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Unofficial weight reduction thread

JMChristopher:

The Type-R seat and rails will not save you 60lbs it's around half that. Rails are about 16 lbs and seat is about 9lbs.
 
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I just replaced my OEM radiator with a Koyo aluminum radiator from Science of Speed. Don't know the weights of either the OEM or the new one. Does anyone know their weights?
 
GT One Dry Carbon Hood - 2.7lbs

GT One Dry Carbon Trunk - 2.3 lbs

Tecnocraft T5 Dry Carbon Seats Seats - 6lbs
 
I went with the Shorei battery setup.(probably butchered the spelling)
 
We scaled the NSX on a wheelbase-scale. I hoped it, but I did'nt expect it......I had not to adjust ANYTHING. The many visits at the alligment shop payed off! I was so many times there and ajusted the suspension X times until I liked it best!

Measured with 1/2 tank and w/o driver: ~1210kg (for lbs look pic). On the left front it should be the lightest, cause the driver gets in place and so it gets heavier again.

Mine is now. 41% front VS 59% at the rear. OEM is 42% VS 58%.

LF 243kg / LR 251kg
RL 359kg / RR 356kg


Next steps - need to archive 1200kg/2643lbs with full tank of gas
Downforce Recaro replicas
Downforce hood duct
Lexan hatch and partial window
Tarox bbk front
Tarox rear brake conversion

PULLED OUT:
AC system all complete
Fog lights
Radio with soundsystem
bracket and metall shield for Subwoofer
CD & Antenna cable
Antenna
engine cover
tools
tow hook 2x rear
tow hook 1x front
sound deadening stuff behind the seats
controll unit for whipper arm pressure
controll unit for poping head lights
fan for engine bay
engine cover
toolkit
spare rim with brackets
cruise control motor + cable
cruise control unit
Airbag with sensors, control unit & wire harness
2 of 3 horns
traction control module
cover of ignition coils
hollow bolt for accepting rear towhook
Watertank for windshield washer

ADDED or CHANGED to something "better/lighter/function"
Momo Tuner wheel
SoS steering hub
Dali CF Stereo delete plate
KW V. 3 coilovers
NSX-R stabilizer
NSX-R Chassie Bars
Oem NA2 (1997+) Brakes
NSX-R ABS system
braided steel brake lines
Taitec headers wraped into heatshield
Taitec light weight exhaust
Race cats
SoS baffle in oilpan
Procar Carbon Airbox
Procar Carbon intake scoope
Procar front cf bumper beam
JUN flywheel
SoS coolant tank
VDO keyless entry
Rubber for antenna hole
LMAs
Alu thingys for window cable
Oem Honda NSX 2002+ rear valance
Volk ce28n in 7.5x17 & 9x17 215/40/17 / 255/40/17
lithium iron battery Shorei (not installed yet)
Downforce NSX-R hood (FRP)
Downforce NSX-R wing (FRP)
Downforce 2002+ style sideskirts
NSX-R undertray
Aluminium rear bumper beam
NSX-R tail lights
2002+ front end conversion (all oem)
2002+ rear lower bumper part
 

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The oem suspension has about 69lbs. The Tein RE, which is known to be one of the lightest hast about 43lbs. The KW3 is about 8lbs lighter than the 1991 oem I guess.
 
This is a great thread for ideas when it comes to reduce the weight of the NSX!

I don't know if this belong here or should be open a new thread... but what type of products would be nice to have vendors offering that we don't have now...? or maybe we have but i can't find them anywhere...

Some Ideas:

- Lightweight / low inertia alternator - Is there an option for the NSX?

- Lightweight Brackets - We have the option for carbon fiber radiator brackets, but would it be (economically) possible for example to have a set of carbon fiber brackets for the air box, fuse box, wires and tubes that are on the engine bay and front of the car? even the brackets that hold bumpers... could those be replaced with carbon fiber ones?

- Non structural duraluminium bolt package to replace the oem bolts - not the bolts that attach suspension or engine components, but the ones that hold brackets supporting wires, tubes, fuse box, ecu... I know that this could be a DIY but it would be nice if there was a complete package available...

- Titanium Bolts for engine mounts - I recall that the spoon NSX had ti bolts on the engine mounts.

New ideas would be great! :wink:
 
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...

