Streamline

Titainium driveshaft? Do you realize how expensive this would be? Let's not forget how difficult it is to weld titainium w/ another metal in order to install a universal joint. And titainium axles? Ever try machining titainium? It is a hard metal...

In this case, a carbon fiber driveshaft would be much easier and far less expensive.

An aluminum oil pan will save 60 pounds? What kind of metal oil pan do you have on your car...one made of solid lead or gold bars?

I'm astounded by your hockey stick idea. Definitely not a Home Depot mod that I will ever perform. (Why not just use plain sheet metal, as opposed to cutting a hockey stick...at the very least).

The pulleys are not 10 - 15 pounds each.

I like that you're willing to think outside of the box...but take it down a notch or two.

lextildeth

I was naming mods you can do to a Nissan 240sx as mods you can do to the SC. Maybe some numbers are different on the SC, but holy cow you guys are mean. You smite at the first chance to do so when some one may be wrong. I am sure we can have a friendlier discussion. The oil pan on a 240 weighs about 80 pounds. I heard that the SC pulleys are 10-15 pounds. You can use a hockey stick for hood supports, you can use whatever you want. I don't see how it would be a bad choice. I played hockey my whole life and I know that aluminum sticks are light and strong and stiff. Sheet metal is too flexible and flimsy and comparatively heavy. The shape of a halved aluminum hockey stick would be a good structure - shaped like this: [ because it is hollow. Would aluminum supports be so bad at saving weight vs a fiberglass sheet that holds up the carbon fiber? An entire aluminum hockey shaft weighs under 1 pound. And the titanium driveshafts and axles are definately expensive. I do not disagree. But I know some one with them on a turbo Integra. Why is that out of the question for Lexus owners? Maybe these suggestions are not for some. Then you can just shrug off the suggestion if you don't intend on being that fast. It doesn't change the look or ride quality of the car. Maybe you must be more hardcore to accept spending lots of money on these mods to make your car faster. People with Integras, like my friend tend to have smaller salaries and budgets than SC owners. I do not feel my post was out of line, so I do not want to be treated as if I was out of line.

spoiledkid

i agree with lex yet i dont think that they were being that harsh. its probably because you didnt really put in depth reasoning behind your explanation. but not bad none the less. plus carbon fiber should be light enough for the driveshaft and i hear the drivavbility is still very good because it helps to reduce lag a bit but you also drop a substantial amount of torque

flossn

Back in my stang days, the aluminum driveshaft was good for 15lbs and there was no carbon fiber option. Is carbon strong enough to serve drive shaft duty? I've seen it offered but wonder how it holds up on hard launches.

sc300tt

Of course Carbon fiber is strong enough, but the driveshafts are often just carbon-fiber reinforced aluminum (or steel) driveshafts, not JUST carbon fiber. For our cars, the weight saving aren't that substantial due to the fittings involved.

sc300tt

Well then you should make your statement as such, not stated as fact for an SC300. That way when somebody does a search, they don't take it as truth, but as a hypothetical.

Well, maybe you shouldn't come onto this site stating COMPLETELY erroneous things, about a car you don't even own, in your first few posts!! We have nothing against thinking out loud, or saying, "this works on a 240, perhaps it would work for yall" rather than coming on all gung-ho and telling us how we can save weight like we are a bunch of retards incapable of changing our own oil.

Probably from someone just as ignorant about our cars as you, or hell any car for that matter. WTF kind of cars have pulleys that weigh 10-15 lbs each? 15lbs? Our heaviest one, by far, the crank pulley/dampner, weighs about half that, and the rest probably average 1 lb. If you were to swap out all the pulley together, you might save 5-7lbs, but you would also be losing the crank dampening, which is a no-no in my book.

You think you can save 15lbs by removing the "fiberglass crap supports" from a CF hood and using Hockey sticks? I won't even discuss the asthetics of such a setup.


The Cost/Benefits of such a setup is ridiculous for weight savings. It's NOT for weight, it's for strength and there is NO WAY you are going to save 100lb, not even remotely close, especially when the stock DS weighs about 25lb (or about two pulleys )

I didn't realize you were so "hardcore". Your 240 must have been faster than I ever could have dreamed of being.

