Extreme weight loss

Im looking to lose a couple hundred pounds in my car to make it handle better and to be more fuel efficient. Whats really most important to me though is acceleration and handling. What are some ways I could make my car weigh less?

take out your rear seats, passenger seat put in a lightweight racing bucket, remove ac, radio, all insulation/ sound deadeners, spare tire/tools/anything else in the trunk. that is about all you can do without putting big$$ into superlightweight, aftermarket racing parts. What kind of car do you have?

take out your rear seats, passenger seat put in a lightweight racing bucket, remove ac, radio, all insulation/ sound deadeners, spare tire/tools/anything else in the trunk. that is about all you can do without putting big$$ into superlightweight, aftermarket racing parts. What kind of car do you have?

MR2. What are some things I can do to make it superlight weight like you mentioned? I dont care about price. Well I guess I do care somewhat about price but Im sure there is a cheaper alternative. I just like to know all of my options ya know.

What year MR2 are we talking about here? A Mk1 MR2 is already pretty damn light, a Mk2 is decently light weight but nothing a little dieting couldn't fix.

What year MR2 are we talking about here? A Mk1 MR2 is already pretty damn light, a Mk2 is decently light weight but nothing a little dieting couldn't fix.

2003. I think I have already got it pretty light. So I will be moving on to the next project. But I would still love to know some great ways to make my new project superlight weight. Im working on designing a car and and getting it around 1600 pounds. I know its doable because ive seen it done before. Im just wondering what material should I use for the chassis, suspension, and other major parts to keep it lightweight.

Find a local automotive spped shop or machine shop talk to them and see about getting lightweight pieces custom made or find a mr2 forum and ask what others have done. Also 1600 Lbs. Holly SHITE!! thats light!! Although considering its only 2300 to star with i suppose its doable if almost every part on the car is reengineered for low weight. Well another item on the agenda may be your own weight. Don't take it personal but not only will it help your lightweight goal it will also be healthy for you. But yeah take a free saturday take stuff out of the car you dont need, weigh it, and keep track of the losses. Oh and it may be a good idea to weigh the car before hand.

Find a local automotive spped shop or machine shop talk to them and see about getting lightweight pieces custom made or find a mr2 forum and ask what others have done. Also 1600 Lbs. Holly SHITE!! thats light!! Although considering its only 2300 to star with i suppose its doable if almost every part on the car is reengineered for low weight. Well another item on the agenda may be your own weight. Don't take it personal but not only will it help your lightweight goal it will also be healthy for you. But yeah take a free saturday take stuff out of the car you dont need, weigh it, and keep track of the losses. Oh and it may be a good idea to weigh the car before hand.

Thats a great idea. I wonder how expensive that would be. It would probably be cheaper to buy the material and custom design them myself. I dunno though.

Find a local automotive spped shop or machine shop talk to them and see about getting lightweight pieces custom made or find a mr2 forum and ask what others have done. Also 1600 Lbs. Holly SHITE!! thats light!! Although considering its only 2300 to star with i suppose its doable if almost every part on the car is reengineered for low weight. Well another item on the agenda may be your own weight. Don't take it personal but not only will it help your lightweight goal it will also be healthy for you. But yeah take a free saturday take stuff out of the car you dont need, weigh it, and keep track of the losses. Oh and it may be a good idea to weigh the car before hand.

Since we are talking about lightweight design. I was wondering...do you know what the best material would be to use for a chassis? I read that chromoly shouldnt be used because it doesnt have a long life. And that it would be better to use a structural steel like 1020 or 41** with a low carbon. I want to go as lightweight as I possibly can but I dont want to sacrifice performance and durability of my design. lol lets put it this way I will have the pedal to the floor most of the time and I want it to last more than 2 years. Oh and what about aluminum? Lotus chassis are made from aluminum. Would it be possible for me to do that as well? Keep in mind I will be the one doing all of the work such as the welding and bending.

