Car loosing weight

[RandomFact314]

Do you think a car can be too light weight? A crx stripped is like 1900 pounds and you can get carbon fiber hoods, hatches, fenders, rims, and tons of other stuff. Is there ever a point where you think your car is just too light to get on the highway safely? *not that I ever expect to spend all that money on c/f for a crx )

[bluetwo]

Too light?.... I think the only potential danger is in having less protection, not that a CRX came with that much to start with. There's certainly very little danger of the car taking flight even at the highest speeds. Lol....

[MadisonMPG]

Short answer, no.

[Christ]

Yeah, it can be too light if you don't do something about the power/weight ratio.

You don't want a 1400 lb CRX (It's been done) with 200 HP on the street (The obvious B-swaps only have 160 at most, stock... H's go into the 200's easily, K's start higher.)

I'd honestly be wary of anything that light with even a 10:1 PWR. (That's 140HP and 1400 lbs.) The lighter the car is, the less grip (comparatively) the tires have, all else equal. That's not saying that the car has to be heavy to drive well, because we all know that's not true, but you have to re-learn how to drive within your means if you go too light. With my 4th Gen down to ~1700 and with 130 HP at the crank, it was kinda squirrely at times, not wanting to keep traction with high-RPM downshifts. Brake bias became an issue as well, as the car became lighter. The rears wanted to lock up under hard braking.

Frankly, the car was actually faster before I pulled all the weight, or started making more torque. It had enough torque to keep the tires spinning through 2nd gear, and high RPM 2nd gear pulls out of corners would inevitably understeer like crazy, whereas with the stock engine, I could walk the throttle through all but the tightest turns, and never lose traction.

It became a large issue of balance when I started losing serious weight and getting more power. Hitting the gas too hard put the front end straight, and hitting the brakes too hard brought the rear end around... couldn't win.

[jcp123]

I don't think so. When I get around to building my Model T hot rod, we're talking probably a 1000lb car stripped down (curb weight was ~1200lbs with the 20hp 177" 'Banger), and that's with a heavy cast iron motor out front, and they don't seem to have any trouble staying on the road even with stupid amounts of HP being sent to the back wheels.

[Frank Lee]

My cars are all loosssing weight. It's called the Rust Belt.

[McTimson]

There's not much to worry about as far as stability and staying on the road, but structural integrity and safety come into play when you start removing too much stuff from the car. But if you're only removing or replacing the 'visual' things, then there's not much to worry about.

When you start drilling holes in the frame of the car trying to save weight, then you might need to worry.

[hyperyaris]

*loose = to unbind
*lose = to own something and then fail to keep its possession

Sure. A car that the wind could blow into the air would be too light.

[Frank Lee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XUKOUbp_PA

[RandomFact314]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

....

Lol frank lee, I have never seen that video before, funny