# car seats in 3rd Gen Maxima?



## alexnds (Oct 1, 2005)

Gents,

How much do the front seats weight in the 3rd Gen Maxima, does anybody know?

If you remember, F=M*a, or a=F/m ,so if "a" is smaller, "a" or acceleration is bigger. Just some physics humour 

If think the car can be lightened considerably with different car seats. Has anybody done this here, and if so, what was typically involved? The the frame rails transferred over? What after market seats were used? What brand?


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## asleepz (Feb 24, 2004)

The biggest increase is a lawn chair. Don't even worry about it. You won't feel a difference changing out seats.


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## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

You will lose A LOT more from removing PS, ABS, AC,spare tire and jack, and sound deadening material....you will feel that.


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## alexnds (Oct 1, 2005)

*weight reduction*



nismosleeper said:


> You will lose A LOT more from removing PS, ABS, AC,spare tire and jack, and sound deadening material....you will feel that.


Yes, Cody, I agree, but that would make my car essentially a race track car only and lose all creature comforts. I have the GXE, with the SOHC motor, so at 160 HP, I don't exactly have a seriously powerful car anyhow. If I had the DOHC motor, at 190 HP, it would be different. I also have an automatic transmission, not 5speed, so powertrain losses are probably closer to 25% rather than 15% with a stick shift. On the other hand, my driver's seat is broken anyhow, and rather than putting an original style seat anyhow, I ligthened seat seems like a good idea.

Now if I was going after timeslips, I would lighten the car considerably, and get very light wheels as well. Remember, heavy wheels probably have a bigger impact on performance I feel. If we remember that I=mr^2, that is angular momentum=mass*radius squared, we can see that 15 inch wheels require less energy to get up to speed, since the car has to not only accelerate itself, but the wheels do the work. So, power-for-power, a car with 15 inch wheels will accelerate better than a car with 17 inch wheels, even if the wheels and tires on both are exact same weight (not possible really). So in reality, if we taken the driver out of the equation, the biggest variable, and just compare horsepower and torque numbers, a 3rd Gen(3,100 lbs) with 190 HP is very close to a 4th Gen (3,000 lbs) with 190 HP and a 5th Gen (3,100 lbs, 222 HP) because the 5th Gen has 17 inch wheels and the 4th Gen has 16 inch wheels. All in all, the acceleration of all these cars would be very close, because a difference of 30 HP is not that hard to overcome with traction and light wheels alone. 

So comparing stock-to-stock or modified-to-modified, I think the biggest impact of all between 3rd Gen, 4th Gen and 5th Gen is probably wheel weight, not overall vehicle weight. (3rd Gen=15 inch wheels, 4th Gen=16inch wheels, 5th Gen=17 inch wheels).

what do you think?


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## alexnds (Oct 1, 2005)

*changing seats in a maxima*



asleepz said:


> The biggest increase is a lawn chair. Don't even worry about it. You won't feel a difference changing out seats.


I have seen aftermarket seats installed in a Maxima that have better bolstering. Any good brands to be suggested? Do the rails have to come over from the existing seats to the new ones?


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