Sedan weight reduction

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06-15-2023, 02:06 PM

#256

gomez015

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Originally Posted by 4DRZ

Your aluminum hood is already much lighter than steel. The carbon fiber hood will probably save you a few pounds, but definitely not worth the cost for weight reduction due to the fact that you will probably need hood pins minimizing your weight savings. The other issue is fitment. Most of the carbon fiber hoods do not have great fitment. If you move to a carbon fiber hood I would only do it to get more ventilation for the engine. You will notice more reliable performance with better engine cooling than you will by saving a few pounds.

I would go custom for the rear diffuser if you want actual downforce. Everything premade I have seen is pretty tame.

yeah i figured the hood wouldn’t save much. The ventilation is nice, although I haven’t had an engine cooling issue yet, and have pushed the car hard for full 20 minute sessions in Cali desert summer heat.

I may make a thread for the diffuser build progress. Honestly I know nothing about them other than some videos i’ve seen on how they work and my basic fluid mechanics knowledge from school. My biggest concern is the forward mounting. Theres nothing to grab onto it behind the rear diff

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4DRZ (06-15-2023)

06-17-2023, 07:28 AM

#257

Vlad Orlov

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Originally Posted by gomez015

yeah i had same idea, ended up sticking to OEM hood for now, might do the seat swap tho

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06-18-2023, 01:22 AM

#258

gomez015

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Originally Posted by Vlad Orlov

yeah i had same idea, ended up sticking to OEM hood for now, might do the seat swap tho

seat swap was a huge improvement if you track the car. If you go with sparco and get a true bucket seat, don’t get the sliders unless you’re like 5’2”. I’m 5’6.5” and couldn’t fit in the car with my helmet on. Had to remove the sliders to bring the seat lower. And there’s a HUGE height difference between the 2, not just adding the height of the slider. The bolts that attach. Between the slider and side mount don’t allow you to use the lowest slot on the side mounts for the seat either. Plus the side mounts creak and make sounds, and don’t truly fix you to the car. You’ll have to place the seat where you like and and drill hols into the base mount to fix the seat in place.

Also, here’s some weights I took of parts of interest:

Spaco Base Mount (for coupe): 8.4 lbs
Sparco Sliders: 4.8 lbs
Sparco Side mounts + hardware: 6.0 lbs
Sparco Pro 2000 seat: 19.2 lbs (much more than advertised)
Oem Driver Seat: 77.6 lbs

so you save 77.6-(19.2+6.0+8.4)= 44.0 lbs by just replacing the drivers seat. At LEAST 88lbs if you do the same to the passenger side (same savings id you do a sparco R100 seat without side mounts). I think the passenger seat weighs more though because it has the occupancy sensor brick inside, i just forgot to weigh it.

and finally, if you do what I did and leave out the passenger seat on the track, you have a total of >121.6 lbs of savings, which is absolutely huge, and you no longer have to fight to stay in your seat. Granted if you get a harness bar and harnesses, you add some weight back. I’m running oem seatbelts atm.