How much do each of the OEM style CF hood and hatch from Seibon / Vis shave from the weight of the car?

Are hood pins required for the hoods(has OEM style hood latch).

Be sure not to count the glass in weight measurements.


Just wondering if it is worth the cost of the parts.

Thanks!

Ill try to be consise.

Is fiberglass and carbon fiber lighter than metal? Yes it is. My 7 year old sister can lift my carbon fiber hood all by herself. For comparison the stock hood weighs as much as my sister. By taking off hood, hatch, fenders, bumpers etc you will save weight. how much I can not tell but basically you should be shedding 95 percent of weight give or take 10 percent. I am not a weight to power ratio guru but from what I heard you free up 15 hp for every 100 lbs shaved off or something like that. No that does not make you gain hp what it does do is quicker acceleration etc etc.

Do you need hood pins? No. VIS hood comes with the latch. Now that does not mean that you can slamm the hood.. you need to handle it with care but it will lock.

yea i think the hood is probly the best carbon fibe rthing to replace if u want a lighter car,also and truck/hatch.

I'd go for the trunk/hatch. Overall there is much more metal there than the hood/bonnet. Are our bonnets steel or aluminium? I'd say that the GT bonnet weighs about the same as the GT4 bonnet. Now I know the GT4 is aluminium so if the GT is steel I'm surprised there isn't more of a difference.

Alloy or steel wheels weight quite a bit, too. Perhaps some lightweight rims? What about the fuel tank - is that plastic or metal?

OR you could just stop giving any fat mates a lift and free up a load of HP. lol.

a) "free up 15hp per 100lbs shaved"
technically you don't free up hp...you have the same amount of HP....BUT your power:weight ratio does get better...IE 1hp:27lbs may go to 1hp:23lbs

b) you'll probably save more weight by getting a HOOD (this is just my hypothesis) because a good bulk of the hatch weight is in the GLASS.

c) hood & hatch = good when both are CF

d) look @ stuff on the interior as well, there are LOTS of heavy pieces in there

Aye, strip out all the seats, interior panels and carpets and you'll probably save a fair amount of weight.

Thanks for the info!

How much does each seat weigh(standard, cloth)?

When it cools down tonight I'm going to remove all the seats. I'm 6'3" so I should still be able to see over the dash.

Going on a diet is the best advice. I could stand to lose about 30-40 lbs.

lol

ltw racing seats (certified and approved of course)
are a good investment if your serious about weight reduction
seats are probably close to 30-40 lbs per piece i think (est)
rear seat bottom(hatchback) is ~10lbs
backs are a few founds as well
speakers = heavy
spare tire/jack = heavy
sunroof = 25lbs (est)

diet = always good idea haha

lol!!!
You=heavy

honestly unless you are turning your car into a race car for the track you really don't have to worry. a lot of people get the carbon fiber for the look not because it is lighter. it's for their bragging rights.

If I do get CF I will be painting over it eventually, unless I suddenly fall in love with the look (not likely)

Lost 35 Pounds, Another 10 to go

Also, Dont drive with a full tank of gass, half would suffice = 60lbs weightreduction.

Already removed spare tyre+jack, but installed a subwoofer and Amp.
Replace steel bonnet with Alu GT4 hood, but installed a heavier engine

but increased power:weight

Installing Lexan "glass" in the rear hatch would free up a good amount of weight, idk how cost efficient it would be though

lexan scratches up very easily

There is a lexan treatment called Marguard / Margard that is supposed to improve the durability/reduce scratching.

Have thought about this in the past but I doubt it is worth it for a street car, may scratch up quickly, have to pay more for smoked lexan, and would lose rear window defroster.

I was able to pick up a Seibon OEM style CF Hood for pretty cheap. It has some scratches and scuffs in the clear coat but I'm sure they can be filled in(especially if I paint it).

THe crappy thing is, it's not all that much lighter than the stock hood(Stock=36.5lbs, CF=23.5 on bathroom scale). Just don't think it is worth it for the price, at least for a daily driver(my goal is to improve city MPG).