- Lightweight / low inertia alternator - Is there an option for the NSX?

...

- Titanium Bolts for engine mounts - I recall that the spoon NSX had ti bolts on the engine mounts.

Well the Spoon LHD NSX-R also used a smaller alternator:

"Titanium engine mount bolts replace the steel ones and a smaller alternator and lightweight aluminum bracket reduce yet another few pounds."

htup-0905-21-o%2bspoon-sports-na1-acura-nsx%2bnsx-r-gt-engine.jpg


...It must be from other Honda model for sure... I emailed spoon but i'm not very confident i'll get an answer...
 
I think the JRZ is a lot lighter because of the aluminum construction. If you click on the for sale thread below, you can see that it is only 8.6 lb for one of the coils.

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...uspension-JRZ-RS-Coilovers-Two-way-Adjustable

KW-V3 are 9,55 lb (F) and 10,21 lb (R) without the OEM top Mounts.

- - - Updated - - -

Well the Spoon LHD NSX-R also used a smaller alternator....

...It must be from other Honda model for sure... I emailed spoon but i'm not very confident i'll get an answer...

Spoon replied... "the alternator was retro fitted from another vehicle, however it was only suitable for race as it did not charge well when other appliances were being used inside the vehicle. They do not remember what vehicle they got it from"
 
KW-V3 are 9,55 lb (F) and 10,21 lb (R) without the OEM top Mounts.

- - - Updated - - -



Spoon replied... "the alternator was retro fitted from another vehicle, however it was only suitable for race as it did not charge well when other appliances were being used inside the vehicle. They do not remember what vehicle they got it from"

Oh, I see. The JRZ 8.6lb is with the pillow ball top mount. I forgot if it is the front or rear.
 
I created a spread sheet to show how as a car gets lighter with each additional 100lbs has an even more drastic effect. Thus why taking 100lbs-200lbs off a 3000lb car does not do much, but once you get below 2700lbs and the power to weight creeps below 8... the benefit of each 100lbs becomes MUCH greater.

the spread sheet uses two different 1/4 mile calculators equations. that also I have factored in 190 driver weight and use combination of crank and rwhp, thus creating a more advanced than regular web site calculators and gives a reasonable range of best worst case scenario times.

GREEN Example A1-6 is a normal H/I/E 269whp NSX at various stages of weight reduction 3000,2850,2700,2550,2400,2250
BLUE Example B1-6 is a H/I/E, cams, 12:1 medium build 300whp NSX at various stages of weight reduction 3000l,2850,2700,2550,2400,2250

Now... on to trying to quantify weight % advantage alone (separate from P/W)
A very important factor to understand is the last purple column, it represents the % weight advantage or disadvantage that particular car has against a 2500lbs car... so if it says 20% that means that car weighs 20% more than 2500lbs... thus that can be used to get an idea of much better or worse that car may handle around a track than the 2500lbs car. Many people fail to acknowledge that P/W and weight overall are two very different performance measures..... total weight overall is usually more important than the P/W alone as that lighter car will faster than the better P/W car.....

Taking two cars with same power to weight the lighter car will be faster. even if the heavier car has a .5 P/W advantage over a lighter car, the lighter car could still be faster since it will have a great advantage in handling and braking over a better P/W car that is heavier overall... Using an example A4 in green the 269whp/2550lb NSX that carries a P/W ratio of only 8.25 will would likely be faster around a track than a 3050lb 996 GT3 at 7.99 P/W that is 22% heavier and much faster than the 4400lb M6 at 7.99 P/W that is 75% heavier and possibly even keeping up with the 996 turbo at 7.78 PW since that is 40% heavier. Weight advantage is its own factor which can make a car much more effective around a track than the slight P/W power advantage those cars have. (Of course this is all assuming a well balanced aero, and tires, suspension)


As a disclaimer.... Although I have tried to make a good faith effort to make this as accurate as possible...
Please don't focus on the other cars hp and 1/4 miles themselves too closely, the main purpose of this is too see how each NSX weight reduction relates to another NSX weight reduction using the same formulas to have an accurate idea of improvement from stage to stage...


I have also attached a spread sheet that includes just about every single weight reduction I have found over the past 10 years many on this thread

If someone wants these excel sheets to play around with parameters please PM me your email address and I can forward to you.

