Practical Weight Reduction Ideas for Daily Driver

[ronmcdon]

I did that too on a past car. The battery cable is pretty heavy due to the length, so you‘d be doing this more for balance than anything. Avoid lithium and use a PC680 Odyssey instead.

I might end up going back to that route if lithium and the charging is too much a pain in the butt. but yeah for me not so much into this for weight loss as it is loss of weight up front where its more undesirable.

 

[Drew J]

For anyone following along, I think this is the easiest and cheapest weight reduction I've found:

Stock OEM full size spare: 36lb
Steel wheel donut: 25lb
Alloy donut: 20lb

Both donuts can currently be found on eBay for about $100 including shipping.

16 pounds for $100, without sacrificing much if anything in the way of drivability is pretty awesome.

 

[FJ16]

The cheapest and easiest weight reduction is literally just removing the spare tire and jack. I know some people are nervous driving without one, but in the last 5 years I've needed a spare tire exactly once... and even if I didn't have it, my insurance covers 100% of the cost of a tow truck. Check your tires regularly. So how bad do you want to save weight? Is the spare wheel + jack + tools worth it? I'd personally say yes, but I live in a city where a tow truck will get to me in 25 mins and just take me home for free... could depend on where you are.

 

[ronmcdon]

I personally am not a huge fan of reducing weight there, as the center of gravity is lower and it's not bad to have a little more weight in the rear to balance out a bit the 61/39 weight distribution of the car.

I think the cheapest and one of the best weight reduction interventions is just to avoid a car with a sunroof.

 

[Dpro]

I personally am not a huge fan of reducing weight there, as the center of gravity is lower and it's not bad to have a little more weight in the rear to balance out a bit the 61/39 weight distribution of the car.

I think the cheapest and one of the best weight reduction interventions is just to avoid a car with a sunroof.

I 100% agree with this.

 

[Jabbit]

I personally am not a huge fan of reducing weight there, as the center of gravity is lower and it's not bad to have a little more weight in the rear to balance out a bit the 61/39 weight distribution of the car.

I think the cheapest and one of the best weight reduction interventions is just to avoid a car with a sunroof.

I have plans to get my sunroof welded shut. Will be interesting to see how much the glass/motor weighs.

 

[Drew J]

The cheapest and easiest weight reduction is literally just removing the spare tire and jack. I know some people are nervous driving without one, but in the last 5 years I've needed a spare tire exactly once... and even if I didn't have it, my insurance covers 100% of the cost of a tow truck. Check your tires regularly. So how bad do you want to save weight? Is the spare wheel + jack + tools worth it? I'd personally say yes, but I live in a city where a tow truck will get to me in 25 mins and just take me home for free... could depend on where you are.

I want to save weight enough to make my emergency kit as light as possible while still retaining functionality, as again, this is my daily driver.

I'm more than happy to shed 16lbs for $100.

As far as track days? Yeah, I'll take the spare and jack out while I'm on the track.

 

[Drew J]

I personally am not a huge fan of reducing weight there, as the center of gravity is lower and it's not bad to have a little more weight in the rear to balance out a bit the 61/39 weight distribution of the car.

I think the cheapest and one of the best weight reduction interventions is just to avoid a car with a sunroof.

You aren't wrong, but this is also just one part of my weight reduction plan, including a CF hood and lighter battery which will reduce front axle weight by about 32 pounds, and if I end up going big brake kit, that's another 12-15 pounds off the front wheels.

If anything, I think take some weight off the rear will help me by not removing all the weight from the front and thereby giving me less traction on the driven wheels, which is already quite limited by the maximum width of tires before you have to start messing with fender flares, etc.

 

[Northwest]

I have plans to get my sunroof welded shut. Will be interesting to see how much the glass/motor weighs.

I thought the sunroof was about 30lbs give or take or am I wrong

What steps does that require? Remove the headliner so it doesn't ignite, flap disk the welds smooth, prime and repaint the whole roof? That seems like quite a bit of steps for a daily. But it is top weight, so on a track car build I understand in doing it.

I gutted mine and being honest I could only notice a large noise increase in road noise and rocks hitting underneath before I got tired of it and put it all back in. Every time I got pulled over for speeding the cop saw my gutted car and would write me a ticket lol... I don't track race mine like all of you though the weather sucks up here

I feel like taking weight out of the back would make the weight balance worse and it lift off oversteer on a track more and would be counter productive but I don't track race and could be way wrong.

