hayabusa

Sorry I have not been around lately, I have been really working alot on my other car the SRT4. Finally broke into the 11's without the nitrous. Anyways what is the best way to lighten a 80 Firebird? Right now the car weighs 3600 pounds without a driver. We are going to remove the seats in the front and go to a race seat on the drivers side. I am not sure if we are going to put one on the passenger side as for now the car will only serve as a track car. I doubt the rear seat weighs enough to bother with. We are going to go from Iron heads and intake to aluminum. More than likely we will go to a better wheel that will save some weight also. Other than these things where can we drop some weight? It will be a track only car for a few years and then it will probably be returned to a street car but only for cruising. I know there has to be some areas that can drop weight pretty easy I am just not sure where to start.

Memphisblue
Hayabusa

joelster

I had 2 2nd gen Z28's so the same things will apply here. Take off the urethane bumper cover on the front. It is held on by about 20-25 bolts. Remove the heavy-ass metal bumper and supports. It weighs around 40lbs iirc. Re-install the bumper cover with 1/3 of the bolts. Take off the wheel wells. They each weigh around 7-8lbs. Front sway bar=15lbs. Does the car have a/c? If it does remove all of that crap. You can remove the rear bumper too, but it doesn't weigh as much. Carpet and sound deadener weigh about 35lbs total. Rear seats are fairly light. Tops and bottoms will be about 15lbs max. Spare tire/jack 15lbs.

Now for spending some $$$ to lose weight.

Get a lightweight battery and leave it up front. I run an Odyssey 680. It weighs 15lbs which is 20 less than the stock one. If you want to run a battery in the back, you have to run a heavy ass cable the length of the car, an on/off switch, and wires from the alternator back to the switch. I kept mine up front and I figure I saved about 15lbs by doing so.

Seats. The plastic cheapos will do fine. The aluminum ones aren't much lighter anyways, but much more expensive.

Overflow bottle. A 20oz Pepsi bottle will do

Wheels. Draglites/Pro Stars will be the best bang for the buck. Bogarts and such are a couple lbs lighter but WAAAAAAAY more expensive.

Hood. A fiberglass hood will save a lot of weight, especially if you get a pin on hood that eliminates the hinges.

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1994 Z28 Black heads/cam th350 drag car
1995 Z28 Teal 'Vert bolt-ons 6-speed cruiser

hayabusa

I forgot we are changing the hood. We have to to clear the engine with the high rise intake and I was going to use the pinned hood for ease of removing the engine and to remove the 20 to 40 pounds that most of the hardware weighs.. I was wondering if there was a bumper under those covers. I removed almost a 100 pounds on my SRT4 by removing them. The air is already gone. Good Idea on the battery. The wife wants to keep the carpet, godda do what she says, but thanks for the other ideas. Is there anyway to lighten the doors? They weight a ton.

Memphisblue
Hayabusa