Is there any ways to lighten a V8 Vantage?

Full exhaust is about -60
Rims can be -30

Anything else out there to help put the car on a diet in a tasteful way with out going full race car?

 

I'm in a planning phase of a drastic "diet project" for Vantage. So far I consider these (weight figures are best guess based on googling so pitch in if you know better):

Exhaust system by Quicksilver (-74lbs)
Recaro seats (-44lbs)
Brembo rotors (-18lbs)
Wheels/tires (-18lbs)
Interior trim removal/replacement (???)
CF hood (???)
Polycarbonate windows (???)
Lightweight battery (???)
Stereo/nav removal (???)

The goal is -350 to 400lbs so I still have a work to do...

 

Those are the extreme weight removal items. Is there some hidden weight on the car we can remove because of "regs". Is ~ 200lb about the most you can shave of without going extreme?

What about suspension change weight such as KW coilovers?

 

Wow, these are pretty extreme measures. Sure you don't want to just buy another car that is lighter to begin with and less focused on luxury? Are you using the car on the track? If so, it may make more sense to just buy a track-prepped V8V, which you can pick up new or used.

BTW, a CF hood won't get you that much weight savings relative to the cost. The existing hood is aluminum and is already pretty light.

 

^^^what he said.

 

I don't want to steal the thread. I'll start a separate one about my project when it's ready.
Let's see if we can answer the original question

 

Not looking for a track car, just seeing where weight can be saved. I look at a car at what can be changed to be its best and finding weight saving options is one of them. I would be using the car just for back roads driving and the odd track day.

 

lightweight forged wheels, 2-piece brake rotors, full exhaust, and remove the trunk divider. Those will have no negative effects on the car. lightened flywheel might be worth it when replacing your clutch, so long as driveability is maintained.

going any further would jeopardize the ride quality and enjoyment you get out of the car for the sake of very slight gains.

btw, here's a thread about a V8V as a track car, has plenty of info in general:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...track-car.html

 

Sorry, I got turned around and was responding to phun-ky's post under the misconception that it was his thread.

I think you may be able to get closer to 90 lbs off with the full exhaust including headers, as well as greater power/torque. Lightweight seats would shed a good bit too b/c the US seats are pretty heavy. However, replacing the seats would remove the side air bags and may disable all of the air bags in the car. This is something I recently learned while prepping another car for the track.

 

* Pull out all the airbags in the car
* Remove plastic fender liners and insulation
* Remove rear carpeting
* Remove bi-xenon lamps and replace with halogens (Porsche does this on the GT3)
* Remove Air Conditioner
* Remove Cats and run 200 cell units
* Go to Carbon brakes (this one is going to be pricey)
* Run 17" or 18" wheels, smaller wheels are lighter.

or the best idea....

* Don't muck up your Aston and go get a Lotus.

 

Wheels will NOT shave that much weight, I really thought they were going to shave a ton but in reality they won't, usually 1-3lbs most (and I got very expensive machined custom back pocketed forged wheels). The stock wheels (especially sport pack and vantage S wheels are just too damn good in this area to get much additional weight loss here). You will save just as much weight (if not more) by switching from the super heavy Bridgestone RE050A to Michelin Super Sports and that weight reduction is at a much higher radius (plus they are super grippy, last longer and ride smoother and brake better.)

2 piece brake rotors save more than 18lbs. 18 lbs is just for the REAR rotors(this is for the Brembo rotors, they are the only rotors that make a huge impact on weight reduction, the others out there are FAR less effective in this area), fronts will save another 18lbs roughly so total reduction is about 36lbs, but because its unsprung rotation mass, it's effects are roughly 4x more effective, so in reality it will feel like about 144lbs roughly. That plus tires (Michelin Supersports are on avg 3lbs lighter per tire), the total equivalent gains will come out to 192lbs equivalent weight loss (rough estimate).

Exhaust is barely 30-35lbs weight reduction, don't expect anything more than that. So comes out to roughly 220-230lbs of equivalent weight reduction for those 3 weight reductions. The one addition of doing exhaust is it removes weight at the very rear of the car bringing the weight balance from 49/51% rear to as close to 50/50% as possible.

If you could only choose two things to change, it would be tires and brake rotors, everything else is waste of time, and/or too invasive (aka not tasteful). If you really want to break the bank a set of Carbon Fiber DBS seats are the ultimate OEM solution but probably not worth the $10k cost for 100lbs in reduction, personally I think it's a waste of money considering bakes and tires are consumables for maintenance which need to be replaced at some point anyways, so you might as well upgrade them.

Now you can see why removing unsprung rotating mass is so much more effective bang per buck, not to mention they also reduce drivetrain power loss as well by allowing as much HP/TQ to reach the ground as humanly possible. In addition, the only thing that IMPROVES ride quality and suspension performance at the same time is mass reduction of unsprung rotating mass, everything else makes it worse (yes, springs do improve handling performance BUT at the expense of smooth ride quality, unsprung rotating mass reduction IMPROVES BOTH suspension performance AND ride quality of the car, best of both worlds). BEST OF ALL, TIRES & BRAKE ROTORS DO NOT VOID FACTORY WARRANTY!!!

Learn from my decades worth of modifying, don't waste your time on doing anything else, it's honestly a waste and will ruine the character of the car or worse, make the car unreliable.

 

Exactly
Other people do it better
Actually have you seen the big chunks of metal Aston use for the dipstick, seat belt guides and filler cap - you are fighting a losing battle trying to lighten an Aston.
They built them with loads of heavy parts
Wiring loom along is 140 kg

 

There is always room for improvement on any car. I modified a prisue (I know I should be ashamed for saying I had one but in 1 year I drove 65K for wok) so AMV8 is no different.

1. Rims can save weight it dropping them down to 18's vs the 19's. I agree the if staying in the 19inch class then 1-3 LB is a small gain.
2. Brakes, good to know
3. Exhaust, every lb adds up
4. I could supercharge the motor and still be in factory warranty as per the mangnuss moss act. The real issue is how much you want to fight the manufacture / dealer. Been there done that and still do it

So far the modification i have seen here is pretty much what I figured could be done. Gone beyond that would be getting into race car modifying.

 

The rims swap alone made my 2008 Vantage feel so much lighter on its feet. It was amazing what difference it was. Also, my the cats did save a ton of weight as well.

Hope that helps.

 

So, you're against doing weight-lightening mods, except those that would involve adding parts that you sell.