Perhaps remove the sound deadening material in the wheel wells, those thick covers that goes behind the wheel well liners

 

Thanks for the reminder - that's one of the things I'll be doing.

 

Agreed. My track car has been completely stripped out - interior materials and sound deadening all gone down to bare metal, lightweight wheels and brake rotors, removed the A/C (that saved a ton - the compressor and condenser are really heavy), lightweight fixed bucket seats, lightweight exhaust, removed airbags, etc, etc. Probably lost 300-400 lb, which is very noticeable, particularly under braking.

While I don't mind doing all that to a Mitsubishi Evo, I wouldn't dream of doing anything that extreme to my beautiful V8V!

 

Definitely not going overboard at all, and things like A/C removal are not an option. I did that on an FD3S RX7 I built several years ago and hated it!

So far, I've dropped 55 lbs without any negative side effects:
Muffler (27 lbs)
2-pc brake rotors (18 lbs)
Cargo divider (10 lbs)

I'm not sure if the headers or high-flow cats reduce weight (wouldn't be surprised if there were a few pounds shaved off there).

I can reasonably expect to drop 30 lbs by switching to a lithium ion battery, so that's 85 lbs total.

If I find some awesome seats, I can probably drop 10 lbs per seat, which would be a 105-lb total weight reduction. If I go carbon-shell, it'd be even more.

I didn't weigh my wheels and tires vs stock, so I don't know if that changed the weight - I made my decision based on style and fitment. If they did drop weight, I'd be surprised since I'm running more aggressive offsets (adds material to push the wheels further out) and larger tires (+10mm front and rear, plus slightly taller).

No one thing is going to make a huge difference, but this stuff adds up.

 

As a sometimes (mostly former) weight weenie in the bicycling world, I have to wonder why not save your time/money/effort. Yes, the easy bits have added up and you may get to a 100# reduction, which gets you...what? 2.5% reduction?
What is the performance change you are after? Rather than chase weight for the sake of weight, shouldn't you have an objective goal?

On my bikes, I definitely like the feel of a lighter rig, but grams here and there mean nothing. Now, dropping 2.5% off of my total riding weight (engine (me) plus bike) is a pretty significant drop, nearly 5# and we're talking about a 15# bike...so I need to stop eating for a few weeks. And even if I did find 5# of weight to shed between me and my bike, the improved time to the top of Angeles Crest Highway would be minuscule. But human power and cars are different. Your motor puts out the same power no matter how much you've slept or eaten, so vehicle weight is a more meaningful target. I get it.

My point? You've already stated that you aren't interested in going sick-light (keeping your A/C, etc.). So what do you really hope to gain?

All of that ranting aside, I know you are a DIYer and a tinkerer and if this is a project that keeps your interest and keeps the car fun and fresh for you, keep it up. But I would like to better understand the delta you expect (want).

 

I agree with Ibis. I don't see the point. Drink some coffee and take an ExLax the night before you go to the track. It'll probably have the same effect.

Sameer, did you move to California?

 

I definitely agree with you, and you're absolutely right. And yes, this is in large part just me tinkering!

The weight reduction I've done so far is without drawback aside from cost. The brake rotors increase performance directly because of weight. The muffler was swapped out for exhaust sound and happened to drop weight at the same time. The rear divider can be removed and installed in 10 seconds so no biggie. If a lithium ion battery can handle the job, it's a big chunk of weight to be saved without drawback. If I get seats, they'll be perfectly comfortable yet offer better lateral support (which I really want) plus drop weight.

If all that drops 100 lbs without any negative effect on my ability to enjoy driving the car, then why not? These cars are fairly heavy relative to their size. Sure, they've got a honkin' big V8 and some very stout components, which is great because they can take a serious beating - but that weight makes itself known when pushing the car. Back-and-forth weight transfer, like in esses, sucks with these things. They're great on high-speed tracks, but they suffer from their weight in tighter courses.

Aside from that, I'm planning to keep the car for as long as I can. I'll buy a second Aston before I get rid of this one. So the costs I'm incurring aren't too concerning because I'll be able to enjoy the work I've put into it for the foreseeable future. Everything is adding up incrementally - a few extra horsepower here, a few pounds less there, some cosmetic changes along the way - but it's adding up to a car I find more enjoyable and satisfying overall

My objective... keep finding ways to improve a car I love and continue making it even more enjoyable to drive. I like round numbers, so 100 lbs of weight reduction is my goal. If I can hit 150, that's great. it's another lovely round number. 200? I doubt that's possible without sacrificing some enjoyment, but it's such a lovely round number!

And I'm glad I was only an amateur cross-country mtb racer. I have friends to this day that count grams religiously and I just couldn't handle that myself lol

 

Don't want to hijack the thread, but yes. Moved home. Florida was an experiment but I'm Californian through and through. Plus, driving my S on Angeles Crest Highway...OMG! There simply are no roads in Florida that make you love your car quite the way a CA mountain road will.

But back on topic: I do appreciate Telum's curiosity and tinkering. Just wonder what the pay off is.

 

Agreed - nothing in FL can top CA!

And we'll see. So far, so good. Love the car to death and driving it never gets old

 

Amen.

I thought I'd do that with my '08, but I'm lazier than you so the way I found to improve it was to buy an S

Your gram counting friends are free to enjoy wasting money and/or mental energy. They're keeping engineers and product managers employed and happy.

 

Get the Odyssey PC680 battery plus the BMW battery box. The PC680 is only 12 lbs and is a dru cell and only costs about $125. The battery box is another $100 i think. You should drop about 30-40 lbs depending on stock battery weight.

As long as you drive the car once every 2 weeks its enough to keep the PC680 charged. Another good rhing about Pc680 is you can draw it down a dozen times and put it on a charger and the battery will come back. Optimas will completely die even if you let them draw down once (never getting one again)

Hope that helps

 

It does, thanks! I've used a couple Odysseys in cars and had no issues. I didn't see enough of a price-to-weight reduction benefit with the Red Top. Hadn't considered a BMW battery box, got any more info on that?

I have a battery tender, too. I only plug it in when I know I won't be driving the car for more than a week. I'll be using it a bit more with a smaller batter but so far so good.

EDIT: Looks like the PC680 only has 170 CCA. Need at least 3x as many!

 

Does anyone know how much the OEM seats weigh? I'm looking at a set that weigh 26 lbs per seat, not including mounting hardware (which I'm guessing will save even more weight because it's a manual slider vs the electronic OEM ones).

EDIT: The carbon fiber seats offered in the UK for the N430 are said to save 20 kg (44 lbs) while retaining the electronic base. So my earlier guesstimation of 10 lbs per seat of weight reduction should be easily attainable. I wouldn't be surprised if I doubled it.

 

I have had a few Braille batteries in my Porsches, carbon lithium. Great quality....

https://www.braillebattery.com

 

Wonderful, thank you! Lots of great info!

I'll be looking into the lightweight flywheel whenever my clutch needs replacement - hopefully not any time soon lol.

Not surprised the Recaro PPs dropped a lot of weight, but WOW 40 kg! I mentioned it earlier, but I had one of those in my Subaru STi and really liked it. Looking at something much more civil this time around - pretty sure I've found what I'm looking for but it'll **** off the purists.

About the seats - what base did everyone use? There are a few people with Recaros in their cars, but what about the base that bolts to the floor of the car? Was it specially made to fit the floor of the V8V or is there another car with the same base?