Wondering if in the pursuit of ultimate FE anyone has taken the old standby of reducing "unnecessary weight" like racing folks do.

Has anyone:
Removed their spare tire?
Removed their rear or passenger seats?
Regularly filled the gas to only 1/2 tank to save weight?
Made reasonable exhaust tweaks? [FWIW, I'm not a big fan of these because the tuning of tradeoffs for power, torque and noise is pretty complex and I don't have time to mess w/it].
Are there any lower weight panels available for the '06 HCH (carbon fiber hood, etc.)?

Anybody know how much FE is gained per 100lbs of weight reduction?

 

The old rule of thumb is 1 mpg per 100 lbs.

 

1mpg per 100lbs. Hmm. Spare tire has got to be about 40# and 1/2 tank of fuel is about 35# = 1mpg? Might be worth a go.

 

You find a bunch of carbon fiber for the HCH and put it on, take a picture for all of us, it would be interesting to see. I am a little too into comfort and too new/nice of a car to start ripping everything out. I have done that for a 'fast' car before. I had a 91 convertible RX-7, before I sold it to a friend, I had removed the top, motors, interior panels, A/C, P/S, clutch fan for electric, windows, etc. the diet help it lose around 800+ lbs. Much quicker, better handling, reduced strain on the engine. Don't reccommend it for 99% of people though

I would say do it to the Insight if that is your obsession. A high mileage 2000 can be bought cheap. It is already very lightweight so you couldn't reduce it by much, but if you want a project that would be it. You can remove strip it down and fabricate your own lighter interior, with no radio, a/c fan/heater, who needs power steering anyway? Have custom fabricated carbon fiber (if it is lighter than the aluminium) ... If you can get it to 1500lbs or less and found a way to ugrade to the new IMA, and the newer components that go with it ... I think you would have the most fuel efficeint car in the world ... then you let someone like xcel drive it and he could probably get over 200 mpg

I WISH someone would do this ... at least so I would know how to upgrade the IMA in an Insight and do it myself but still have all the creature comforts, some extra and still try to get 100 mpg ... I may be dreaming, but dreams can come true!

 

There's probably some interchangability parts-wise with regular Civics, so some of the carbon fiber parts would probably fit. However, that's a very pricey venture for 1-2mpg - probably spend close to $1,000 replacing a hood, side fenders, and trunk hood for probably less than 100 lbs savings.

 

Assuming you could shed a few hundred pounds off the car with the structural integerity intact, you would want to capitalize your weight savings by proportionally reducing the engine size. Technology is wonderful, but I think it's gone way past what hot-rodders can do....

It's still nice to dream about it....

 

I pulled the backseat -didn't weigh,but 80+ lbs easy- from my Titan.Part of the reason was to make it more comfortable for the greyhounds,but leaving it out was weight weenieism. I also changed to lighter wheels-about 11 lbs less per wheel.This amounted to~130 lbs on a 4800 lb truck.I can't really measure any improvement.I'm considering dropping the spare tire-wheel-(at least 65 lbs) ,and just carrying it when I'm taking an out of town trip.
I don't think you can save much weight with carbon fiber over sheet metal.Sheet metal is very thin and light now.
I think lighter wheels-tires removing "extra" seats and the spare(carry tire goo,inflation device and plug kit instead) are the best bets. I real nut might replace the rear side glass with thin plexiglass-.In a non hybrid you could probably find some lighter weight brake rotors,light alloy calipers etc.
Factory exhausts-from the manifolds on back-are usually pretty sturdy and you can save weight there with aftermarket stuff(skinny tube headers etc),but the aftermarket stuff doesn't work as well as OEM stuff,and is always noisier(illegal frequently).
Once you change the wheels-tires and dump the spare there really aren't any ways to easily dump weight from a modern vehicle.Thanks.Charlie

 

I agree. Honda already went to great lengths to provide safety, modern conviences, while offering a relatively light car. You would make severe compromises to your car (i.e. loosing AC, Radio, Interior panels, seat cushions, power window motors, etc...) to save likely less than 100 lbs or so. For many of us it would be far easier to loose the weight off our own frames.

I agree that this exercise would be fun in a used insight.

 

Well this IS titled EXTREME measures ... so I think anything goes. Maybe we can get a whole bunch of ideas together and someone with some extra money can implement them.

Isn't the Insight 3-cylinder less than 100 lbs? You wouldn't have to reduce it's weight any more than that. Now lighter, more efficient, higher capacity batteries and capacitor package you could store lower and more in the middle, for the best center of gravity and weight distribution would be great. Lighter more powerful IMA while we are at it and if it is light enough, put three motors on it (one on each of the back wheels), Carbon fiber everything ... If I hit the lottery, I PROMISE to build one ... maybe an extra one for GreenHybrid to pass around to the Hypermiler of the Month lol

 

Ohhh... Your supposed to take stuff out to gain milage. I had it all wrong. I thought you were supposed to add weight.