Lightening the beast

[NomadTW]

i think his numbers are fine except for the seats

the wheels is right on there are 4 of them remember?
going to 11lb wheels would be almost 40lbs, it's not hard to find 15lb 16' wheels not hard at all 5x4=20

the exhaust could easily save that weight, if not more depending on the exhaust you choose,

a lightweight battery weighs about 20lbs right? a stock battery is around 40

the hood sounds right

the seats are NOT that heavy, the driver seat weighs abotu 50lbs the passenger seat weighs 15lbs maybe, rear weighs like nothing it's foam and leather...

so maybe 30lbs from the seats maybe

as was pointed out you can put in a nonelectric driver seat and put the leather on the pads from the cloth seat. to keep the svx comfort but still be light, personaly i dind't mind the nonpower aspect of the cloth they're just uncomfortable

as for the bumper beams i don't know but like i said i'm sure that the jdm svx has 3mph bumpers and we have 5mph bumpers big difference in weight in the beams, also not technically legal to have on the car... but you'll probably save a good 50lbs from them that's about the difference on the impreza i think...

you can always take the bumper off and hack away metal in the beam as well if you can't find an actual jdm beam...

rear window motors surely dont' weigh much although i'm sure that mike knwos because i'm sure he's shipped them out...

you couldn't remove them without doing something to the window because without the motor the window won't stay up...

mike also i'm sure knows about the wieght of the rear wiper assy... again if you remove it you will have a hole in the rear windshield...

plexi windows would save at least a couple hundered lbs tho if you replaced all of them. but that'd be very very expensive, becuase they would have to be completely custom, for the price of having the windshield and rear windshield done you could probably buy another svx i know that my grandmother's boat had it's windshield vandelized (65 chris craft super sport) and you can't buy those windshields and so it would have to be pulled from a wreck, or custom, and going custom plexi would have been 1000 for just a half a windsheild (split in the middle) the svx would probably be more tricky than that, and therefore more expensive

the trunk is heavy, 50lbs or so total i dont' know if anyone's ever weighed it to get a hard number but that's my guess from picking it up...

if you wanted to go further hardcore it is feasable to shorten the wiring in the car, take up all the slack and replice the wires, probably save 50lbs in wires, i know that they did it from the factory in the 3000gt to save weight,
if someone ever makes a FG trunk lid it would surely save weight,

i think with all of that and several thousand dollars you can shave a total of probably 700lbs off the car if not more

if your going to custom FG or CF fabrication may as well replace the fenders as well, and the roof panels

well that's all i've got for now

[Subafreak]

50lbs for the seats sounds about right but I don't think the P.S. weighs only 15lbs. A carbon fiber bucket shell seat weighs in at around 15-13lbs.

[GreenMarine]

With the 5 speed swap I noticed that mine handles alot more sportier than before... Dosen't "plow" as much and I have actually gotten the tail out a few times... A good 5MT swap is one of the best things ya can do!!!

[GreenMarine]

But if ya want to handle, don't worry about cutting weight... Porter's car probably weighs a few hundred pouds more than mine and his will run circles around mine... Why??? Well with a suspension that is about 3X stiffer than stock I hop he would be able to... The Suspension and bigger swaybars... That would be a good start for handeling...

[NikFu S.]

ive decided shaving weight off my car is pretty much useless since im not dragging the thing. please never do it unless youre going all out.

ive decided shaving weight off my car is pretty much useless since im not dragging the thing. please never do it unless youre going all out.

I thought 155 mph guy said you already had considerable weight reduction. Ya know any good ways?

[NikFu S.]

if by considerable you mean losing the spare and removing the a/c components, then no. ive removed maybe 50 lbs. however i only weigh 140 soaking wet. thats part of my advantage.

drilling out the numerous steal beams is the only way to shave good weight. its not worth it.
oh yeah, when my window was busted out i could 'feel' the difference. it felt lighter, smoother.

fact is theres no point.

edit: is it just me or does 'lightening' not seem like a word?

[svxhunter]

Lot of guesses out there! Some are way off course. We've had our '92 LS-L sitting on electronic scales for 4 days pulling stuff off the car with only one goal in mind- weight reduction. Keep in mind this car will not be driven on the street again. The interior is gone, the entire sunroof assembly has been removed, AC, wiper motors, window motors, regulators, bumper cores have all been removed. It is still wearing it's original wheels and glass. Stock battery, auto trans, AWD. We had a goal of 1000 lbs. We will max out at a total reduction of about 600 lbs, which was a little disappointing. I'm a little worried about it's distribution- it went from a nearly perfect 51/49% to a pretty rough 63/37%. We will be shifting some weight (ie: battery, etc.) to try to accomodate. The front seats weigh a ton, especially the driver's- probably close to 150 lbs. for the pair. The rear seat is almost nothing. The bumper cores are not heavy, less than 25 lbs. ea.- they are stamped metal like the unibody of the rest of the car- YOU MUST HAVE THESE ON THE STREETS. PLEASE DON"T TAKE THESE OFF. The AC weight is almost entirely in the compressor- all the fittings and exchanger, etc. are either rubber or aluminum. There is a ton of wiring in the car, but if you intend to lose 50 lbs. here you'd better be ready to push the darned thing. We decided to keep our ABS. Glass weighs, but the cost of the custom curved plexi would be ridiculous. Besides, would it be an SVX without those windows? Realistically, if you want to keep the thing nicely drivable, you can't dump more than about 300 lbs. (maybe 400 with the manual swap out). If you want light, buy a chevette.

