# GTO needs to be lighter



## MoanAirOh (Aug 5, 2004)

anyone put thought into making this car lighter? CF hood, new front seats (perhaps that lean forward better). maybe remove that steel jungle gym behind the gas tank.... any thoughts?


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## Troy Roberts (Jul 30, 2004)

How much do the stock wheels weigh? That unsprung weight can go a long ways.


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## MoanAirOh (Aug 5, 2004)

good question, have these would be nice though! (and cramming 285s in rear):

http://shop.sportruck.com/bcodd/cast/magneato.htm

I'll email them and see if there's a weight savings there.


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## Troy Roberts (Jul 30, 2004)

:cool wheels. 

:cheers:


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## Redline (Aug 10, 2004)

probably just a bunch of little things...

Lighter exhaust, headers, and wheels would probably be worth about 100 lbs alone


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## Redline (Aug 10, 2004)

Also you have to realize the use of Iron in the suspension from austrailia to beef it up becasue the roads down under are alot rougher then the ones in the good old USA


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## MoanAirOh (Aug 5, 2004)

I hope to replace seats too with ones that fold forward and are maybe 50 lbs lighter each. anyone tried this? the local shop says no plug and play base is available yet......


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## Redline (Aug 10, 2004)

What about taking the back seats out for track days... that should save about 75 lbs...


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## rock421 (Aug 7, 2004)

Yeah, you could park with all of the "ricer" cars and have a pile of interior parts laying in your pit area. Then you could install your plastic roll bar (for looks of course), your chrome fire extinguisher (mounted to your plastic roll bar), and you would be set.  

Just kidding.

Don't forget that those rear seats are sitting right over the rear tires. The loss of a few pounds may hurt traction more than the half of a tenth you may cut from the weight savings. Someone needs to be the "lab rat" and test it out.


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## 2tirefire (Jul 29, 2004)

MoanAirOh said:


> anyone put thought into making this car lighter? CF hood, new front seats (perhaps that lean forward better). maybe remove that steel jungle gym behind the gas tank.... any thoughts?


If I had the money to afford a GTO I would probably leave it how it is. Now if I was going for the lightest GTO I would follow this list below!

-2 Cobra carbon backed race seats
-Carbon Fiber hood
-Carbon Fiber Trunk
-Carbon fiber bumpers and fenders
-Kosei K1 Racing ultra light wheels
-Pull up the carpet and start scraping out the sound deadening material.

I guarantee you with all of that you would drop weight like you were on the Atkins diet!


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## Redline (Aug 10, 2004)

Too bad the carbon fiber would cost a ****load of money and we need someone rich to pioneer a carbon fiber project.... maybe Rk sport


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## George8211 (Sep 21, 2004)

Like Troy stated... The best way to go, is to reduce unsprung weight. This would include all turning parts of the drive train. I'm not sure exactly what the ratio is, but it's some thing like ... one pound of unsprung weight = 6 pounds load weight.

So if you could remove 10 lbs from the wheels (2.5 lbs per wheel) that would be the equivalent of taking 60 lbs out of the car or body. For the $$ carbon fiber for weight reduction is very costly. There are carbon fiber hoods for Vettes that cost about $900 and only remove about 12 lbs.

So if you look at the unsprung weight ratio... that would be like losing 2 pounds off the tires, or flywheel, lighter torque converter (for the automatics). Lot more benifits starting with unsprung. What is the weight of the rear seat... or the front seat??? Some one needs to pull these out and get an acurate number.

This guessing stuff is for Ricers... not GTO's.


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## Groucho (Sep 11, 2004)

What is the weight of the stock wheel?


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## GTONoma (Sep 26, 2004)

You could go fiberglas instead of carbon fiber. No quite as light, but definatly cheaper.
Run a tiny fuel cell instead of a full gas tank.
Get rid of the factory skid plate (replace it with a lighter BMR one, or go plateless)
Ditch the space tire.


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## GTONoma (Sep 26, 2004)

Redline said:


> Too bad the carbon fiber would cost a ****load of money and we need someone rich to pioneer a carbon fiber project.... maybe Rk sport


Im sure the aussies have tinkered with CF on their Monaros.... all the R&D is pratically done


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