Armand Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Hey guys, I did try and do a search about weight reduction but didn't find the info I wanted. I might buy a 1973 240z but the plate on the drivers side door says it's weight is 2900lb's. I'm wondering what is so drastically different between the 70-72 240z that it weighs almost 500lb's less. The car does have the stereo and air conditioner removed so it should have a little weight loss. Besides getting lighter seats, stripping the interior, and getting lighter wheels, is there anything that's specific on the 240z that would give a significant reduction in weight? The car is going to be a canyon carver so I want to keep it as light as possible. If there are any helpful threads about this topic that I didn't find it would be greatly appreciated if you post them. Thanks in advance, -Armand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8260 Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 my 280z says it weights 3100lbs but i dont think its right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 That is GVWR --Gross Vehicle Weight Rating-- and it means a car with 2 passengers (4 if that 280 is a 2+2) and luggage. The 240 should be in the 2400 lb range, the 280 in the 2850 lb range if I remember correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armand Posted December 1, 2006 Author Share Posted December 1, 2006 Heh, didn't read the fine print. Thanks a bunch fellas. That's a big load off my back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS1 240Z Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 the hood on my 73 says empty weight is around 2200 lbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrFancypants Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 GVWR is usually around 500 lb higher than curb weight for a car. If you were crazy enough to install a tow hitch on your Z, you'd car about that number - Greg - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehelix112 Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Hehe, my zed came with a tow bar (and yes I did use it). It didn't look that heavy until I undid the last bolt and it fell on my chest.. then it felt plenty heavy (about 50 lbs). Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Got some correspondence recently on someone building a Group 4 240. he decided the FRP kit was not light enough so it's going to be Carbon Fiber. Then he got it in his head that the aluminum bolts that are supposed to hold the fenders on were to heavy, so he hit the heads with a ball mill, then gundrilled the M6 bolts with a 2mm drill....to lighten the fasteners further. Gundrilled the replacement Titanium Rear A-Arm bolts as well... Some people say they "want to reduce weight" and from now on I will always be able to tell if they are serious when I ask "have you ball milled the heads and gundrilled all the Aluminim M6 fasteners on the car yet?" LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Got some correspondence recently on someone building a Group 4 240. he decided the FRP kit was not light enough so it's going to be Carbon Fiber. Then he got it in his head that the aluminum bolts that are supposed to hold the fenders on were to heavy, so he hit the heads with a ball mill, then gundrilled the M6 bolts with a 2mm drill....to lighten the fasteners further.Gundrilled the replacement Titanium Rear A-Arm bolts as well... Some people say they "want to reduce weight" and from now on I will always be able to tell if they are serious when I ask "have you ball milled the heads and gundrilled all the Aluminim M6 fasteners on the car yet?" LOL! Holy crap!!! that is going just a little over the top in my opinion... Well here are a few suggestions to make the car lighter: insure that you have the early style doors with the much lighter side crash bar in it, go to CF hood and hatch http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/CarbonFiberHoods.html, http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/CarbonFiberHatches.html, of course use Lexan in the hatch. Fiberglass fenders will save you about 1 or 2 pounds but they will not rust. Go with after market LCA's and coil overs they are lighter and adjustable. Use non reclining fixed (with no slider) racing seats (not the knock off looks like a racing seat crap you find at some auto parts stores). There are more things you can do but at this point the car is already getting outside of the daily driver catagory and to go much further it will be outside the weekend driver catagory. By the way the 72' and older Zcars have a thinner gage sheet metal that the car is made out of which makes them lighter than the newer Z's by a few pounds. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 ^^^plus CF hood and CF hatch and composite doors... convert the roll-up windows to lexan sliders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Aftermarket control arms are lighter? I thought we figured out that this was not the case previously. Rear control arm weighs 8 lbs... how much weight are you really going to lose there, and at what cost? There are other reasons to get the control arms, but if you're looking to save weight I'd say save your $$$ and "drop the kids off at the pool" before you get in the car. Same effect... For a cheap solution, strip the interior remove the sound deadening, burn the sound deadening off the bottom of the car, light weight seats, Lexan windows, light weight battery. Remove dash and heater. Ditch the bumpers if that's legal where you are at and you want to take the risk. You can lose a decent amount of weight with those things. Next up bang for buck wise is FG hatch and hood. Fenders are 11 lbs stock, so again, not a good call to replace them as far as return on investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 here is the best value: go on a diet and lose 30 LBS off your belly...I had my jaws wired shut for 4 weeks when I broke my jaw and I went from 160lbs to 140...And I am 6' tall...I actually NEED to gain weight back... You can lose 30Lbs buying a hatch for $250 or more or you can spend LESS than normal on food and lose that gut weight... Why do you never see 300Lb F1 drivers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 here is the best value: go on a diet and lose 30 LBS off your belly...Why do you never see 300Lb F1 drivers? Yes, I'm good for three seconds in most any car when riding at an Auto X... So I could probably cut 160# off the car by going on a real Jared Style Subway Regimen. Or I could simply turn up the boost 5 pounds and make up for it in about 15 seconds. Decisions decisions, which course will I take. Mmmmm, Coffee Crisp, my decision is made! LOL F1 drivers come from europe and third world countries, remember those childhood admonitions: people in Brazil are starving, clean your plate. Case closed, they simply are picking them up in a state of emaciation. BTW, it's not Fat in my case, it's Bloat from Malnutrition... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 You have to consider where the weight is in the car... I would leave the weight in the bottom of the chassis and start thinking about how you can shave weight off the top... Replace all glass with plastic... Loose the hatch all together... replace with a large thin sheet of poly with aluminum reinforcement...get rid of the top hinges and hinge plates as well.. Most people have to cut some holes in the roof to complete some of the top welds on the cage... you could vac. form a sheet of prepreg CF over the original roof and then cut out all of the sheet metal leaving only the drip rails and the window frames... then bond the CF roof onto what is left... seems easy enough... The doors can be significantly lightened... in many stages... until you just pin a CF door skin to the cage... In fact all of the outer body sheet metal can be replaced with CF skins... trim all of the sheet metal away leaving a "halo" of the original panel to fasten the skin to... Aluminum hardware is light.. but it will cold weld itself eventually and must be drilled out to remove... but many of the bolts can be shortened and lightened... When you get into frame and unibody work... you can pull a lot of reinforcement out of the bumper and front clip areas... Front bumper mount doubler plates and their weld nuts can all be removed... the front lower tie down hooks have LARGE 1/4" thick steel plates welded into the bottom front of the frame rails.... The rear clip can be lightened by removing all of the bumper mount gussets and the center gusset... Remove the hood hinges, door hinges, hatch hinges, rear cargo doors, remove the hood latch plate and the firewall mount, swiss cheese everything.. and then re-seal the body of the car with poly tape and paint... some example pics.. anyhting you add should be lightened wherever possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Here are some pics that really show how far you can go to lighten a chassis like ours.. If you look carefully at the painted pictures.. you can see where tape and paint are sealing some holes... ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 that is not a Z is it? s2000? Pretty cool lightening ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam393 Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Is that the Opera S2000? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Yes it is the Opera S-2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armand Posted December 5, 2006 Author Share Posted December 5, 2006 This is great info. Thanks guys. Keep it coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjc5500 Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Best way to drop weight... SWAP TO A ROTARY ENGINE. rotary is light. that would drop alot of weight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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