[svxhunter]

Lot of guesses out there! Some are way off course. We've had our '92 LS-L sitting on electronic scales for 4 days pulling stuff off the car with only one goal in mind- weight reduction. Keep in mind this car will not be driven on the street again. The interior is gone, the entire sunroof assembly has been removed, AC, wiper motors, window motors, regulators, bumper cores have all been removed. It is still wearing it's original wheels and glass. Stock battery, auto trans, AWD. We had a goal of 1000 lbs. We will max out at a total reduction of about 600 lbs, which was a little disappointing. I'm a little worried about it's distribution- it went from a nearly perfect 51/49% to a pretty rough 63/37%. We will be shifting some weight (ie: battery, etc.) to try to accomodate. The front seats weigh a ton, especially the driver's- probably close to 150 lbs. for the pair. The rear seat is almost nothing. The bumper cores are not heavy, less than 25 lbs. ea.- they are stamped metal like the unibody of the rest of the car- YOU MUST HAVE THESE ON THE STREETS. PLEASE DON"T TAKE THESE OFF. The AC weight is almost entirely in the compressor- all the fittings and exchanger, etc. are either rubber or aluminum. There is a ton of wiring in the car, but if you intend to lose 50 lbs. here you'd better be ready to push the darned thing. We decided to keep our ABS. Glass weighs, but the cost of the custom curved plexi would be ridiculous. Besides, would it be an SVX without those windows? Realistically, if you want to keep the thing nicely drivable, you can't dump more than about 300 lbs. (maybe 400 with the manual swap out). If you want light, buy a chevette.

[NikFu S.]

one post is plenty.

that pretty much agrees with what i didnt quite say.
without drilling into the frame you wont shave much weight.

I CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD SVX!

i know you intend to go all out, but when you realize it is futile, please put her back together.

[svxsubaru1]

I would really want to shave 300- 400 pounds off my car, then it would be down to the weight of a 1 gen legacy, which dident have wheel bearing problems or trannie problems. I am not saying it would take these problems totaly away, having more power adds alot of stress and opertunites to do so to the bearings and tranie, but it would really help alot, and then you would have the added performance of a lighter car.

Has any one aculy weighted the driver side seat, ive read on this thread alone the seat weighs between 50, and 150 pounds.

Also in genral front fenders do not wegh alot, making carbon fiber ones pointless. The heaveist one ive ever lifted has not been more than 8 pounds and it was alot bigger than the SVX one.

Also like the SVX the toyota MK3 supra is over weight 3600 pounds. Some people said to save weight remove the front bumper brace it will save over 100 pounds. I had to rebuild a front end of a MK3 and the front bumper brace only weighted about 30 pounds, probely about the same weight as the SVX one, making swaping in the JDM one very hard, and expensive for little weight loss.

[svxsubaru1]

Originally posted by NikFu S.
one post is plenty.



I CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD SVX!

i know you intend to go all out, but when you realize it is futile, please put her back together.

I rather see a SVX be prepared for racing of some sorts than see it be babied.

Also NikFu s. your not draging your car but your engine is.

[NikFu S.]

you need some polish, and im not talking about making something shiny.

or am i?

anyways i meant drag RACING. not physically dragging it by hand. now what was your point?

youd rather not see an svx babied? you want everyone to start stripping and racing a 35 thousand dollar luxury gran touring sports coupe?
you must not like the car very much. i feel sorry for you.

if i were to have pulled all that weight from my car i would have almost zero traction with those wide tires on the ice.

[svxhunter]

Actually, I don't think we are ruining this car. We pulled her out of a field of weeds. The dealer who owned her was in the process of crushing cars. He crushed 200 cars that week. We bought this one from him 15 cars before she got crushed.

We're giving her a new life, albeit quite a different one than she may have been built for.

This is not futile- we're having a great time and have already had huge successes!

Working on her has given me an appreciation for this car- great car. I bought a second one (a '95) which we now drive daily.

Don't worry- we'll take good care of her!!


NikFu S.

I CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD SVX!

i know you intend to go all out, but when you realize it is futile, please put her back together.

[NikFu S.]

Originally posted by svxhunter
Actually, I don't think we are ruining this car. We pulled her out of a field of weeds. The dealer who owned her was in the process of crushing cars. He crushed 200 cars that week. We bought this one from him 15 cars before she got crushed.
...
Don't worry- we'll take good care of her!!

well in that case, by all means, go forth unto the night.