# Weight Reductions!!!



## MCHNHED (Dec 22, 2002)

Hello, My goal is to improve my 400M time. I think this can be done by reducing the weight of my 200SX by at least 90kg. I figured that, overtime, I would automatically reduce the weight if I just used products made out of lightweight materials, right? Well, in addition to making the car lighter, I would like to shift some of the weight to the rear to improve my weight distribution... I think what I have listed here is a good start. LET ME KNOW WHAT YA THINK!

1. remove front bumper support (if you have fog lights like me)
2. fiberglass front fascia
3. aluminum radiator
4. fiberglass/carbon-fiber hood
5. fiberglass fenders
6. move battery to the trunk
7. aluminum flywheel
8. aluminum pulleys
9. aluminum cam gears
10. light-weight brakes (aluminum?)
11. light-weight wheels
12. lighter front seats
13. put a sub box in the trunk

lemme know if you have anything else to add or specific brand names that you would recommend, THANKS A LOT IN ADVANCE.


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## Nismo200SX (Oct 7, 2002)

the shortened struts on full coilovers are also lighter than stock suspension ... fibreglass or carbon fibre trunk .. 
LExan Windows instead of glass


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## rkeith (Jan 12, 2003)

MCHNHED said:


> *
> 2. fiberglass front fascia
> *


And then you can continue to replace it every 6 months - year...


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

Well, how light do you want to go? Or rather, how many sacrifices are you willing to make along the way? Patscott shaved 130 lbs (!59 kgs) off of his car by stripping down the rear of his car. You could probably pull 140 lbs (probably more) by just gutting the interior.

One thing about your list:
_6. Move battery to the trunk_

The 200sx is front wheel drive, so will moving the battery to the trunk help your 400m time? I mean, doing it does have its advantages, but it seems like you'll just be moving the weight of further away from the drive wheels, reducing the traction that get to them under hard acceleration. 

That and I can't remember if the battery is used to strengthen the front end as well (a lot of cars use the battery to reduce front end flex. I donno about the 200sx). If that's the case that too will screw you over, especially if you don't have braces over the front.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

BTW, here's PatScott's thread about the weight drop on his car:
http://www.nissanforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21989&


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## Token Moron (Mar 28, 2003)

MCHNHED said:


> *13. put a sub box in the trunk
> *


i thought youre trying to save weight.....just get rid of the box


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

yea..i mean why the hell bother to do all that other stuff if you are just gonna put a sub box in. moving stuff to the rear wont help on the dragstrip..now if you would have said you wanted to autocross the car then yea lighten the front. its widely said that for every 100 pounds you reduce thats a 1/10th off your 1/4 time. to tell you the truth i think the stock front bumper is lighter than any fiberglass one you will find. i removed it from my parts car and it was maybe 5-10lbs.


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## Token Moron (Mar 28, 2003)

dont go changing your car to carbon fiber/fiberglass, i wouldnt recommend it, one crash and your car will be GONE


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

well if its a dragcar go for it. if it's a street cat the only thing i wouldnt do is remove the actual bumper. the bumper cover doesnt matter but the bumper absorbs alot of energy in a crash. everything you mentioned is available except for the cam gears if its a ga16de


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## blueboost (Jul 25, 2002)

I agree with reverm. removing the rear seats etc. would be advantageous and do you really need more than 2 seats in your car? hell, you want a sports car right? they only have 2 seats usually.


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

and also who other than small children can ride back there?


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

I donno. Even though it's pretty cramped back there, it's actually not too bad if the front passenger and driver aren't over 6' tall. In fact, it's probably better than any other 2 door subcompact from that period. I personally find the rear seats of my sx more comfortable than the rear seats of an EK or EU/EP series civic coupe. But then again, I'm only 5'9"...


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## TheVodKA (Sep 19, 2002)

Unless your car is seriously modded already, the best way to improve 400M(that's 1/4 mile or 1320 ft right?) is forced induction! For the money, you can't beat it. You should only bother reducing weight after your car is tuned to its fullest unless it is free stripping.


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## psuLemon (Apr 23, 2003)

vodka's got a point, you will barely have any gain by strippin the and altering everything to carbon fibre unless you have a highly tuned car.. even if you save 100lbs, you only reduce the 1/4 mile by 1/10....if this is gonna be a daily driving, then you shouldn't change everything to carbon fibre.. now if this is strictly for racing, strip the interior, rear seats, hvac, all radios speakers subs, all insulation, jwt flywheel and clutch, turbo, UR pulley, phantom grip lsd, koyo raditor with low profile fans, jwt cams.. oh yea.. relocatin the battery will only help on auto cross... or if you need room for a turbo which we dont....


