How to lighten a starlet input gladly appreciated....

madman

madman

Member +
as the title says how do you lighten a starlet besides the norm of gutting the doors and the boot skin's.....

Thoughts welcome.
 
starletsy

starletsy

Member +
Depending on what your using it for you could look at stripping back the loom.
Removing all the heater and fan gubbings and replace with a small de-misting fan.
Change all windows possible for polycarbonate.
Remove the sound deadening (there is a big lump behind the dash i think)
 
weeJohn

weeJohn

Lifer
Carpets, glass and sound deadening all weigh a lot and GRP bonnet and boot lid take a good bit out. Depending on how refined you want it just start gutting it out!
 
H

-Harry-

Member +
Well how crazy do you want to get? Still want street legal? After you do the basic stuff, theres always CF bonnets and fenders, But most things will hurt the legality of the car. If you want extreme then this is the ticket.

Gut it 100% back to a bare shell. I mean nothing left. Strip your sound deadening and cut out anything thats not structural and hole saw things that are but can be weakened a little. You have to be strict with everything you put back in. If there a bolt hole in something that nothing bolts into anymore. Hole saw it out. If something has 4 bolts but only need 2 than only use 2 and cut the thread down so it only has enough to hold it in place. Strip your doors to skins. Everything off except a lip so it holds shape. No seals, no rubber. No outer plastic. Cut all the metal from inside it. Replace all glass with 3mm polycarb. Use minimal fastenings, alloy pop rivets are light. Suspension should be good quality, light weight coilovers. Wheels are a very big factor. Spend decent money on good quality forged wheels and you will save tonnes of weight here which will be far more beneficial as this is rolling weight. Same for tires. Most belted radials are heavy, slicks are usually cross ply and drastically lighter. Remember you will have a lighter car so you dont need huge rubber too. Get some alloy wheel nuts. With the engine, strip the loom back to bare necessities. Cut out the rest. Go for alloy intercooler (tube and fin) and alloy piping with a side exit exhaust.(remove exhaust mounts). Get an alloy flywheel. Gearbox, do you use 5th, if not, remove it. Drop your fuel system and run a small light weight race tank with inbuilt surge tank. Now you only need to run 1x fuel pump and run minimal fuel. Go on a diet. Its usually easier for a driver to drop weight than find it in the car. (Ive dropped 20kg since I last drag raced). Dont put back wipers, wiper motor ect. Get a light weight seat and use a light weight rail. Factory rails are heavy. Light weight steering wheel. Lightweight battery. Hell Ive even seen a superlap team unbolt the starter motor from a car and after it was running.

Well thats the stuff off the top of my head. Over that theres tube framing the front or removing the floor pan. If your drag racing than theres a heap more you can do too.

If your not racing than ignore all of the above. :p My cars still street legal so Ive only done about a quarter of those things. A friend is stripping his swift now and its getting interesting how far he's willing to go for every gram.
 
Last edited:
M

mad_max926

Member +
-Harry- said:
Well how crazy do you want to get? Still want street legal? After you do the basic stuff, theres always CF bonnets and fenders, But most things will hurt the legality of the car. If you want extreme then this is the ticket.

Gut it 100% back to a bare shell. I mean nothing left. Strip your sound deadening and cut out anything thats not structural and hole saw things that are but can be weakened a little. You have to be strict with everything you put back in. If there a bolt hole in something that nothing bolts into anymore. Hole saw it out. If something has 4 bolts but only need 2 than only use 2 and cut the thread down so it only has enough to hold it in place. Strip your doors to skins. Everything off except a lip so it holds shape. No seals, no rubber. No outer plastic. Cut all the metal from inside it. Replace all glass with 3mm polycarb. Use minimal fastenings, alloy pop rivets are light. Suspension should be good quality, light weight coilovers. Wheels are a very big factor. Spend decent money on good quality forged wheels and you will save tonnes of weight here which will be far more beneficial as this is rolling weight. Same for tires. Most belted radials are heavy, slicks are usually cross ply and drastically lighter. Remember you will have a lighter car so you dont need huge rubber too. Get some alloy wheel nuts. With the engine, strip the loom back to bare necessities. Cut out the rest. Go for alloy intercooler (tube and fin) and alloy piping with a side exit exhaust.(remove exhaust mounts). Get an alloy flywheel. Gearbox, do you use 5th, if not, remove it. Drop your fuel system and run a small light weight race tank with inbuilt surge tank. Now you only need to run 1x fuel pump and run minimal fuel. Go on a diet. Its usually easier for a driver to drop weight than find it in the car. (Ive dropped 20kg since I last drag raced). Dont put back wipers, wiper motor ect. Get a light weight seat and use a light weight rail. Factory rails are heavy. Light weight steering wheel. Lightweight battery. Hell Ive even seen a superlap team unbolt the starter motor from a car and after it was running.

Well thats the stuff off the top of my head. Over that theres tube framing the front or removing the floor pan. If your drag racing than theres a heap more you can do too.

If your not racing than ignore all of the above. :p My cars still street legal so Ive only done about a quarter of those things. A friend is stripping his swift now and its getting interesting how far he's willing to go for every gram.
Click to expand...

good info
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
some of us just need to take a huge dump in the boys room to cut all the weight they'd have saved from sawing off bolts-ends and stripping sound-deadening.. :p
 
Ted

Ted

Member +
-Harry- said:
Well how crazy do you want to get? Still want street legal? After you do the basic stuff, theres always CF bonnets and fenders, But most things will hurt the legality of the car. If you want extreme then this is the ticket.

Gut it 100% back to a bare shell. I mean nothing left. Strip your sound deadening and cut out anything thats not structural and hole saw things that are but can be weakened a little. You have to be strict with everything you put back in. If there a bolt hole in something that nothing bolts into anymore. Hole saw it out. If something has 4 bolts but only need 2 than only use 2 and cut the thread down so it only has enough to hold it in place. Strip your doors to skins. Everything off except a lip so it holds shape. No seals, no rubber. No outer plastic. Cut all the metal from inside it. Replace all glass with 3mm polycarb. Use minimal fastenings, alloy pop rivets are light. Suspension should be good quality, light weight coilovers. Wheels are a very big factor. Spend decent money on good quality forged wheels and you will save tonnes of weight here which will be far more beneficial as this is rolling weight. Same for tires. Most belted radials are heavy, slicks are usually cross ply and drastically lighter. Remember you will have a lighter car so you dont need huge rubber too. Get some alloy wheel nuts. With the engine, strip the loom back to bare necessities. Cut out the rest. Go for alloy intercooler (tube and fin) and alloy piping with a side exit exhaust.(remove exhaust mounts). Get an alloy flywheel. Gearbox, do you use 5th, if not, remove it. Drop your fuel system and run a small light weight race tank with inbuilt surge tank. Now you only need to run 1x fuel pump and run minimal fuel. Go on a diet. Its usually easier for a driver to drop weight than find it in the car. (Ive dropped 20kg since I last drag raced). Dont put back wipers, wiper motor ect. Get a light weight seat and use a light weight rail. Factory rails are heavy. Light weight steering wheel. Lightweight battery. Hell Ive even seen a superlap team unbolt the starter motor from a car and after it was running.

Well thats the stuff off the top of my head. Over that theres tube framing the front or removing the floor pan. If your drag racing than theres a heap more you can do too.

If your not racing than ignore all of the above. :p My cars still street legal so Ive only done about a quarter of those things. A friend is stripping his swift now and its getting interesting how far he's willing to go for every gram.
Click to expand...

removing 5th gear!? i commend you on your commitment to the cause-thats hardcore!
 
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