Jenny Craig for Mazda

[Mazdacub]

DISCLAIMER
In no way, shape or form am i cutting down people who dress up there cars and put huge ass stereo systems in them ( i also like to do that stuff)

When i see a nice MP5 or MSP i usually try to talk to the person driving the car if i have a chance to see what they have done and get some good ideas for future mods, and this is what i get. "Ya i think my car looks ok but the thing is soooo slow off the line" or "this car wont move no matter what you do to it". OK. please bend over and let me kick you in the ass. Most of the people bitching and complaining have well around 60lbs minimum of stereo equipment in the trunk and under the seats and 3 friends in the car with them. Now i have nothing fancy. Its all stock with only a exhaust system, intake and ground wires. I think these car have a s*** load of get up and go if you keep the weight low. I Now im not the smartest person in the world but i know when you change the weight to power ratio in a car you will get better results. If you want a faster car you can do 2 things. GET A FAST CAR NOT A COMPACT STATION WAGON, or mod the car and loose weight. I had some time on my hands today so i gave the car a diet. I used a good digital scale and weighed everything twice. Yes i have very heavy aftermarket floor mats in the car.

Item lbs
Aftermarket HD rubber trunk matt 12.0
Right rear seat bottom 4.6
Left rear seat bottom 7.0
Rear headrests 2.2
Front headrests 3.0
Aftermarket front HD rubber floor mats 10.8
Rear stock floor mats 2.8
Hatch cover 3.4
Spare tire cover inc. jack arm 6.4
Spare tire 22.1
Jack cover, jack, lug wrench 5.4
Full window washer container under hood 10.5
Removed the second cat for the muffler sys approx. 15.0

Total 90.2

90 lbs is a start. Change the hood, get some lighter rims, lose the first cat and get some headers, add more engine mods and then you will have on fast MP5 or MSP. it might not look too good inside or play some loud tunes but it will kick ass on the street.

 

[Matthew]

well heres the thing, you dont really gain hp from losing weight..however, supposedly if you take the cars stock wieght and divide by the stock hp, thats how many hp you "gain" for each X lbs lost...so really 90.2 lbs on a P5 is about 4.5 hp :wtf:

 

[Mazdacub]

The only point of loosing weight is that the hp you have now will do much better at moving you around.

 

[twilightprotege]

dont forget to take out and weigh the (only at racing ofcourse) speakers, head unit, passenger seat, door trims, boot plastic mouldings, centre console...urrrr...those are about the only things i can think of you need to add to your list that are easy to take out

 

[Mazdacub]

Sorry my adding is wrong. it should be 105.2 lbs not 90.2

 

[Matthew]

the second cat isnt 15 lbs i dont think but the whole stock s*** if you replace it with the RacingMazda setup is well over 15lbs...

 

[twilightprotege]

yeah i wouldnt have thought you'd gain that much. yes the cat might weigh that much, but what about the pipe you're having to replace it with?

 

[Matthew]

much lighter, i was suprised at the weight of all the parts stock...the box was only 15lbs that my racingmazda setup got sent in...i just weighed the stock parts, it comes out to about 41lbs, so my package was 15lbs, minus all the packing material and box, say you saved 26-27lbs by going with racingmazda...

 

[twilightprotege]

sorry, i was referring to just the cat and that's what i thought you were referring to....but good to know the weight saving for a full exhaust system over stock!

 

[Matthew]

the second cat is with the whole main pipe thing, its like 18 lbs, the first cat is like 10lbs, but the racingmazda setup is different because there is less pieces so i cant compare apples to apples

 

[ELEmental59437]

The whole roof rack assembly will prob free up tons of weight.. look for the how-to in the how-to forums. Also some more small things would be the doof moldings. Those two things I removed for looks particularly, and losing all the weight made the ride feel a bit better.

 

[twilightprotege]

lucky me here in australia we dont get the roof racks - they are an option. dont forget that removing the roof racks also reduce wind resistance

 

[Roywhitep5]

if you really want to save weight, you should: remove the doors, windshield, roof, breaks, suspension, hood, fenders, etc...

 

[Dimitrios]

Glass: if you're really speed hungry and race often, replace your glass with Lexan.

 

[Micah]

Lose some weight yourself. I've dropped 55 pounds since April 1st. Trust me, makes a huge improvement in everything.

 

[redwagon02]

Put the headrests back in!

 

[MarkSpark]

remove the engine....that s*** is too heavy

 

[YuYuRena]

get rid of the A/C and all the piping for them, they'll save you weight and will help even out weight distribution.

 

[dmitrik4]

well heres the thing, you dont really gain hp from losing weight..however, supposedly if you take the cars stock wieght and divide by the stock hp, thats how many hp you "gain" for each X lbs lost...so really 90.2 lbs on a P5 is about 4.5 hp :wtf:

that's the power/weight ratio. it gives you an indication of how fast the car will accelerate. you can improve it by either adding power or dropping weight.

the ES/P5's ratio is roughly 20.4 lbs/hp. dropping 105 lbs gives you as new ratio of 19.57 lbs/hp, which is the same effect as adding 5.4hp.

so you're right, it's not going to help acceleration THAT much, but losing weight is always preferable to gaining power WRT performance. when you drop weight, everything gets better -- acceleration, braking and handling (steady-state and transitional). adding power only benefits in one way. trust me, dropping 105 lbs makes a much bigger difference in handling and braking than it does in acceleration.

 

[Matthew]

yep good point...i wasnt trying to inferr that you couldnt gain performance by losing weight but i couldnt get the power/weight ratio word outta my mouth for some reason