The fitment is pretty poor as well, the curve near the windshield ends don't match very well, and the hood is a centimeter narraower than stock, so there is a fair sized gap on one side(made the passenger side more flush to impress my girl

When I replaced my stock hood with the GT-4 one, it was so freaking light. You can feel the difference, haha.

13lbs is a nice little weight savings
not sure what the GT4 hood weights?

but sucks that the hood has poor fitment, maybe due to abuse from previous owner? I know when i checked out droptopgt's CF oem style hood (VIS i'm pretty sure) fitment was pretty good.

You are planning all this weight reduction to save on gas? I thought it was to make a race car

haha dude how much petrol do you actually get through?

my gt4 does about 27mpg and a gallon in the uk costs about £4.63

City MPG won't be affected at all no matter how much weight you save if all your doing is sitting in traffic jams all the time and will only improve a little if doing 20/30 all the time. Only way you'll save petrol by reducing weight is when accelerating I reckon anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.

any weight savings is going to save you "some" amount of gas..not just on accel but through out all driving conditions....though it takes more HP to move the car...it still takes less but some hp to keep it moving..less weight at a constant cruise = less need hp to keep the car moving = less fuel

though by getting a hood he's not going to see anything besides ".4" mpg gain (example not real) its a good start

yeah i realise this mate, what I meant was that if his car weighs 1 ton or 20 tons, if he's stationary in traffic with the engine running its gonna be using exactly the same amount of gas. then like you say its gonna be an unnoticable amount of savings versus the cost of carbon fibre panels.

sitting time is negate able since cars use very little fuel sitting at rest and
eventually traffic has to go somewhere

(though i see your point)

i filled almost a whole 5gal bucket with sound deadening from under the carpets, both front and rear. its noticeably louder. and the car vibrates a bit.. ask Manny about that. i think it makes it that much sweeter.

itchy you scrapped on that OEM stuff stuck to the floors?

i hated that crap! weighed a decent lb too

I need to loose.... 44lbs

Back from the dead. I had an opportunity to weigh the various hoods today. Here are my findings:


Stock ST/GT steel hood, without fiberglass lining: 39lbs (17.7kg) approx.
Stock GT4 aluminium hood, with fiberglass lining: 25lbs (11.3kg) approx.
C-One carbon fiber GT4 style hood: 13 lbs (5.9kg) approx.

Sweet. Is that under-carpet stuff hard to get out? More importantly, am I gonna tear up the carpet/tear out my hair trying to get it out?

stuff under the carpet (oem noise crap that is stuck to the floor) is a pain in the ass...i used an air chisel and some time.

try weighting the doors now them suckers are heavy.
the sunroof = ~40lbs

i'm pretty sure the gain from taking out the stuff under the carpet is minimal at best

sorry
but weight reduction doesn't really make a race car
lol!

didn't mean to offend you, man
it was just worded funny
i laugh at the imports that i see driving around thinking that they have race cars because they have carbon fiber all over the place

there is actually about 10-15lbs of that crap throughout the car.
and for some of us, that little bit helps

i think that if your going for weight...and you want to take your car to an auto cross track for the day...just gut the interior...back seat and pass side seat is a LOT of weight right there that you would be getting rid of...also the spare tire, jack, stupid $hit likee that...no offense but a carbon fiber hood and hatch is not going to give you the results you want....maybe for peace of mind but thats about it....sure every little bit helps but when it comes to a difference of 5-10 pounds? come on now.....might as well drive with no hood

requoted just incase you can't read/do math

39-13 = 26lbs

26lbs is a substantial amount of weight..
26lbs = spare tire+jack
26lbs = about 1 front seat
and thats just in a hood.

5-10lbs can be pretty important.
removing upper weight (IE sunroof, hood, hatch) shifts the weight balance of the car to a LOWER point (thus giving lower center of gravity).
the more "upper" weight you can remove the better your car can handle.

