the trunk/lifters/hinges really are. Pretty damn easy to take off too.

I've got my oem truck lid down to about 7 or 8lbs after making it pretty much just a skin and it sits on some pins.

 

cut any welded on bolts and replace hardware with light weight hardware.

 

yeah 20 bucks is pretty compelling. can't touch that with cf. material cost back of the envelope calc looks to me in $150-170 range (for prepreg). i mentioned because its more weight on the very front, and you already have some weight up there from the IC.

I'm crushed. crushed.

 

Excess bolt length.Trim them down to 2-3 rounds of thread sticking out,then a DROP of low strength lock-tite.Grind down all of the flashing on the block,trans& diff.Im really thinking of cutting the trunk floor out and riveting/bonding an Aluminum plate in.
(G)

 

What areas are considered "safe" for lightning holes as well?

I have yet to totally rip everything off and really look at it.

What can be removed and/or new material be riveted/welded in a better area for reinforcement?

 

I wonder if removing my soft-top will not help my corner balancing considering the front is super heavy?

 

I think removing the soft top, but then adding weight lower for a lower c/g will work better... the further from the center of the car, the less total over all weight to get your corner weights.

From an article on the iRacing forums, in NASCAR, they could make the cars really light weight, but due to their weight requirements.. they bond tungsten (sp?) to the bottom of the gearbox, so any weight it does have is as low as possible and still ends up weighing 3800 lbs