SUPRMSC

iTrader: (7)

3S-GTE swap

spoiledkid

Probably from someone just as ignorant about our cars as you, or hell any car for that matter. WTF kind of cars have pulleys that weigh 10-15 lbs each? 15lbs? Our heaviest one, by far, the crank pulley/dampner, weighs about half that, and the rest probably average 1 lb. If you were to swap out all the pulley together, you might save 5-7lbs, but you would also be losing the crank dampening, which is a no-no in my book. = SC300TT

i have the full pulley set in my car and beleive me the car became alot more smoother in general.


I didn't realize you were so "hardcore". Your 240 must have been faster than I ever could have dreamed of being. [/QUOTE] = SC300TT

theres no reason to be so harsh to someone to new to the board maybe we as cl members just need to clarify some things with this member in a kind manner so he doesn't assume that we're bad people. when realy just on this board to help members and our selves. learn new possibilities with our vehicles. He also stated that his friend has a integra that has titanium driveshafts and axles that he got for a reasonable price. Maybe instead of harrasing this member we can in turn help selves out by getting more details from this member so we may be able to get a group buy going on such a product. just my 2 cents and im not trying to insult or **** anyone off on this board just spreading my feelings.

oh clint im not saying that i know more about cars than you do because i know your an expert with our cars especially since admire all your sc's very much just helping out a new member. thats it. and plz dont flame.

sc300tt

I tell you what, Clublexus is meant to be a resource, and when people come on and start spouting blatantly false information about a car they know very little about, it reallly bothers me. This is how stupid internet falsehoods get perpetuated. Then the next thing you know, somebody else does a search and finds that post and you have another person believing the same information. If I hurt his feelings, too bad, it's the internet, he'll get over it. Perhaps next time he posts something, if he doesn't know , he'll use words like "maybe" or "perhaps", sprinkled with little phrases like "this saved X amount on my 240".

As fas as your experience with the lightened pulleys, there is a reason that Toyota engineers put on a 7lb damper.Let me know down the road when you experience a bearing/crank/other problem, especially if you have an Auto. Here is a nice technical article for your own benefit. http://www.atiperformanceproducts.co...mper_dinan.htm

If his friend has a titanium driveshaft or axles, then why doesn't he post a link or give out some contact info, or *GASP*, check into it first, rather than just start making up completely bogus weight savings numbers as if they were scripture. But I tell you what, that avenue for weight savings is just absurd since the savings would be minimal, not to mention a set of Titanium axles by themselves would almost certainly be well over $3000 for our cars.

The biggest thing that bothered me is the fact that he just joined the site and one of his first post is stated as fact, yet COMPLETELY incorrect. I believe it was Abraham Lincoln once said, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Lex Luthor

Clint actually broke out the Abe Lincoln quote...

KAME

Clint,
Thanks for responding intelligently to this thread. I have played the weight reduction game, and there are some things that I will not do again (sound deadening removal on a street car = when you have a 3.5" side-exit exhaust. Below is a picture of my old supra.

I think your advice was very insightful and that there has been some very poor advice brought up in this thread. A lot of people get overly concerned with weight removal, and don't realize that they are removing a lot of weight from the rear and none from the front. Obviously this has adverse effects on the handling of the vehicle.

Here is my go forward plan.

Lightweight seats
Lightweight wheels
2-piece brake rotors
Rear seat removal
All trunk carpeting
Replacing Fuel tank with wheel well fuel tank with external fuel pump/filter
Battery Relocation to Rear Right of vehicle
Single Exit Titanium Exhaust
Carbon Fiber Hood

These mods should allow the vehicle to lose some significant weight while still maintaing all of the amenities that we enjoy as Lexus owners.

In addition, corner balancing the vehicle should be mentioned as a way to regain some of the poor weight distribution resulting from removing so much weight from the rear of the vehicle.

