The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Weight reduction

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OK, I know we have a 3600+ lb car so small weight savings take a while to add up. However, the relatively minor changes I've made (especially for track days) seem to have made an arguably significant dent.

Enkei PF01 wheels/Hoosier R6 295/315:
Front 60 street vs 45 - 15 lbs each x 2 = -30 lbs
Rear 58 street vs 49.2 - 9 lbs each x 2 = -18 lbs
Corsa Extreme axle backs (pair) 54 lbs stock vs 24 lbs = -30 lbs
Kooks Off-Road H-pipe 32 lbs stock vs 17 lbs = -15 lbs
Side pipe delete 5.5 lbs each = -11 lbs
Kooks LT headers vs stock manifolds = + 3lbs
Roll bar, mounts & harness bar +69 lbs.
Rear seat delete kit +12 lbs.
Remove rear seats and belts and factory mounts -54 lbs
Swap to the Tiger Hood -17 lbs
Remove washer bottle incl fluid -8 lbs
Remove flat repair kit -5 lbs
Sparco race seat 35lbs versus stock seat 46lbs = -11 lbs
302S tow hooks +2 lbs
FRPP air-to-oil cooler +8 lbs
1-pc DSS aluminum driveshaft vs stock -21 lbs
DS saftey loop +10 lbs
Trunk liner -7 lbs
Passenger seat -46 lbs (track only)
Watts link versus panhard bar +15 lbs
Rear axle weights -5 lbs
Battery relocation kit +25 lbs
Remove A/C condenser, compressor, lines and belt -21 lbs.

Total weight savings so far is 116 lbs with passenger seat and 162 without it.

With a curb weight of 3630, I'm at 3514 to 3468 with or without the passenger seat.
 
Don't forget the rear seat delete. If you don't add the cross brace maybe you can save 20-30 pounds or more?

Wow I didn't realize the CF DS saved that much weight. How much weight savings is there with an aluminum DS?

And how about a CF helmet? ;D
 
Rear seat delete without the brace is about 20lbs including restraints. The stock drive shaft weighs roughly 45 lbs and a CF is 12-15. How about just a helmet delete? :-\
 
5 DOT 0 said:
Well if you have nothing to protect you can go with a helmet delete...

Don't you have a 302S CF hood on order? That's about 15 pounds after hood pins.
;D I haven't ordered it yet. I'm going to see how much venting the grille does for cooling first. If it's just for weight savings that's a pretty expensive 15lb weight savings ;)
 
5 DOT 0 said:
The potential increased downforce from the 302S hood might balance out the increase from the LS spoiler and negate the need for the LS splitter. I'll ask about that next week.
I think it reduces lift versus adding downforce, but that could be semantics providing the same net result.
 
Did you drain the washer fluid, with that hood you will not have squirters anyway :D

Still running with a Big Gulp? you could down size that ;D

I'm surprised you still have the fix a flat thing in trunk ??? The trunk mat also.

Is that why the DBA's cost so much, because they are lighter then Brembo or Powerslot?
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
Remove the passenger seat and rear seats at the track, should be good for 40-50lbs total.

I'd be wary of the CF driveshafts, I've seen one of those twisted apart by a GT pushing 375whp. I wouldn't put it on a Boss. Rehagen runs Dynotech aluminum driveshafts, 18lbs vs 36lbs stocker. Give that a shot if you want a new DS.

Also don't forget an aluminum flywheel if you're interested in cutting more rotating mass.

Lexan windows...HVAC delete...interior delete...all that good stuff :)
 
2012Boss said:
I'm surprised you still have the fix a flat thing in trunk ??? The trunk mat also.
Eh, it's worth about the same weight as a gallon of gas :D

2012Boss said:
Is that why the DBA's cost so much, because they are lighter then Brembo or Powerslot?
Yea the one-piece 4000s are a fraction of the cost of the 5000s.
 
Jimmy Pribble said:
cloud9 said:
Total weight savings so far is 108 lbs and 76 of that is rotating mass which gives a bigger benefit.

Of course, you added back for the brake cooling ducts and diff cooler, right? ;)

Jimmy
Doh! Actually the brake cooling kit probably was a wash with all the plastic we cut out lol. The TRANS cooler is minor since the brace is already on the car, it's just the metal pan....3lbs?
 
ArizonaGT said:
I'd be wary of the CF driveshafts, I've seen one of those twisted apart by a GT pushing 375whp. I wouldn't put it on a Boss. Rehagen runs Dynotech aluminum driveshafts, 18lbs vs 36lbs stocker. Give that a shot if you want a new DS.
I'm wary of any after-market driveshafts on the S197. They're very prone to DS vibration, which is why Ford uses such a heavy two piece DS. The aluminum they're using is probably a one-piece? I'm running a 2-piece aluminum/chromoly on my GT500 and it weighs 27 lbs, but will stand up to the hp I'm putting down and the stocker won't. The 1-piece aluminum I had vibrated like crazy. If you change DS's and can't adjust pinion angle (which we can't with the stock suspension), you'll most likely have vibration. Supposedly that's yet another benefit of the CF in that it doesn't have the harmonics of aluminum. They're also reportedly stronger than aluminum and if they do fail they basically disintegrate versus becoming a nasty metal whip. I'm not really planning to go here anytime soon, but something to think about down the road.
 
From what I've been told, Shelby will be coming out with a Aluminum 1pc in the next 2 weeks. They will be using it on the new GT350. Not sure it really will help the vibration concerns or not. I wouldn't think they would install it if there was a problem but they may have a process to match it correctly since it is done at their facility. ???
 
Dean#4AI said:
From what I've been told, Shelby will be coming out with a Aluminum 1pc in the next 2 weeks. They will be using it on the new GT350. Not sure it really will help the vibration concerns or not. I wouldn't think they would install it if there was a problem but they may have a process to match it correctly since it is done at their facility. ???
With an adjustable UCA you can usually get the pinion angle set properly to eliminate it. I ran one for a while on my GT500 without issue using an adjustable UCA. When I went to the Griggs torque arm, there wasn't any adjustment for pinion angle and that's when I had problems and had to switch. The Boss doesn't have an adjustable UCA, but you could possibly add one without compromising the suspension setup, but I don't know.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top