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## MCHNHED (Dec 22, 2002)

*more weight questions....*

HOLD UP... i think i gave the wrong impression when i posted that thread. I am trying to lower my 400M time, but i want to keep my car looking good and also a street car. here are some more questions in reply to what ya said....
1. Are those Lexan windows street legal? and shouldnt i just put them in the rear quarter panel windows then, since i want to keep me car a "street car"? 

2. In reference to the moving of the battery to the trunk *(and also putting a sub box in there) - my whole reason for doing that was to shift some weight to the back. But the thought hadnt crossed my mind that i would be taking weight off the drive wheels. I wanted to do this strictly to improve my weight distribution, ya know? i thought it would help a little bit, guess not.

3. One thing, i really don't want to remove my rear seat. I find it quite useful from time to time, ya know what i mean eh?? and yea, ReVerm, i totally agree with ya. the rear interior section of the 200SX has what seems to be a ton more room than other 2-door compacts of that era.

4. About the forced induction deal... i had already planned to buy a complete SR20DET front clip from Japan for this coming summer. My car already looks sick, now i want the speed to match the looks, ya know?

SOOO, i guess the moral of the story is that it's really not worth it to reduce the weight of your car unless you are draggin it right??


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## Token Moron (Mar 28, 2003)

*Re: more weight questions....*



MCHNHED said:


> *SOOO, i guess the moral of the story is that it's really not worth it to reduce the weight of your car unless you are draggin it right?? *


that is correct


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

Weight reduction is definately beneficial in drag races, but it's even more important on the track or at the autocross. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference 100 lbs off of our car makes (especially since our cars have such a high center of gravity). 

Just as a side note, a lot of those modifications you mentioned, namely #1-#12 wouldn't be bad ideas at all if you were road racing (track racing) your car.


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## psuLemon (Apr 23, 2003)

i dont understand why people are soo eager to get rid of the ga unless they live in a diffferent country and an sr20 swap is cheap and easy... you can do so many more mods and be quicker with the ga if you use the money that you would drop into an sr20... andy since you live in PA, an sr20 and all the stuff that needs to come with it aren't gonna be that cheap..


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## MCHNHED (Dec 22, 2002)

LOL.... do you honestly think that if i had $3000 to dump into a GA motor and $3000 to dump into a SR20 that you would get the same power out of it?? i dont think so, bud. there is no question when it comes to the power potential of the SR20 vs. the GA16. 

and ReVerm, you said that most of those mods would be good for turning my 200 into a road car, right? well what about just improving it's overall performance for the street? same deal?


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## Token Moron (Mar 28, 2003)

MCHNHED said:


> *LOL.... do you honestly think that if i had $3000 to dump into a GA motor and $3000 to dump into a SR20 that you would get the same power out of it?? i dont think so, bud. there is no question when it comes to the power potential of the SR20 vs. the GA16.
> *


i think psulemon means that if u had a sentra ga16de and u spent like 3K on an sr20 swap........u would have 140hp......stock! and if u took those 3K$ and dropped a turbo on the ga16.........guess what would be the main difference? HORSEPOWER!


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

MCHNHED said:


> *and ReVerm, you said that most of those mods would be good for turning my 200 into a road car, right? well what about just improving it's overall performance for the street? same deal? *


Well, regardless of whether you were tuning it for the track or the street, I'd do a lot of other things before I would do before major weight reduction or a change up to lightweight parts (except maybe the lightened flywheel. That helps in more ways than you may at first think). 

If you haven't already, review Kojima's Garage on Sentra.net and Nissan Performance Mag's Project 200sx 1.6T. Needless to say, there's also a lot of good discussion on this forum about specific parts, so you can dig up quite a few details/issues before you even see the parts themselves. It won't take long until you realize you have a lot of good options. Just pick the ones that you think is be the best for you, and start working on that path.


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## psuLemon (Apr 23, 2003)

aj said most of it but its an sr20det swap which is 205 as the crank, but a front clip with shipping is probably gonna be more that 3k and depends on if you are gonna do the swap or if someone else is doing it for you... and with all the money you spend on the clip and any more parts you need you would prolly be able to turbo and do more to you ga and prolly be quicker...


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## 1 WICKED SE-R (Apr 13, 2003)

the best weight reeduction poosible for the b14 is to leave it stock and just remove everything in the rear that is not used
i.e:
back seat
all interior panels from front seats back
spare tire
rear bumber reinforcement
all carpet in rear
seat belts and bolts that black metal peice behind the rear seat
front seat belts and add harnesses
cromolly roll bar
shaved spare tire hole -yes
battery in trunk is key idea
20lb bottle of nos in trunk if you please
side skirts ( if it is a se-r)
wing
straight fiberglass hood
lexan windows in rear
my car wieghed 2250 with a 1/8 tank of gas


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