SCV8

I want stuff that no one makes; a set of composite hood/doors with honeycomb cores, 2025 aluminum inserts for pick up points.
A set of window glass that's .125 thick.
Maybe something to help with (rotating) weight that you can actually go and just buy would be a set of Goodyear F1 Supercar tires.

oring

Hey this is my frist post on this site. I dont have an sc YET... but i am looking in to them. From what i see you could possibly save some weight in the front by replace'n the front fenders with fiberglass ones. (ORIGIN FRP Stylish Fenders Front) not to sure if they are fiber glass or not. also you could get some lighter tires, I know that with my old e30 m3 the tires depending on the brand/type you are save 3 to 10 lbs per tire. Same goes with the wheels and light weight lugs (not sure if lexus's use the nut type or like bmw's the bolt type) I never got the weight of my light weight lugs but they were a bit lighter I would say total 4-5lbs lighter for all 20lugs.. Well cheers. There is some great info on this site.

MikeFD3S

"A closed mouth gathers no foot"

I dunno, all this weight reduction hoo-hah is nonsense to me if the car is the daily driver. I think there is a limit to the amount of weight reduction you can do before you start making the car undriveable/uncomfortable.

Unless you are building a dedicated racecar (I question your logic if you want to be competitive in this chassis), completely stripping the interior, and changing out body parts like the hood, trunk, taking out bumper supports and things like that just make the car completely unsafe for street driving. These are my personal opinions of course, but the more extreme techniques for weight reduction completely destroy the original purpose of the car. Modding is fun, but you have to keep your goals within reason, and have to realize the limitations of this car.

If you go so far, you might as well go all the way

-remove sound deadening material (free!)
-remove bumper support (free!)
-lexan/acrylic windows ( easily 1k )
-full fiberglass or carbon fiber body ( 10k )
-all titanium nuts and bolts ( 2k )
-adjustable coilover suspension with super stiff 24kgmm spring rates so you can get rid of those pesky heavy swaybars! ( 5k )
-magnesium 17" wheels w/ lightweight lugs ( 3k )
-lighter calipers + shaved cryo treated rotors ( 2k )
-stripped interior (free!)
-bucket seat (note, there is no plural, for true lightweight you only need one seat) ( $300, simple is better )
-remove the entire dash assembly and run an all in one gauge ( free to remove, 1k for all in one gauge like SARD RD-1 )
-remove AC, power steering ( free! )
-aluminum radiator ( $500 )
-no exhaust, open header ( free! )
-go on a diet ( free! )
-only use 1/2 the amount of fluids you need (gas is heavy) ( free! )
-titanium driveshaft ( $2k )
-lightened flywheel ( $200 )
-strip all the paint ($30)

Although i'm being sarcastic, it really would cost nearly $25k to do this level of weight reduction. (hey how about acid dipping the chassis? ooooh) Even with all of this, you are still left with a car that is nearly 3000 lbs depending on the year and trim level of your SC.

Even with a weight down to 3000 lbs (without driver) you are only shaving one second (if that) off of a quarter mile time, only slightly increasing trap speed (using near stock power levels, if you want more power, power = money). You shave off a little bit on braking distance, slightly increase lateral g's and slalom speed, but honestly, will you ever be in a situation where you need to trail brake your SC300/400 from a 115 mph straightaway so you can reduce speed to 45mph and properly strafe the apex of a complex corner a few mph faster than you would if the car was heavier?

...reality and futility sets in when a 2100lb 150hp spec miata on hoosiers flies by you.

COME ON PEOPLE!

The SC300/400/Soarer is a sporty luxury saloon meant for high speed touring. The SC will have a hard time trying to outbrake, outhandle, or overpower an equally modified car built specifically for these things.

Even with reasonably priced, more readily available weight reduction options, you still only shave (being generous) 150lbs. What's 150lbs to a car that will still tip the scales at 3,300lbs and be barely pushing 200rwhp in stock format?

There are many people running full interior, stock body, using safe forced induction methods that cost roughly 5k that are in the 350+ whp range. Dollar for dollar, forced induction will always have the cheapest cost:benefit ratio. For braking and handling, there are lots of options to keep the car fun without having to gut your car.

I'm sorry, but a truly lightweight SC is a lofty pipe dream for the majority of owners here and especially all of the new younger owners that are popping up due to drifting. Unless you have deep pockets, i really don't think it's worth the effort.

Sorry, someone has to say it. If I come off as flaming, so be it, people need a reality check lest they let their preconceived ideas go too far for their own good.

indelible

FRP=fiberglass reinforced plastic