Saving Weight

Back in the early 60's,Pontiac built a few 421 c.i. tripower engines and dropped them in some aluminum fendered Catalina coupes with 4 speeds and posi-trac drilled a bunch of holes in frame crossmembers,etc. and campaigned them at drag races as "swisscheese cars." They ran like stink off s---, and then disappeared.Has anyone here looked at lightened crossmembers,suspension setups, etc to save weight and increase performance?The trucks seem to me to be over-engineered in the weight dept and could stand to shed a few pounds here and there.???

yeah i've heard of them & thought about this aswell......i've cut my spare tire holder out & replaced it with a tow hitch, moved gas tank for better weight distribution & when i get some extra cash, i've found a yota rear axle, once it is in, i'm gonna loose the x-member behind the cab & the two piece drive shaft for a single piece one. if i could find some plastic fender stuff, i'd consider cutting out the ones on the truck & replacing them with that......other than that, you could probably stand to drill some 1/2" holes in the frame to loose a couple lbs, but any bigger & you could chance cracking the frame

Just put a V8 in and all your problems are solved for weight. lol

then you cause the problem of putting the power to the pavement w/o sitting & spinning

.....so add weight in the back. It's a pickup.... lol

...or just buy a faster vehicle than a B series.

My B2200 feels like a hot rod compared to my V6 Rodeo.

im with crazymikey...weight isnt really the problem. 105 hp or whatever in stock form is the problem.....swap out the weak ass four banger for your weapon of choice...for the amount of weight savings you guys are talking obout ive come up with three way better solutions 1: stop eating all those bigmacks,2 chop the top, 3 cut your rockers to the doors...on a serious note at the dragstrip the rule of thumb is 100 pounds equals .01 seccond off of your quarter mile time....so unless you can save 2-3000 pounds somewhere swap that Bioch
my 2 cents

Well some good ideas.I have put my truck up for the winter and hopefully in the next few weeks it is going to get a "heart transplant".I have done all sorts of suspension mods as baggin and draggin isnt my cup of tea.Going fast in a straight line is.Truck will have about 2x its current hp before Christmas,but I am still interested in lighter weight.I have seen aluminum A-arms and other components for bagged vehicles and wondered if they were available for "stock"applications.Thanks for ur thoughts.BJ

Bump>And as for the Big Macs,my skinny little a-- might weigh 150 pounds soaking wet so I may need to eat more not less.I had thought of installing a canvas sunroof but I cant find one for a standards cab. There is a 350 Chevy powered 2200 xcab in town and I did get a chance to drive it.Scary.ANYthing other than a very lite touch on the accel and truck breaks loose and wants to swap ends.Not very practical nor safe.I have a 200hp Volvo if I really want to scare myself but I am a Bseries lover from my first RPU in 1974 so I want the old lady to just be a little more frisky(truck-not wife).Lol.BJ

yes I have done exactly that....although not on a mazda there are a few things you can do.... tubular arms in chromoly would gain a small weight advantage, but not only in actual weight but more importantly unsprung weight. and airbags weight less than conventional springs so that is a bonus too. Chromoly is a great tool because it offers great strength to weight ratio, as it is as strong as regular steel but in thinner peices. Aluminum is another great tool if you can use it, like an aluminum miata motor...keeps the weight on the front to a minimum but has way more bang for the buck than the 2200 motor.

How about an aluminum driveshaft, less unsprung weight, less rotational mass + better all around performance.....there is a lot you can do.

I was searching around for some stuff to help you with your problem and I came across this:



A JDM carbon fibre 3 foot high erector wing. It's a universal fit.


LOL....I'm just kidding...but yeah,I agree with southern...our motors are the poop when it comes to performance. Slow and heavy,it's not exactly the best starting point for performance.