I'm looking to purchase a Fit in the future, but i want to know if anyone has any ideas on how to make a Fit lose weight? I would like to drop several hundred pounds. Bring it under 2000. Is it possible?

Thoughts?

 

you can replace all the glass with lightweight plastic race glass

I think its fal that makes replacement windows. I think it drops a good hundred or so pounds off if you do all the windows. For that much weight, try removing everything in the car as well.
seats, dash, carpeting, a/c, power steering, heck try putting in a motorcycle engine instead. Try a cbr motor, you know, keep it in the family.

 

Very doubtful. You would have to remove ~500 pounds.

Removing the glass, previously mentioned, would save weight, but it is also part of the stucture and you would loose some rigidity assocated with that.

Obvious things that could be removed:
- rear wiper and motor
- rear seats
- spare tire
- A/C system
- passenger seat

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you want a lightweight racer, you can do better by finding an older CRX/Civic and doing engine/suspension work on it.

 

you're thinking way too much!!!

 

700lbs is a bit extreme

replacing windows would cause chassis to lose rigidity. you can completely stip out interior and sound deadening and custom a vitals only cluster and lightweight bucket seat. but even then i dont think itll bring you to 700. maybe 200-300 max. but then again ive only stripped my miatas (which didnt have much to begin with)

 

Don't forget the driver too adds weight to the car But somethings that pop into my head: replacing the metal body panels with fiberglass or carbonfiber, remove the safety beams front and back, replace the doors with dummy fiberglass or carbon fiber parts (you'll probably have to add something to reinforce these areas), all the carpeting, sound insulation, ceiling headliner, all airbags, remove the muffler, catalytic converter (run a straight pipe), remove stock air box and put a short ram, etc... won't be street legal but the Fit will be much slimmer

 

Windows ARE NOT contributing to the torsional ridgidity of the chassis. Glass doesnt bend. If it was a member of the chassis the glass would break. Guaranteed.

Yes it is possible to bring the fit under 2000lbs. Do you want to? No. You could take off the doors, all the interior trim, the hatch, the hood, AC delete, Cut off the roof, etc. Im sure that would get you under 2000lbs. But then the car is useless.

Besides, lighter is better, but heavy doesnt hurt you in handling as much as you would think. As the vertical load on the tire increases, so does grip (with grip degrading a tad as the weight on the wheels increases). Being lighter would only REALLY help you in acceleration and braking.

 

chop the top
lol

 

also you could remove all the motors in the windows... and have plexi glass um... bolted on. Most of the door pannels can come off. as well as the center cluster for the air control/radio. While ya are at it, the center stuff is just plastic, but its a good amount of weight that you could rip out.

The car slides as it is... I'm not sure if you want something even lighter.

 

not true, the coefficient of friction for rubber is not constant and decreases as vertical load increases, the grip vs vertical load graph is not a strait line but upward sloping but concave downwards (opening down)

I'm guessing it's quite easy to lower weight by a couple hundred pounds since all the other fits and jazz's of the world are about 40kg lighter then USDM/CAD spec vehicles. In addition there are a number of modifications which can be down to lower the weight which have little to no impact on practicallity. A lighter exhaust system usually lightens the car by atleast 20+ pounds (this is from the manafold all the way to the muffler). IIRC the S2000 stock exhaust weighs a good 40+ pounds while aftermarket exhausts have better flow characteristics AND weigh in at merely 10-15 pounds on average. Tyre's and rims are also one of the easiest places to lose weight and coincidentally also bring the most benefit reducing unsprung and rotational weight. Replacing non load bearing body panels with plastic, fibre glass, or carbon fibre panels would also reduce weight significantly. I believe a large portion of the weight differential between the japanese/euro market fit/jazz with our NADM fit is in the bumpers, crash regulations on this side of the pacific/atlantic are much more stringent and require stronger reinforcements in the front and rear, replacing these parts with the overseas model parts would lower weight AND increase the asthetics of the vehicle.

When putting the vehicle on a diet it's important to keep two things in mind, where you are removing the weight from the vehicle and the resultant change in the location of the center of gravity, removing too much weight from the bottom of the vehicle raises the height of the center of gravity which affects the moment arm on the roll center, in this case you may experience even more body roll then if you had left the car stock. Also the front rear location of the center of gravity will change if you dont remove the weight in the front proportional to the front rear weight distribution, this will affect acceleration, braking and dive/squat.

 

the jazz is shorter than the fit.

 

Yes. Thats correct. I thought I said that... oh well.

 

gut the doors
gut the dash all the way to the firewall
replace the steering wheel with a non-airbag model
remove all airbags
remove headliner and all plastic trim...everywhere. if something is below it, remove that
remove dome light and all wiring to the roof.
remove tool kit, spare, and anything else you can unbolt
remove all seats and bolt in a kirkey aluminum bucket for the driver
remove the carpet and dry ice all the sound deadening off of it
gut the hatch
pull a/c and power steering, find a junkyard no-ps rack that fits and swap that in because ps racks with no fluid running through them suck.
pull off any and all extra plastic bits, every nonessential bolt and nut
remove the horn
remove the front bumper beam and replace with jdm unit or just fab your own out of a decently strong bit of tubing, etc.
braile or similar battery
remove gas tank and go with a 5 gallon cell if you're racing it
lexan windows-race only
coilovers tend to be lighter than stock spring/strut setups.
2 piece rotors and lightweight calipers
magnesium rims
now step back and look at the interior again. remove all excess wiring--that weight adds up. i'd say you should have ~10lb of extra wiring laying around at this point that will never be used again.
dry weave cf hood--remove the latch and hinges then use pins at all four corners
cf hatch
pick up a header and remove the cat. use a 90deg bend and send the exhaust out the passenger side behind the front wheel or just use a turndown off a muffler bolted directly to the header
remove the solid beam rear and rebuilt it with less metal
get suspension bits made out of aluminum to replace the stamped steel bits.
fiberglass fenders
cf retard-small mirrors
cf half shafts
aluminum shift linkage and lever plus dry weave knob or Ti knob
now go back and look for extra nuts and bolts once again. you'll probably find plenty.


ok, all that said, if this is a daily driver you should keep your mods to a minimum. look at where the worst distribution of weight is. a lightweight bumper beam and a light battery would probably do a noticeable amount for the car. you can replace the seats with no-airbag seats but it isn't really worth it. you'll just end up with a light rattletrap of a brand new car.

if you absolutely do not use a/c where you're at, go ahead and pull it--but put it in your garage. you'll want to put it back for resale.

the 2piece rotors and lightweight calipers + light rims are more street-friendly. i wouldn't worry about forged... just lighter with stickier rubber so you can carry more momentum through turns. please keep in mind what you're driving. you don't want to blow 6 grand on a 15k car that won't be in shows and won't be raced competitively. for the buy-in plus your mod money you could have gotten something much more capable out of the box.

autox'ing will probably be as beneficial to you as weight reduction