420 pounds removed from Eagle Talon / Mitsubishi Eclipse

[TunerJunkyard]

Maybe there needs to more crossover between the ecomodding set and the performance set, being as how a lot of goals are the same, even if to get to a different end... My fiancee wrote this article last year for our blog about reducing weight in Mitsubishi Eclipse / Plymouth Laser / Eagle Talon (DSM) cars in which she found out how to VERY easily remove over 400 pounds. Now, the purpose in this was to help people build a faster car, but it also will help make a more efficient one. Here is her article, maybe you all can grab some ideas from it!

The Fatkins Diet for DSMs
Here's how you can make your ordinary DSM the king (or queen) of the drag strip. Note that I didn't say "drag queen." Extra weight will slow your car down. I present to you (drum-roll please)

The Fatkins Diet For DSM Cars.
© 2008, M. Alma Torres, Used with Explicit Permission.

Results not typical blah blah disclaimer crap blah blah blah. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have high blood pressure, don't even read this article. All weights are approximate. Not responsible for any damage done to bathroom scales in the process of verifying my information.

Some (dis)Assembly Required:

Want to get rid of your spare tire? Go ahead. While you're at it, remove any tools or jacks you have. This shaves off about 37 lbs. Removing the spare tire and cover will lower weight by about 20 lbs.

If you're thinking "man, this is tough!" there's an easy step to help you get started. Pick up any and all floor mats in your car. Take said floor mats and place them anywhere outside of the car. Sound simple enough? You just re-located 6 pounds. Can't figure it out? Quickly surrender your drivers license, car keys, and a left nut to the nearest lost and found. $DEITY knows that you're too stupid to use them.

Feeling ambitious? You can also take out the carpet to shave 15 lbs.

Unburdening your car of all seat belts and assemblies will lighten your load by another 50 lbs. If you're brave enough to drag race, you'd better be brave enough to do it without seat belts. Think pleasant thoughts of Dale Earnhardt....oh, never mind. Serious, install a light weight racing 5-point harness or better. HANS optional.

Exchanging your stock car battery for a lightweight Odyssey style will save you approximately 26 lbs.

Know how to lose 70 pounds almost instantly? (Well, besides throwing one of the Olsen Twins out of an airplane...) Remove the front and back bumper covers and their nuts. Heh heh heh, I said "nuts."

Exchanging your stock front seats for a lightweight racing seat will save you approximately 72 pounds. That's another Olsen Twin worth of weight gone. (Not responsible for any disturbing mental images!)

Removing the rear seats will remove 30 pounds. A little bolt removal goes a long way here.

At this point, your car should be so cool that you don't need air conditioning. The A/C unit weighs about 35 lbs.

Removing the charcoal canister shaves off 3 more lbs.

Fat Camp for Cars: The More Challenging Stuff

Cruise control on a drag car is about as useful as the bow tie on a Chippendale. Switching to a non cruise control line will save you 6 lbs.

Who needs to steer when all you're going to do is burn up the quarter mile? Eliminating the power steering system will take some work. Try to get some of the fluid out of the system first, then remove the reservoir and bolts holding the pump, brackets for the lines, etc. Your ability to lose 10 lbs in a short amount of time will make you the envy of vanity dieters everywhere.

Taking out the sound-deadening material all throughout the car will lessen your car's gravitational pull by about 25 lbs. And I thought I didn't pay attention in high school science class.

While you're at it, take out the speakers and the stereo system. You won't be able to hear it over the roar of your car, anyway. Your car *is* roaring, isn't it? At any rate, your baby will be 15 lbs lighter.

So there's about 420 pounds of saved weight... Conventional wisdom is that for every 100 pounds you remove from your ride, you shave 1/10th of a second off your ¼ mile E.T. That's like removing a small adult male Bengal tiger from your car... And nobody wants to drive around with a Bengal... or a Tiger... slowing down their car.

M. Alma Torres is a freelance writer with varied interests and subject matter.

[gascort]

Interesting. I have a weight savings list from my Mustang that's really accurate.
I'm pretty skeptical of some of these items being double what they are on any car, but the back seats on any car that has fold-down seats are at least 50 lbs.

[DIMS]

This guy really did it Right, Pictures & Numbers
Photos of stripping out MK2 Astra GTE

[igo]

A nice list (with pictures) of weight removal on a saturn can be found here:

Lane's SCA - Project 92 SC - Weight Reduction (1)

[DIMS]

Originally Posted by igo

A nice list (with pictures) of weight removal on a saturn can be found here:

Lane's SCA - Project 92 SC - Weight Reduction (1)

That is also a Great Link, Thank you for sharing!

[TunerJunkyard]

I think the next few Sport Compacts we tear down, we'll do the same type of thing for. It's easy for us since we're doing it anyway... Look for lists from a 240SX and an RX-7 some time in the future.

[Drive Stick]

Originally Posted by TunerJunkyard

Unburdening your car of all seat belts and assemblies will lighten your load by another 50 lbs. If you're brave enough to drag race, you'd better be brave enough to do it without seat belts.

I'm not amused by this article, despite the fact that I mainly work with power to weight ratio, and built lightweight vehicles.

It's not even remotely funny to suggest removing ones seat-belts in effort to save weight, no matter what the cause.

Also, I personally have never seen a car that lost 50 lbs from the seat-belts being removed. Try more like 20-30 with 5 belts, including anchoring hardware.

[SVOboy]

It's too bad I could only get like 100 pounds out of all that stuff on the CRX, since Honda didn't make the seats out of lead,

Nice write up though.

[TunerJunkyard]

Originally Posted by Drive Stick

I'm not amused by this article, despite the fact that I mainly work with power to weight ratio, and built lightweight vehicles.

It's not even remotely funny to suggest removing ones seat-belts in effort to save weight, no matter what the cause.

Also, I personally have never seen a car that lost 50 lbs from the seat-belts being removed. Try more like 20-30 with 5 belts, including anchoring hardware.

If you must quote, quote the ENTIRE paragraph?

Unburdening your car of all seat belts and assemblies will lighten your load by another 50 lbs. If you're brave enough to drag race, you'd better be brave enough to do it without seat belts. Think pleasant thoughts of Dale Earnhardt....oh, never mind. Serious, install a light weight racing 5-point harness or better. HANS optional.

Additionally, first generation Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser and Mitsubishi eclipse have an electric motor-driven automatic shoulder belt and a manual lap belt. The automatic shoulder belt system, with electric motors, weighs in at about 12 pounds, per side.