For the average street driver here will it make a big difference, no not really. When it comes down to the logistics of it, YES it makes a nice difference.

Add up some carbon fiber doors to shed out some weight lol.... not very cost efficent for a daily driver though

nobody makes them.........yet

What do you mean Playr? Is there actually a company or someone working on the cf doors for our cars?

since were so good at math would you be able to caculate for me how much time i would save by taking out my sun roof in the quarter mile?? because i know everone here when they run down the track the first thing they will do is remove there sun roof....even if you did take out the front and back seats, replaced the hood and hatch with carbon fiber ones and took out the spare tire and jack you would only be maybe a tenth or two faster? it's pointless...its all psychological...just caus you have a gutted interior you think your car is faster.....why dont you just turn your boost up a pound? that would make up for it and then some....now if there were more things you could do with out going extreamely overboard with the weight reduction...like doors, fenders, leightweight rims(which are aviable) then i would say yes it would be worth doing...but throwing a CF hood on and removing your sun roof isnt doing anything for ya...all together CF (doors, fenders, hood, hatch, leightweight rims, no door pannels, seats, rugs, stock sound dampening material, spare tire, jack, remove any subs and other acces $hit, and your "sunroof") now your talking about shaving weight/getting a better time

hahahah...you know there is more to racing than a 1/4 mile.

removing a sunroof is a dual purpose...let me requote that for you
"removing upper weight (IE sunroof, hood, hatch) shifts the weight balance of the car to a LOWER point (thus giving lower center of gravity).
the more "upper" weight you can remove the better your car can handle."
its handling advantage.
lowering the center of gravity and cutting weight can cut LAP times down.
better handling & less mass = later braking points and faster corner speeds = faster laps.

please go to VIR/Summit hell even a drag strip and tell the real racers weight reduction is psycological

you have yet to make a valid arguement besides an unsupported claim of psychological factors. When you can techincally support and prove it come back and talk to me. I on the other hand can.

my weight savings > you

all the AC boxes came out, the sunroof came out (honeycomb/carbonfiber LTW plug replacement) not to mention many many other things

clearly i understand your argument and agree 100% with reducing weight=better times ESPICALLY on an auto cross track...but what im trying to say is how many people on this forum are going to completely gut there interior like you have??? not many...most are looking for a "quick and easy way out" such as replacing both the hood and hatch with CF ones....which is a great idea and again it does lower the center of gravity...im not arguing with you about that at all....what im saying is that by removing your sunroof and throwing a CF hood on your car is not going to drastically improve your times....yes it may cut lap times down a few tenths but all that for what? when you could do simple mods to your motor to get more out of it....

you can always do something else to get that time. weight reductions are normally pretty easy. Some states don't allow for motor changes, as well as motor modifications can move you out of a class you are competative at and into a class you have no chance. Not to mention more motor doesn't help with handling.

Hoods are more commonly done for aesthetics as well, and not necissarily function as 1% of this site actually races.

Celicas respond in my experience much much better to improvements in handling/weight than to power since the strong point of the celica is handling and not power. and a few tenths can mean the difference between winning and loosing.....I'd take that.

Its cars there is always an alternative to one modification over another. personal preferance is what makes the difference.

Custom CF doors would be crazy high priced..... I'm sure we could get some people together to try to get a company to start making them, yet don't know if we'd have enough people willing to bust out the money for them.

my car has cf doors, fenders, hood, trunk, roof, and rear 1/4 pannels

reduced vehicle weight by 370~ lbs

best mod to the car, seems like it has 100 more hp and handles amazing


-carbon fiber hood is a good idea to save weight, for the purpose of less fuel consumption... over a year if your fuel costs are $2000 for the year, you may save $10 soooo $300+ for the hood would take you like 30 years to actually "save"

-carbon fiber hatch, again a good idea for weight reducion, using lexon or any type of non rigid consistancy will expand & contract. rsx's usually put in cf hatch's and since windows are similar in size to a 6gc i presume you would have similar issues, the plastic n whatnot that gets used as a light weight window either expands n warps the hatch, or contracts and causes other issues.