So what i hear you saying is that you want to redesign/reengineer the entire chassis for lightweight? why not keep the mr2 as a fun dd and make a lotus seven or something of that nature much lighter right off the bat plus you will have plenty of oppurtunity to weld/bend metal etc. there are many other similar cars you could make.

So what i hear you saying is that you want to redesign/reengineer the entire chassis for lightweight? why not keep the mr2 as a fun dd and make a lotus seven or something of that nature much lighter right off the bat plus you will have plenty of oppurtunity to weld/bend metal etc. there are many other similar cars you could make.

Hmm Im thinking about the lotus 7. Ahhh gosh Im actually considering lots of things. I dont really know which direction I want to go with it though. I have some base ideas but thats it. Do you know of other really cool small superlight kit cars like the lotus 7?

personally i like the look of the seven alot there is a kit car that uses the drivetrain from an awd subaru i forget the name of it right now though i may find it in the morning. also if you go about the seven route you have a lot of options concerning everything. there are some awd systems for them if you do that i think awd would be helpful on such a light weight car for traction if you go for lots of power (not necessary but...). other than the 7 there are the factory five cars very good quality although that also tends to translate to money. Although in the end i would say go for what appeals asthetically because noone wants to drive an ugly car right?

personally i like the look of the seven alot there is a kit car that uses the drivetrain from an awd subaru i forget the name of it right now though i may find it in the morning. also if you go about the seven route you have a lot of options concerning everything. there are some awd systems for them if you do that i think awd would be helpful on such a light weight car for traction if you go for lots of power (not necessary but...). other than the 7 there are the factory five cars very good quality although that also tends to translate to money. Although in the end i would say go for what appeals asthetically because noone wants to drive an ugly car right?

Ya I deffinitly like the look of the seven too. I guess I just sort of want to do something different than what everyone else is doing. It seems like the lotus 7 is like the universal beginner for everyone. Lots of people I know are doing it. Maybe i'll just go out and buy a go-kart or something. haha

You could do a suer different engine in one like a turbodiesel(that would be my pick lol). But yeah if you know people who are also doing this it may be wise to do a 7 also that way you can get help each other out.

You could do a suer different engine in one like a turbodiesel(that would be my pick lol). But yeah if you know people who are also doing this it may be wise to do a 7 also that way you can get help each other out.

haha. Yeah I've already established that Im going with a small turbodiesel engine for efficiency. I know that they are better than conventional gasoline engines and why. But I still dont know too much about them. Could you help me out with that? Just anything I might need to know before starting something.

well if i were gonna do it i would use a om602(what my car has as well as the sprinter vans the gwagens, and later 300D's) mercedes turbodiesel but thats just me. One day when money is no object(haha) i will do a crazy build on one of them and shoot for the breaking limit of everything, but thats my crazy talk. No you probably want to use a late model VW TDI engine so you can do electronic control of it although you may not be able to get a regular transmission on it as they are usually transversely mounted with a fwd setup going on. I don't know much about those vw engines though except i will say this with less than 1200 pounds(thats a ballpark figure i just pulled out of my ass btw) you may be able to get over 100 miles to the gallon. Maybe even more since a team recently used a merc turbodiesel in a 7 and got 100 some mpg. But whatever you decide to use go to forums for that specific engine (if you do go down the the mercedes route you may be my new best friend lol but the forums i routinely use and would suggest are superturbodiesel.com, peachparts.com, benzworld.org(for more mercedes info than you can ever use in your lifetime much less shake a stick at) and if you want to know about the wonderful mercedes w201 chassis 190 series 190rev.net and s14.zetaboards.com/mercedes_190_club/index/
well thats all i can think of to say off the top of my head except one final note remember that without much weight you wont need a lot of power anything over 350-400 in one of these cars is asking for a deathwish ;) but personally id shoot for 250-300 but remember that with a diesel its all about the torque