Weight Reduction

[eunos96]

So I had a thought a few days back in regards to weight reduction on my NA. Would it really be worthwhile doing some removal of parts to reduce weight?

My car has been stripped from the inside including the trunk. Don't have the convertible top either or the frame.

Where would other places to possibly reduce weight? Replacing parts with frp or cf to reduce weight?

Thanks guys.

[BoBo]

To be honest, there is not much you can do. You already removed the soft-top and frame. That should be it and the car is light to begin with. If your really crazy about dropping weight then get carbon fiber doors with a fixed lexan windows or something, those doors weigh inn at least 50lbs. But if it was me, I would just leave it alone and work on other stuff like suspension and power.

[eunos96]

Alright for sure, my last stop might be removing the AC. The whole system doesn't blow cold at all & just causes the idle to spike up. Well I was thinking about replacing the trunk lid for a carbon fiber one, the R-Pkg lid is heavy as hell so it'd beat it.

[BoBo]

Is this a dedicated track car? if so, the removing the AC would be an improvement but not that much. Are you trying to improve you acceleration ? if so, I would just focus on the power. I knew a friend who gutted everything in his car including windows, it looked liked his car was parted out. A few months later he wanted to go back to the way it was.However, it was a lot of work and he sold most of the parts.In other words, he ended up selling the car for cheap.

[Martin]

Cut off every bolt that sticks out past the nut. That should keep you busy for a while and remove a few pounds :)

[atank]

Light weight wheels, nasty carpet, spare, jack, passenger seat, passenger seatbelt, both airbags.

[eunos96]

Yeah its my DD & what I'll be using for the track soon.

[Agent☣Orange]

You can only ditch so much weight by removing things before you have to start paying to add lightness. That would things like lightweight battery, exhaust, seats, flywheel, rotors, wheels and so on. Unless the point is to see how light a Miata can get with an unlimited budget, there will be a quickly diminishing return on investment where it would make better sense to spend the money on power and suspension instead.

[Demon I Am]

Yeah, you can chuck all the stuff listed above, but if this is a street car, why bother? That 30 pounds lighter isn't going to make your work commute faster, or your "canyon runs" any less fun.

I have driven my car for a while with it pretty stripped (no carpet/soft top/spare tire/center console/et al) and all it did was make me feel like I was going faster than I was. If you are tracking the car on a more competitive level, then yes it make sense. If it's a daily driver, keep it comfortable. Or don't, it's your car.

This guy has documented about everything that can be done: http://www.lightweightmiata.com/

[The Driver]

Yo Phattie, where are your comments about this? I remember the original "Phat Miata" being light as a feather...

[Phatmiata]

Switch to 1.6L Lightened Flywheel and Clutch, 1.6L brakes, remove the elbow bracket from the intake manifold, use a lighter exhaust, (enthuza maybe), remove the front bumper reinforcement and crash brackets, get smaller/narrow wheels/tires, run with 1/4 tank of gas at all times, stop drinking soda, drink water = lose weight, remove passenger seat, opt for lighter drivers seat. No more fat girlfriends, or just let them drive you around in their Toyota Prius if you still wanna big girl. ditch the power steering, go to manual windows, ditch the door skins, remove the rock/pebble guard coating from the lower half of the car. remove the front covers (3pcs) from the timing belt area, and shave the front half of the valve cover off. remove the glass corner windows and replace with Project-G Vent windows, cut out the skeleton framing in the hood, and trunk.

[The Driver]

^ Didn't you remove the passenger airbag, and placed a carbon fiber cover where that airbag was?

[Phatmiata]

^ Didn't you remove the passenger airbag, and placed a carbon fiber cover where that airbag was?

Yeah, there was quite a bit I left out, I used to have a MS Spreadsheet somewhere that I had all the parts removed/added with weights in the ounces, been I long time since I went down that road. I will have to see if I can locate it on one of the older computers.

[The Driver]

^ Ha! I also remember you telling me that you had the car weighted at the DTOP 18 wheeler scale on I-4. Those were the days!

[eunos96]

Well my hopes are to set my car as a dedicated track car.

[atank]

Switch to 1.6L Lightened Flywheel and Clutch, 1.6L brakes, remove the elbow bracket from the intake manifold, use a lighter exhaust, (enthuza maybe), remove the front bumper reinforcement and crash brackets, get smaller/narrow wheels/tires, run with 1/4 tank of gas at all times, stop drinking soda, drink water = lose weight, remove passenger seat, opt for lighter drivers seat. No more fat girlfriends, or just let them drive you around in their Toyota Prius if you still wanna big girl. ditch the power steering, go to manual windows, ditch the door skins, remove the rock/pebble guard coating from the lower half of the car. remove the front covers (3pcs) from the timing belt area, and shave the front half of the valve cover off. remove the glass corner windows and replace with Project-G Vent windows, cut out the skeleton framing in the hood, and trunk.


Lose weight, bahahahaha!

[The Driver]

Lose weight, bahahahaha!

Worst, if the OP has a chunky GF/SO, Phat is advocating for him to dump her! That is just COLD!

[eunos96]

Haha that's hilarious!!! Man too funny. My gf isn't on the heavy side so no slamming to the ground because of weight! I wouldn't dump her ever, I love this chick too darn much.

In reality I weigh around 120lbs. Ridiculous I know!! Haha.

[BoBo]

You can only ditch so much weight by removing things before you have to start paying to add lightness. That would things like lightweight battery, exhaust, seats, flywheel, rotors, wheels and so on. Unless the point is to see how light a Miata can get with an unlimited budget, there will be a quickly diminishing return on investment where it would make better sense to spend the money on power and suspension instead.

+1 that's exactly what I meant. Only 6 pound of boost would be a better investment.