Anyone here doing weight reduction mods to their SRT6? Like reducing unsprung and rotational weight (lighter wheels, brakes, suspension, etc). Or replacing the stock battery, seats, and hood for lighter units.

The rule of thumb is every 100 pounds of dead weight reduced is equivalent to 10 horsepower gained. Who knows how true that statement is but it definitely helps with acceleration, braking, and handling.

The SRT6 is no porker but its not a skinny model either, its kind just of in the middle.

So what lightweight mods have you done?

 

[quote=Juggernaut]

The rule of thumb is every 100 pounds of dead weight reduced is equivalent to 10 horsepower gained. quote]

Yikes!! Time to go on a diet

 

Right around 75 lbs lighter here cleared out the hatch area,and got rid of the windshield washer resivoir, next is battery and seats, but i got other things on my list before i go there. HDDP had is down to 2600 race weight with cage.

 

I am not about to strip my car like a honda civic trying to gain .001 seconds at the track only to be left wtih a loud uncomfortable rattle trap of a car. These cars have torque unlike a civic so you are only ruining your car by stripping it to only gain a few thousands of a second when you could better direct your attention to other mods that will still leave your car nice to look at, nice to drive and not a ratttle trap that is slower than the rest that invested more wisely in their modifications.

Lighter wheels are always a plus though.

There are cheap and easy mods for your car that will give you much much better gains.

 

For the most part you dont wanna over do it with our nice cars. Id say lighter wheels ,lighter exhaust, Carbon fiber hood, and lighter battery is the most i would do.... Who doesnt want a lighter car? With the above mentioned one can easily save 100 pounds. But then again theres no CF hodd out for the cross fire( might look funny).

 

Do they even make a carbon fiber hood for us? Is it Factory Replacement (has the strakes) and finally how much? Oh and would it paintable?

 

There is NOT one on the market currently.................but if there was you could paint it any color you want.

 

And you don't have to strip your car like a civic.

What I am saying is if you take simple modifications like reducing weight from your wheels, brakes, and suspension you would see tremendous improvements in all areas of performance.

Example: Reduce 40 lbs of rotational mass (1 lbs of rotational mass is roughly equal to 10 lbs of sprung weight on the chassis) and you are 400 lbs lighter in theory.

 

it will not make a tremendous difference unless your idea of tremendous is .05 seconds faster lol.

better brakes and wheels help on the roadcourse though

the stock brakes and rotors are great though.

 

Some one make me a cf hood to save weight.

Some one make me race seats for more weight savings.

Some one make me a way to tune the car myself.

Wait those last 2 are happening

 

if someone can figure out a way to tune these cars ourselves that will be fantastic!

 

I think that would be tremendous.................that would mean I would be in the damn 11's instead of low 12's.

 

Do tell! Do tell!

 

Still using my example of 40 lbs of rotational weight reduced which is equivalent to 400 lbs of sprung weight reduced should net you -0.40 in the 1/4 mile.

" It is generally understood that every 100 lbs saved is worth about 0.1 seconds, and a 1 or 2 mph in the 1/4m. "

Shedding Pounds - ThirdGen.org

 

That is true, when you are right there on the borderline!

I

 

It makes a bigger difference if you're road racing, as opposed to drag racing.

As for how it affects drag racing, my favorite is Sport Compact Car's "Texas Sawzall Massacre" Nissan Sentra.

SCC Technical Assistance Program- Sport Compact Car Web

It's a classic laugh.

 

That is just totally messed up. I hope after all that he won his race.

 

Juggernaut, I get what you're talking about. However, there aren't many alternative light weight parts for the unsprung components of our cars. Even getting lighter wheels is pretty tough. There are so few after market wheels made for our cars I _ALMOST_ ordered a set of custom made American Racing wheels. But at about $600 a wheel, I figured I could add horsepower cheaper than dropping weight, and I was only going to save about 5 lbs per wheel.

So that would give me an estimated 20 pounds of unsprung weight-loss which would approximate about 20 more horsepower. Well, the cold air intake cost me about $400 and gave me 23 whp. So I went with the better bang for the buck.

I have heard folks talking about lightweight drive shafts, but i don't recall the costs or the weight savings. Maybe a forum search for light weight drive shafts would give you some help.

 

My drag radials/wheels have a combined weight of 18lbs less than my street tires and other than great traction I do not see a significant improvement in my 1/4 mile times

You really should concentrate on engine mods and traction mods more than stripping your car. Then later if you are not fast enough you can worry about stripping down the car like a honda civic if that is really what you want to do.

i guess you could get 16" for the rear and 17" for the front and have a pig handling car that has maybe 25lbs of weight saved on the wheels lol if that is the route you want to take.

 

my mechanic and I were having this discussion last night over a few beers....I told him point blank, I am heavier than those darn coupes, and I am not stripping my car, so we have to make more HP....lol....
This is too nice a car to treat it like an old race...if I am going to that, hell I'll buy a wrecked one and put a hemi it, detroit locker rear end, and do wheel stands...lol