<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/tiago3/media/nsx%20NA%20comparison33.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w15/tiago3/nsx%20NA%20comparison33.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo nsx NA comparison33.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/user/tiago3/media/NSX%20weight%20reduction%20complete%20list3.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w15/tiago3/NSX%20weight%20reduction%20complete%20list3.png" border="0" alt=" photo NSX weight reduction complete list3.png"/></a>
 
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Patricio
You've done a lot of work on this!
Good information for all of us.

A question on the HP for the NSX 3.0 L engine.
Are these figures your estimates of power increases from the noted changes to the engine or are they a summary of dyno tests in each configuration?
 
Patricio
You've done a lot of work on this!
Good information for all of us.

A question on the HP for the NSX 3.0 L engine.
Are these figures your estimates of power increases from the noted changes to the engine or are they a summary of dyno tests in each configuration?

Thanks! worked on this for a long time. :)

The NSX is using a 13% drive train loss factor and all those numbers are based on a realistic average of dynos, and preferably dynojet figures.... the overall point of the sheet is to see relative improvement between different weight NSX's with the same power, meaning if comparing two separate NSX setups the difference/gain between the two will be very accurate since the math is the same.

compare the BLUE to each other and GREEN to each other since the only variable is weight they will show accurate gains between each other.. the BLUE all have 300whp HP and the GREEN all have 269whp

its not really to compare the nsx to others cars either, but to see relative gain on paper using the same math as weight decreases. and the other cars serve as a point of reference of performance. Hopefully 80% of the cars are very accurate. I did test my sheet many times over until it all worked without being biased with any cars. including our own NSX's

Most people make these sheets to show performance by increasing power, instead this one focused on performance by decreasing weight.

Wow, hella nice....but Maclauren is funny. *gg*. It is pretty close to my I/H/E NSX with 2600lbs about. :)



I tis close to my 1/4 mile times, my mods are listed on this side on top, just scroll up :)

Thanks, the mclauren F1 I spelled wrong.. lol sorry. I fixed it now and corrected your weight... :)
 
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So i just completed what I consider my most NSX-R devoted mod, the undercarriage sound proofing delete.
I held off on this for a while in fear of being the most time consuming and messy along with worries of extra sound and ect.
and other attempts on prime scratched the oem catalyst that protects the aluminum form oxidation. I did not want to do that.

than I thought to my self well If I really could get a real NSX-R over here to the US it would not have the sound deadening anyway. So if the NSX-R doesn't have it than I don't need it either.

Then I played around with different options trial and error removing it without removing the OEM base coat so that it really would be just like an oem finsish like an NSX-R that never had the undercoating sprayed on it to being with.. and I did not want to scratch/remove the oem base coat and catalysist and the have to re-spray another protection layer /paint over it which also adds weight back on and is not as good as whichever honda applied Finish was applied to begin with.

So in the end I was able to get it done! for the first time on prime, here is the OEM base finish and catalizer unharmed. no refinish needed. :). finally found the right combination! :)
with a combination of a borrowed $2500 professional steam cleaner machine and commercial 4000psi pressure washer. and allot of patience and mess and some hand burns and luckily no burns on my face since the water shoots back at your face constantly because of the curves and crevices and high pressure.


Be very very careful attempting the and wear full body suit protection, gloves, and wrap towels (ziptied) around the washer gun wand that boils and will burn skin instantly..

estimated weight reduction 6-8lbs from wheel wells (as documented by other members) I think was able to remove almost every single nook and cranny of it even from all the welds..
plus rear frame rails and undercarriage minus 15-20lbs estimated, i measured area and compared to the known weight of fender weight reduction.
so about 20-28lbs total weight reduction (plus maybe 5-10 lbs off all the aluminum arms and engine parts with caked on dirt and grime over the years too)

i only noticed a minor difference in road noise but to be honest my exhaust is so loud, i cant hear anything anyway :) and i don't drive it enough for noise to matter either.
and i have not noticed any noises from road and rocks, but that may be because i still have the oem fender liners which cover the majority of the tire area anyway..

As another interesting bonus, now I know for a fact that my car has never been in any major accidents ever, every single part i revealed of the frame and uni-body is all oem welds and no patches nor repairs. :)


















also came home last night and found somone new moved into my building, there are a few lambos here already but this one looks wild. need to meet new motor head. :)
 
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