The 3000GT diet?

[Mikelb]

well, definitely drop weight, but tighten things up a bit, rollcage, strut bars, upgraded roll bars... there's plenty of things to keep the cars planted... and the weight of the subs in my car kept the rear end planted better (I am driving a SOHC though)

[talskinyguy]

MK4 Supra Curb Weight 3515 lbs
2nd Gen 3000GT Curb Weight 3760 lbs

MK4 Supra skid pad. 0.94
2nd Gen 3000GT skid pad 0.90

[B00stCreep]

Words of advice for suspesion tuning - do as much reseach as possible. Just lowering your car or "tightening" it up can easily decrease performance or give the car undesirable handling characteristics by changing the geomerty of the suspension. Recently I have been helping/learning to design suspensions on a small formula style car, and its truly a black art. Also know that wieght never keeps u more planted (except for rear weight transfer when lauching on a RWD car, doesn't really apply for 3/s). Sticky tires are nice too.

[Mikelb]

Well, my rear end tends to slide out... maybe my alignment needs to be fixed, maybe I've just got bad suspension... maybe that's what I get for buying a car from a mechanic (lots of goodies from him too though)... I do have one tire that happens to be the wrong size... it's skinnier than all the rest....

[B00stCreep]

The thing with weight and traction is they don't increase linearly. If you keep adding weight over a wheel traction increases but it begins to level off. For example if you have 200lbs over a tire and you add 50lbs the increase is greater than if you had 500lbs over a wheel and you add 50lbs. But the relationship between the conering force needed to hold traction and wieght is linear. So with increased wieght you need more conering force but your traction doesn't increase at the same rate.

I could see how the box might affect the under/oversteer balance, but overall its hurts ur conering performance. Plus there are far better ways to balance the handling than adding weight like adjusting the ARB stiffness is a good start. That skinny tire might not be good either. When I had my DOHC N/A 3k it always felt pretty nuetral with some understeer at the limit. Although one time i came in way too hot on an on ramp that quickly tightened up on me and i had the car sideways. Luckily it didn't end up in the guardrail.

[Mikelb]

True boost... I know that the overall weight of the vehicle will cause the performance to drop... as the box does drop my top end 20+mph... though that sucks... when do I ever have the car at 140 around a corner?... also my car is lighter than the DOHC... so that has saved a bit of weight... the manufacturer says the curb weight is 3076 lbs... still heavy as piss for the stock 164 hp... though lets be for real (w/o my system) I've dropped some weight, some there in the driveline itself, lightweight flywheel, dropped a/b 30 lbs from the overall weight (that's what Fidanza says, from a/b 45lb to 11)...
Also, to my understanding... you can put the front strut bar (~$100 off e-bay) and that'll tighten up the front end...

[Streetwarriorz]

Originally Posted by B00stCreep

Recently I have been helping/learning to design suspensions on a small formula style car, and its truly a black art. Sticky tires are nice too.

True'ish, if you really want to setup properly you need a fully adjustable suspension, toe bars torsion and tension rods and lower arms, Pillow mounts front and rear, then......
start looking at the KPI angle, then your toe, caster and camber angles which are now fully adjustable due to the setup
Only at this pointwill you really be able to say you have sorted your suspension however it is expensive to do, I have already helped design a system for the 200sx S13's to allow for a good track setup, and believe me its not easy.

The parts that are out there for the GT's are pretty good and for the price work well together, that includes the sway bars and strut braces.

Struts braces are a good nonexpensive start after springs and or shocks and are a great for a start in racing. Once you hit the lines of ladder bars you really need to be thinking about pro setup as tightening them to far will produce a positive camber that will adversly affect the handling ie make it crap!

In short if you have the money get it set by the pro's if not then stick to anti roll bars, poly brushes, strut bars and sport suspensions, tbh for most peeps this will be enough

[Musashi3000GT]

People pay wayyyyy too much attention to the weight issue. The whole power to weight ratio thing does matter but this gutting your car and making it lighter means making it faster crap got started by Civic drivers who had no other way of justifying why in the world they bought a 1.6 SOHC and boosted it. Thier only ressort was to say "well my car is lighter.
You gotta understand that power to weight dossent mean a thing unless the difference is great, as in a 500lbs difference. you start gutting your car you'l only pull off about 150 lbs. thats not even worth the difference in speed compared to how ugly your car will look.

look man take it from someone who has actually gutted a car. My old eclipse ran 14.8. that was a base model DOHC with a turbo conversion. I gutted the car's trunk, removed spare and all that stuff, Removed rear seat, A/C and heater (that includes compressor and all the lines) took off the rug and scrapped the sound denting off, removed ellectric seat belt motors and all the hardware for the seat belt slide and even took the pasenger seat off when I got to the track. all together I took out 230 lbs from the car. you wanna know how fast I ran? 14.6! big woop.
my car looked like it was out of a junk yard and for what?

