Light Weighting SVX
 

I don't know if anyone has ever tried to lightweight the SVX before but is it even possible to reduce the weight to 3200lbs?

Hi Cho

Yes it is possible to reduce weight.

A few of the members use their cars for x-crossing and racing. These guys have stripped out lots of things to reduce weight.

The end weight, like in all things, depends how street-able a car you want to end up with.

If pure light weight for racing is your thang, then 3200-3300 is possible.

Do a few searches, you will find the right people.

Joe:)

Benebob, and Hocrest have striped a SVX for Auto-Xing....I don't recall the exact weight they've got it down too, but I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you.

I'm under 3400 with a full leather interior.;)

We're down to about 2700 lbs. That'll be changing in the coming months as we reduce it by going with a 5-spd and raise it by adding a cage...

Check out the link in my signature for some pics.

Man, you do drink light beer!:D

So what would be involved in getting it down to, say, 3300 pounds?

Removing roughly 300lbs of stuff that you don't need... Probably the best way would be to not get in the car... That is a good way to lighten it by atleast 150lbs (175lbs in my case)... ;)

lose your interior for the most part. Get some light weight seats or just get L/LS model seats that don't have leather or electronic controls. A 5spd will also drop around 100lbs. Rim/tire choice makes a big difference depending on which ones you go with. There are fiberglass hoods available that weigh more than 20lbs less than stock. The ABS pump and components weigh over 30lbs... there is a bunnch of stuff you can deal without like the rear wiper motor and tank... Just random things

Tom

AC pump, condenser, drier and all tubing should get rid of another 40+ lbs...

The stock exhaust is fairly heavy, you can lose some weight by redoing that.

It isn't so much about loosing weight as weight isn't a huge deal. Remember a 3 ton Bentley will do 0-60 in about the same time as a Vette. If you're gonna go dieting you need to do it wisely and concentrate on infront of the front axle and behind the rear (not so much as the front as the SVX is a tad front heavy) Next you wanna concentrate on high weight such as the insualtion behind the headviser etc. You can loose 500lbs and actually make the car handle worse by doing so if you're not smart about it. Once we lost the first 4-500lbs the car looked like a Buick Rivera so the suspsension needed to be dialed down an inch or so. Ideally the best place to loose the weight is:

1. Loose the front bumper beam structure (or at least cut it down or sub in a lighter one from an Outback)??- see SVXfiles for what fits That's a good 50 or so lbs as far forward as you can get!
2. Remove the ABS system and put in Ts in its place.
3. Move you're battery to the rear of the car in the wheelwell for you're spare
4. fiberglass hood
5. Remove you're spare tire.
6. Remove everything from the trunk.
7. Rear bumper beam
8. As was stated by Tom go to L seats which are still heavy as anything but again this isn't gonna help handling by removing this weight as they are very low center of gravity in the dead center of the car. Ditto with a 5 speed.

Key is to know where you're starting at- Wet weight of a 92 Ls-l is 3750ish to start with. Just removing the gas would get you down to the 3600 range but again its actually lowering your center of gravity by being there!

I'm going to take my SVX to the truckstop to get an accurate weight, and THEN start stripping uneeded stuff.

Can anyone tell me how to remove the power antenna unit?

A truck stop isn't the most accurate but will be slightly higher as truckers can't take the chance they're overloaded when they get to a weigh station.

You'll need snapring pliers to turn the 2 pronged plastic piece up top and the rest is pretty self explanitory once you've gotten behind the trunk stuff. It isn't all that heavy if you're removing it for weight.

Re: Light Weighting SVX
 

Back from the dead... was doing the yearly MOT inspection today. On the scale, Me + SVX weighed 1606 Kgs. I am 88kgs, that made my SVX near 1518kgs or 3347lbs.

My future plan is to remove another 100 lbs. My rims/tyres are heavy, my bodykit is still the prototype and some bits and pieces here and there can be shaved without sacrificing much.