 

[Capri to ST]

I have plans to get my sunroof welded shut. Will be interesting to see how much the glass/motor weighs.

Yes please post that up when you have it, that would be interesting to know.

 

[Capri to ST]

I thought the sunroof was about 30lbs give or take or am I wrong

I tried to research this a while back and the best I could come up with was that you are right, that the sunroof added about 25 or 30 pounds to the car, although this post said it was only 18-
https://www.fiestast.org/threads/to-sunroof-or-not-to-sunroof.723/#post-10471

 

[Mikey456]

I actually liked replacing my spare with an aluminum spare. How much does a gallon of gas weigh? I always like driving the car with a half tank of gas or less vs a full tank of gas. If you don’t notice the difference than it’s not for you, in my opinion.


2017 Ford Fiesta ST, Shadow Black, Recaro seats, Mountune RMM, Swift springs, 5mm rear spacers, Falken 615+ tires

 

[Northwest]

I actually liked replacing my spare with an aluminum spare. How much does a gallon of gas weigh? I always like driving the car with a half tank of gas or less vs a full tank of gas. If you don’t notice the difference than it’s not for you, in my opinion.


2017 Ford Fiesta ST, Shadow Black, Recaro seats, Mountune RMM, Swift springs, 5mm rear spacers, Falken 615+ tires

1 Gallon = 8.345404452 lbs

 

[M-Sport fan]

I think the cheapest and one of the best weight reduction interventions is just to avoid a car with a sunroof.

Precisely why I did just that, and had to wait 5 months on an ordered car new, in order to accomplish that goal (EVERYTHING in my area sitting on lots were FULLY loaded, black cars ).

A full carbon/kevlar roof would also reduce some weight way up high, but yes, $$$$$$$, so j/k.

I know that most will claim NO; leaks, rattles, problems, etc, from their sunroofs, but I wanted to make sure that I would not have those problems, so again, yet another reason for me to avoid that option.

 

[M-Sport fan]

1 Gallon = 8.345404452 lbs

So one saves approximately 50 lbs. by keeping the tank at half full.
This is a really easy way to 'ballast' the weight distribution in our cars for the autocross/track peeps on here.

A half tank will never leave the in-tank pump sucking air, no matter how sticky the tires used, or how extreme the angle of the turn/g's generated, correct?

 

[Mikey456]

I have plans to get my sunroof welded shut. Will be interesting to see how much the glass/motor weighs.

I’m curious if you can use the headliner from a non-sunroof car after you weld the sunroof shut?

 

[Jabbit]

I’m curious if you can use the headliner from a non-sunroof car after you weld the sunroof shut?

I don't intend to find out, not putting a headliner back in.

 

[ronmcdon]

just got lithium battery installed. surprisingly it fit fairly well with stock battery tray and tie down. battery is a tad short height wise but not hard to have something thrown under there. may throw something to fill up the gap on the side.

used
Antigravity ATX30-RS Lithium RE-START Battery
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079V4D1Z4/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_glt_fabc_02K849YZ7HEDEK301PDW



going to get this charger, as recommended by antigravity
https://antigravitybatteries.com/products/accessories/battery/chargers/ctek-lithium-us/

 

[M-Sport fan]

just got lithium battery installed. surprisingly it fit fairly well with stock battery tray and tie down. battery is a tad short height wise but not hard to have something thrown under there. may throw something to fill up the gap on the side.

used
Antigravity ATX30-RS Lithium RE-START Battery
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079V4D1Z4/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_glt_fabc_02K849YZ7HEDEK301PDW

View attachment 38779

going to get this charger, as recommended by antigravity
https://antigravitybatteries.com/products/accessories/battery/chargers/ctek-lithium-us/

 

[Fiestig]

Couple of notes..

I actually made a spacer tray for mine out of some kid foam flooring and punched a bunch of holes in it so not to retain heat

ATX series are somewhat heat sensitive, so it would be good to run a duct to the battery tray to get some cooling when you are in hotter temps. Get the Optimate Lithium 4s charger. Its less expensive and has run like a champ for 3years and counting for my ATX ReStart. Keep in mind that you will need to eventually take your battery out to charge, unless you use the hardwire to the battery for charging while in the car. I use my atx for pretty much fun runs and that is about it.