[Linebckr49]

as far as suspension goes, i've added front and rear sway bars (anti-roll bars) made by Addco (purchased from 3sxperformance.com). also i have a front strut tower bar...3-point design, which is a much better design than simply connecting the two strut towers (2-point design). add to that a LSD insert, and the car handles like a beauty.

i could care less about weight. i can now take my car thru the corners around 5-10mph faster. understeer is gone, perhaps just a bit oversteer. i can no longer throw the rear end out...the car just sticks adn hugs the turn. of course, every suspension setup on any car has its limits, and when you find those limits (i.e. go just beyond the handling capabilities of your car through a given turn), lets just hope you don't nail a curb/guardrail or screw it up.

good luck in modding, but as far as suspension goes, i would stiffen your ride before dropping weight.

[B00stCreep]

I'm not at all suggesting that weight cutting is the solution to handling problems, all I said was adding weight doesn't make your car "stick" better, which is a common misconception I've seen people make before. Or when you hear guys just putting lowering springs in their car and now thier suspenion arms are pitched at an angle they were never designed to move through. But weight loss never hurt anyone.
That tenth of a second could be the difference in a close race.

But maybe I hate weight so much because when in a competition where power is restricted and regulated the only advantage you have over the other guy is less weight and a great set-up. One of my team mates was so excited he saved 2 lbs. on rod ends over last years car....2 lbs.

[Streetwarriorz]

LOL^^^^^

But 2lbs in a restricted race as you say is huge really.

IMO before you light weight the GT's you gotta remember why you bought it, it wasn't just for the exterior look and power it was cos the interior is stunning and stupendously comfortable and lets face it the ladies love it.
So why woulkd you really want to rip it all out for the sake of a few 1/10's?? could you really live without the luxury????


I couldn't

[92VR4Red]

First the MKIV weights 3400 ( I know this because my freind is the bigest supra distributer in the united states and UK, his name is Dusty Womack owns MVPMotorSports and has a MKIV with 1089HP the the wheels, you can see his car in many magazines like sport compact so dont argue that one with me) now depending on year the 3000gt varied in weight the 1st gen was the lightest version of the car. weighing in around 3600-3700lbs

now one of the best ways to loose alot of weight is to get light weight rims. I weighed my stock rims at 55 LBS A PEICE!!!!!! now I went and bought some Volks that weighed 18 lbs a peice (forged alum.) Thats a 145 lb drop on the car, not to mention the rotating mass...

the next thing you can do is get carbonfiber body parts, the makers of the 3000gt put alot of metal parts on this car... you can drop 70 lbs easy just from the hood.

and annother thing I did was gut the truck and pulled the cargo cover over it so no one could see... Im not into the panels in the front...

Then you can get sparco seats that have a massive weight drop over the stock seats...

[92VR4Red]

Originally Posted by Streetwarriorz

IMO before you light weight the GT's you gotta remember why you bought it, it wasn't just for the exterior look and power it was cos the interior is stunning and stupendously comfortable and lets face it the ladies love it.
So why woulkd you really want to rip it all out for the sake of a few 1/10's?? could you really live without the luxury????
I couldn't

I bought it for power and power only and nothing else :P when I went to buy my car I had no idea what the interior looked like... all I could think about was "V6 Twin Turbo AWD" a car with power and great handling.
and it makes me mad because no one ever upgrades a VR4... I never see them in any magazines because no one ever even trys to go beyond exhuast and intake... So I thought I would be the one to do it... Once I get my brakes and suspension my freind is going make some calls to see if I can get some magazine coverage on my car, mabey that will influence some other 3/s owners to go beyond that.

[talskinyguy]

Originally Posted by 92VR4Red

First the MKIV weights 3400 ........

now one of the best ways to loose alot of weight is to get light weight rims. I weighed my stock rims at 55 LBS A PEICE!!!!!! now I went and bought some Volks that weighed 18 lbs a peice (forged alum.) Thats a 145 lb drop on the car, not to mention the rotating mass...

3400 pre 96', 3600 post 96'

You must have weighed your stock wheels with the tires on them. I shipped all 4 stock wheels, 2 per box, with all the packing and heavy duty boxes and the total weight of each of boxes was right around 65 lbs. 17 and 18" tires weight in between 28 and 36 lbs each for a street radial.

[Stealthee]

Originally Posted by 92VR4Red

First the MKIV weights 3400 ( I know this because my freind is the bigest supra distributer in the united states and UK, his name is Dusty Womack owns MVPMotorSports and has a MKIV with 1089HP the the wheels, you can see his car in many magazines like sport compact so dont argue that one with me) now depending on year the 3000gt varied in weight the 1st gen was the lightest version of the car. weighing in around 3600-3700lbs

now one of the best ways to loose alot of weight is to get light weight rims. I weighed my stock rims at 55 LBS A PEICE!!!!!! now I went and bought some Volks that weighed 18 lbs a peice (forged alum.) Thats a 145 lb drop on the car, not to mention the rotating mass...

the next thing you can do is get carbonfiber body parts, the makers of the 3000gt put alot of metal parts on this car... you can drop 70 lbs easy just from the hood.

and annother thing I did was gut the truck and pulled the cargo cover over it so no one could see... Im not into the panels in the front...

Then you can get sparco seats that have a massive weight drop over the stock seats...

Its a known fact first gen 3s's were heavier than second gen 3/s's. Also as talskinyguy said the stock wheels dont weigh 55lbs. Maybe with the tire but not by themselves. The hood weighs 70lbs so you can drop about 50 with aftermarket, not 70 unless you run no hood. And by gutting your trunk you saved what 10 lbs?