stop n think before you flame for the first bit

Weight Reduction Modifications

• Sunroof with motor and Headliner 33 pounds
• Interior Panels from Driver Seat to Trunk 18 pounds
• Air Bag from Steering Wheel 4 Pounds
• Full Bucket Racing Seat 10 pounds less over stock
• Liftback Trunk Cover 6 pounds
• Spare Tire, Wooden Tire Cover, Trunk Carpet and Jack 35 pounds
• Rear Seats (Backing and Cushion)36 pounds
• AGM 17 lb Battery 18 pounds less (OEM Battery Weighs 35lbs for USA Market)
• Cruise Control, Rear window wiper/Motor and OEM Antenna 5 pounds
• Floor Mats, Carpet n’ Lining and Firewall Lining with Sound Deadening 20 pounds
• 6 Speaker Audio Sound System (Headunit, Amplifier, Speakers n Brackets) 12 pounds
• 1st Generation Scion TC (2AZ-FE) Starter 2 pounds lighter
• Stock SS-III Front brakes weighs 54 lbs
• Fiberglass Hood with carbon overlay (VIS or Seibon): 11 pounds less or Aluminum ST205 Hood: 14 pounds less or Wet Carbon Fiber Hood: 25 pounds less (Carbon Microsystem)
• 3SGE Stock Exhaust Header n B-Pipe = 32lbs, Stainless Steel Header n' Bpipe for 3SGE = 20lbs (12lbs lighter)+ Test Pipe (4lbs lighter) + Kakimoto R Exhaust (7lbs lighter) = 22 pounds less
• Adjustable Coilovers 28 Pounds less


For a weekend/track set up vehicle which amounts to 260 pounds.


REMOVING THE A/C SYSTEM AMOUNTS TO 45 LBS + All headlights and fog lights replaced with headlight covers = 12 pounds. Rear Window (swap in for Lexan) = 17 pound savings. Door Panels 12 poundsThese parts are not included in overall total!!!

The problem with your argument is that you are basing it off an unlimited amount of money, I could either spend money on a part that will get me 5-10 hp or I could remove something (spare/jack, seats, carpet, int. trim) for free and have the same results. Now I do SOMEWHAT agree with you on the whole sunroof removal, yes it WILL decrease your central weight for better handling, BUT for someone who doesn't know how to weld it would be hard to cover up the giant hole that is in the roof, so there you would be better off buying a mod.

Also in racing (track, autoX) more power is not always better, take a corvette for example it has loads of HP and TQ but is quite hard to use all of it around a corner, but if you take an elise or exige it has the 1zz/2zz from a 7th Gen. celica which isn't that powerful but hell if those things cant use all of there power around a corner.

ok, first of all, you can't remove the spare tire if its already been removed. its a given that anyone running track or autox will already have their spare removed and other similar easy to remove items. when you are talking about swapping out CF parts you should be past the point of diminishing returns, so you're spending a lot to save a little.

Also, in general, more power is always better in track racing. a corvette doesnt need to drive at the limit to compare to an elise or exige. sure, the lotus' handle quite well, but given a capable driver, the corvette should win on any track that isn't designed for a go-cart. and just because you have an extra 300 hp on a lotus doesnt mean that you need to use it all.

how about some plastic molded headlights?

and a denso leightweight alternator??? or one of these http://www.jonesracingproducts.com/alt.html#

as I was also looking as to how they make carbon fiber hoods

First I was using the spare as an example.
Second I never said anything about using CF.
and for the whole racing thing i will use my celica compared to my mr2. In autox my I will have faster times with my celi then I do with the mr2, and the mr2 has more power an is faster in a straight.

sorry, the CF I guess came from the thread title. But I was basicly saying that after you remove the cheap stuff, your costs start going up exponentially to save weight.

for autox your mr2 is either E or C class
your celica is probably G class. so after the PAX, yes, its very possible that your celica is faster. But with raw times, you should be quicker with your mr2.