make an s13 as light as possible?

[srdub-t]

im building a 10 second s13 and i just was wondering how to take out the sound dampening material? aslo any other suggestions on making the car lighter would be apreciated. Thanks guys

[modulation]

Use dry ice to remove material.Just sit the dry ice on the material and in like 5-10 minutes you'll hear the tar (that's what the sound material is) start to crack. Take a flat head screw driver or a chisel and hammer at the edges and you'll see it shatter like peanut brittle.

Just be sure to do a large area at a time as possible because the more dry ice you have around the area the easier it cracks.

As far as weight removal:Back seat's gone right? Trunk matting? Spare tire?How about power seatbelts to manual seatbelt conversion?Power windows > manual window conversion.Take out the clutch hydrualic dampner.Take out the power antenna.

Also if you remove the dash there is more sound deadening material that is brittle and comes off easy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jonhamilton/240sx


Modified by modulation at 9:06 PM 2/9/2008

[jt15833]

how does this effect noise in the cabin? road feel?how much weight savings can be expected from this?

also your pics are broken

[srdub-t]

k thanks. what the clutch damper thingy.

[modulation]

k thanks. what the clutch damper thingy.

http://garage.projectraine.com....html

[modulation]

how does this effect noise in the cabin? road feel?how much weight savings can be expected from this?

also your pics are broken

I gave up with the pics and posted my album.

Weight savings from removing sound material I'd say is between 35-40 pounds.

It makes the car way louder.. You can hear all the rocks hitting the under-carriage and even rain hitting the bottom.

If it was my daily driver I wouldn't do it. The only word to describe the car without sound-material is RAW. But I love it that way..

[IanS]

If it is an S13 Hatch, get yourself a carbon fiber hatch, the hatch weights like 150 lbs. Also, switch to lexan windows on all of the windows except the windshield. Remove the stock fuel tank and run a lightweight fuel cell. You can also gut the doors, most racing regulations only mention a door bar and panel, on all of our race cars we completely gut the inside of the door, including all the ribbing, we then weld in a door support bar, and cut some lexan to fit as a panel, you can remove upwards of 20 lbs per door.

[MRNA]

Drilling holes in all non-loadbearing sheet metal(ie door panels and the back seat sheet metal) can help help quite a bit if done right. Just make sure you don't do it in a square matrix and that you countersink them. Countersinking forces bends around the hole and a staggered (yet symmetric) pattern will prevent any bends from being straight-thus absorbing energy.

[fullmetal]

I hat e to point out the obvious but light weight wheels are a good start as well as all other rotating and reciprocating parts so fly wheel drive shaft are great places to start especially since more gains are made here then with any other weight

[srdub-t]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys... Also this car has to pass NHRA regulations. Does lexan windows qualify?

[IanS]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys... Also this car has to pass NHRA regulations. Does lexan windows qualify?

As far as I know you can use lexan in all the windows except the windshield. I know for sure thats how the Rally America and FIA regulations work. You cant use it in the windshield because of glare issues, and also because it doesn't provide enough support.