Here are some ways to remove weight and keep the car looking stockish.
Remove the fender to core support braces.
Remove the three braces from the core support to the front clip.
Remove one horn.
Remove the front clip. There are metal brackets on it. Remove those.
Remove the wheel wells.
Remove the large washers from the wheel wheels. Use smaller washers.
Reinstall using fewest bolts to stay rigid.
remove spare and jack. remove the bracket that holds the spare and jack.
Remove carbon canister and associated emissions bits.
Remove air cleaner.
Remove the front plate brace thingy that supports the steering wheel. it is not required. I rmoved it, noticed no difference.
Remove defrost circuitry and rear defrost.
Run with less water in the radiator.
Run with less oil in the oil pan.
Remove the front and rear bumper covers.
Remove the metal clips behind the bumper covers.
They supposedly add "rigidity" or osmething. I never noticed and "rigidity" removeing them. just add zip ties.
Remove heater box and AC stuff.
Switch the stock glass lights for plastic lights. Take a large hole saw and remove material on the light brackets.
Remove any cage nuts that are not required.
Removed fuel tank vent and line.
Remove park brake (maybe. depends how you feel lol. thats pretty major).
If you have bench seats, remove the rear bench and unbolt the center seatbelt. I never used it... I cut the front middle seatbelt out too.
Disassembled the dash and removed all the vent stuff behind the dash.
Removed the rear seat and scraped all the seam sealer. Also there is a large black mat there for sound damping. Removed that, too.
Remove radio and front/rear speakers and associated wiring. Radio wire also makes a decent spot to hook up some gauges.
Wash out the frame, seriously. If you drive or have ever driven on gravel roads, there is likely some dirt or rocks in the frame.
Remove the hood and front fenders. Reassmeble without the shims (if possible).
Remove the front sway bar and hardware.
I removed 8 lbs per door by removing the jute, inner liner, and using a nibbler on the inner door skin. Did not remove crash bar. you could rmove 10lbs per door by removing the crash bar (im not personally willing to do that though).
You can rmove the wiper fluid resovier and wipers altogether, if required. After spring is over I remove my wiper resovoiur. Wipers themselves stay though
If youre going to be putting in a non-stock exhaust, you can remove the factory exhaust hangers. I mean unbolt them from the body. they are heavy cast peices.
if you are keeping stock manifolds you can remove the heat shields and hardware.
you can remove part of the brackets for mounting power steering and still keep the PS system in place securely.
I unbolted part of the throttle cable bracket where the stock brake booster line connected. the peice sticks up, easy to see.
if you have a long oil filter, use a shorter oil filter that holds less oil.
remove some fluid from the PS pump.
remove your radiator overflow container and bolts and replace witha pop can or something (depending on your tracks rules)
There are often heavy steel shim plates between the bumpers and the bumper shocks. You can unbolt the bumpers and remove those plates.
Run skinner tires up front (keep them inflated to max psi)
i've done all the above weight reduction. i'm pretty picky about it, but you can't argue with the results...my car weighs 3200 lbs, with driver and a full tank of fuel and a toolbox in the trunk. The only weight reduction parts I've bought are a ironman chromeoly crossmember and a aluminum intake manifold. The ironman crossmember is one of the best bang-for-buck weight reductino parts you can buy...since you're probably buying a dual exhaust crossmember anyways. its a great peice, highly recommended.
I can easily get the car under 3000 lbs for next summer w/ just a couple hundred dollars in parts. And there is still lots I could do to lose weight on the car without spending money. I still have a full interior and the split bench seat, stock hood and trunk, with stock rally rims. Being creative with weight reduction pays off with these cars, people are always amazed when I tell them the race weight of my car.
Check out the sponsers. There are tons of great and super cheap weight reducing parts that keep the car looking stock...like bumper shocks, for example.
