Losing Weight

Has anyone stripped weight out of their car as a way of increasing performance? Any big ticket items that can be deleted or lightweight substitutes out there? Thanks in advance. JKC

it depends on how light you want to go and what your willing to sacrifce what are your plans for the car and what are you willing to give up

I once had to instruct a student at a DE who had gutted the interior of his M3, taking out well over 200lbs, and had not done anything with the suspension. Boy was that a scary car, really floaty. Rally quick in a straight line though. The point is, you can't take significant weight out of car with out addressing the suspension.

I hadn't thought about that (the suspension)... I was just thinking that losing a few pounds that could be easily put back in would be an easy way to pick up a little in performance. Thanks JKC

You could remove the spare tire (the one in the trunk! ) and the tire changing tools. You could also opt for lighter wheels (costly).

Replace factory seats -70lbs Spare and tools -30lbs Rear Seats -12lbs Lightweight muffler - 15lbs Dry Cell Battery -40lbs Wheels and tires -40lbs maybe if you do hoosiers and new wheels. Carbon Fiber hood (not sure) Stripping weight does a few things for you. It helps your handling and braking because there isn't as much weight your tires have to hold. Wear and tear on brakes tires etc and gas mileage is improved. Also it makes your hp/wt ratio better. The carrera is 9.7/1 wt/hp ratio so every 100lbs is like picking up 10hp. The weight over the rear axle of the car like mufflers as well as unsprung weight like wheels/tires will help you more relative to the other weight.

I'd start with unsprung weight if I were you. Depending on what wheels you have you can certainly make some handling and perceived power gains there. Additionally, if you really want to reduce weight there you could add PCCB's. Figure if you are aggressive you could lose about 5-10 lbs/corner or more. After that you could strip out the rear seats, trade a can of "fix a flat" for your spare and swap out your Porsche power seats for some light weight racing seats for some reductions that might not be too "painfull". Probably worth around 40-70 lbs. After that choices get tougher IMHO. You could lose you stereo, air-conditioning, remove the lower portion of your center console and swap your front hood for a carbon fiber unit. I'll bet that's all worth 30-50 lbs. Beyond that you could start attacking the trim (door panels, carpet, sound deadening, etc.). I'm sure you could find 100-200 pounds there. What can you live without??

the aluminum bumper behind the plastic could go if your not worried about them for chassis protection thats 50+ lbs there and on the road youll never know for everyhing else its a matter of light/comfort x $$.$$ simple equation

All of that is appreciated feedback that prompts another question... What is the difference in sprung vs. unsprung weight? I understand the hp to weight ratio (which is what I was going for), I understand that the suspesion and brakes don't work as hard, but I have never understood why folks prefer to loose the unsprung weight first... Any help here? Thanks in advance and sorry for all the questions this morning. JKC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_weight

Simply put, less unsprung weight will allow your suspension to work more efficiently over bumps and road imperfections. This will make the car handle better (provided the springs and dampners are still a good match). Additionally, reducing the weight of your wheels (and rotors to some degree) can improve your cars acceleration and braking because the engine and brakes will need to overcome less inertia to stop or start the wheel. IMHO, you are better off removing 20lbs of unsprung weight than you are removing 100 lbs of sprung weight.

Additionally, if you choose to get new wheels look for "forged" rather than "cast". Forged wheels will be more expensive, but they are generally much stronger and lighter than cast wheels. Finally, if performance is your goal, I would not go any larger than 18". 19's may look "cool", but 18's are a better performance choice IMHO.

Why are you trying to lose weight to increase performance? Are you racing the car? Are you planning to race the car? If so, then you had better check the rules for the series. Many mods like this will put you in different classes. Are you DEing the car? If so, are you driving the car as it is to its utmost potential? If not, then why not focus on the driver before screwing up a fine car? If so, then why not sell the car and buy a GT3, which might satisfy your goals better than stripping out your car? If you are not racing or DEing the car, then what is the point at all? If it is not fast enough, sell it and buy a Turbo.

This is a very good point!! Plus for racing you will need to add a cage, harness, fire extinguisher, etc. which will all add some weight back.......

Thanks guys. The car is probably fast enough. I will eventually DE but not for awhile. I drive spirited but never over my skill set and never in dangerous situations on public roadways (meaning when other cars are nearby). I was just thinking of some ways to tinker a bit and add some zip. I won't ruin the car by gutting it or doing something silly and non-reversible. Someday I may step up to a GT3 someday... On the other hand, I really like the appeal of my plain old 996 so I may just do the Porsche Power Package when my warranty runs out. Again, appreciate the feedback. JKC

I'll tell you what I did. I removed the rear seats, replaced the fronts with racing seats, replaced the mufflers with bypass pipes, removed the spare/tools, replaced the suspension, replaced the wheels with forged, added fire extinguisher, roll bar/harnesses and cool suit. The car weighs less than 3k. I only track the car however.

You will get the biggest bang for the buck with aggressive tires and lowering your car to ROW specifications. One on one instruction on the race track or auto cross is very valuable. Don't do anything else until you figure out what you want to accomplish. The Porsche Power Kit is very expensive. I would put my money elseware unless you've run out of things to improve on the car.