Hey everyone,

I was wondering if any of you guys have reduced the weight of your car? I remember Carlos's 190 16V with C36 engine. He said that he reduced the weight of his car by about 200lbs. That would definately increase performance/acceleration without doing any engine work. Besides taking out the stereo, A/C, what else is there that is not really needed that I can take out of my car to reduce the weight? Also can any of you tell me of a place to go to weigh my car. I want to see where I am at in relation to my stock 3030lbs weight.

Thanks,
Giancarlo

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PAST MB's: 2006 E55 AMG | 1986 190E 2.3-16

Only filling up the gas tank to the half way marker each time will help a little. Half a tank of gas has to be atleast 15 pounds lighter then a full tank. Also you could take out the spare tire if you're confident that you won't get a flat. It all depends on how extreme you want to go. You could take out the seats and put in lighter ones that manuallly adjust so then you'd have the weight of the heavier electric seats gone and also the motor that powers the seats. You might be able to drop off about 100 pounds by doing that.... not really sure how much those way though. Also you can have a fiberglass hood and trunk lid put on... That would take off another couple 100. Like I said before, it all depends on how extreme you want to go.

The front seats are about 75 bls a piece. Change them out for some light weight Recaros. If you want to go crazy there are carbon fiber or aluminum seats that weigh about 5- 10 bls total.
I also agree with fiberglass hood and trunklid. It all matters what you are looking to do with the car. These kind of mods are only good for a full time racecar. not a grocery getter.
Adam

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Glass is very heavy. Replace the rear side windows with plexiglass and get rid of the motors.

Don't forget to put the weight back in (install a roll bar with good belts).

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Jim Villers
190SL, 230SL 5-speed, 95 E320 Wagon, 01 E320 Wagon, MGB, Boxster 'S', 190SL "Barn Find"

Not trying to be rude, but if someone did all these weight reductions, what will be left is a Geo Metro... If I was reducing the weight, then I would be looking to do it without having to reduce the luxury standard of the vehicle.

thanks

Thanks for all the replies. My car is not being transformed into a racer so the weight reduction was just something to give my car a little edge over all of the other, more powerful cars out there on the road. I think that putting racing seats in like MOMO, Sparco, Recaro, Monaco, etc would be a good idea, but then the pattern of the seats wouldn't match that of the back. It would look odd to have two seats that look different than the back bucket seats. I could redo the back seats to look like the front seats but that would be lots of $$$. I am by no means ready to dump $2000-3000 just for new seats front and back. The Euro 16V is listed at 2772 lbs. Where is the difference between it and the U.S. spec car?

Giancarlo

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PAST MB's: 2006 E55 AMG | 1986 190E 2.3-16

i couldn't disagree more with the geo metro comment. reducing weight is a good idea if you value performance over luxury. the two are antagonists. while keeping cost the same, more luxury always means less performance.

think about a few other light weight versions: Porsche 911 RS America, Ferrari 348 Challenge, Lotus Elise Sport 190, BMW e36 M3 LTW. these are not geo metros. they are top notch performance vehicles that prioritize performance over luxury.

my vote is to: dump the A/C, dump the spare tire, tools, and jack, strip down any non-essential interior and trunk pieces (within reason for a street car), replace the front seats with racing seats (black recaro carreras wouldn't look too much unlike the original seats), remove the back seats (obviously quite extreme for a street car). then of course weld in your roll cage. doing all that's a little drastic for most people's taste, so pick and chooose. i'm slowly working toward that setup with my 16v.

and don't drop a few pounds only to replace them with 18"x9" wheels or a huge audio system.

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dew
86' 190e 2.3L 16v