Ws6Luvr

iTrader: (1)

This is not meant to be a flame topic-so please keep it civil!!!

I am now seeing more and more stock internal guys stripping their cars Completely out-and i am wondering what majority opinion on this is. A year ago, it was only the A4 guys doing it, and it wasn't even all of them at that. Also, not nearly what they are taking out now. Do some of y'all feel it is an unfair advantage? Is their any point in which it becomes "uncounted"? Is it generally frowned upon?

A year ago when i was in the race to be #1 on the stock internal m6 list, the most taken out by the m6 guys was Seats, front swaybar. Reason i ask is because more and more people i talk to frown upon people stripping their cars out to top the lists. Those people don't understand that with a limited amount of Horsepower (no more than 380 with FULL bolton's-in most cases) that it'll take more than mods to drop ET's. it'll take weight reduction and gearing to go faster. Then when some people decide to go with BIG gears (fireballs 4.71's) people say "it shouldn't count because it's not feasible to drive with those gears everyday"

I shall be back in the running to go 10's stock internals with a M6 in the near future, and I know it's gonna take all the above to get there. Stripped out interiors, HUGE launches and insane gearing-but i wonder if times will be discredited with sayings of "ya, anyone can do it with _____ gears and xxxx.xx raceweight" or "that car isn't even streetable!!!"

What are your opinions on the matter?

Nitin Reddy
Ws6Luvr

Fireball

iTrader: (21)

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Ws6Luvr:
<strong>Then when some people decide to go with BIG gears (fireballs 4.71's) people say "it shouldn't count because it's not feasible to drive with those gears everyday"
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">LOL if they only knew. I drive this car EVERYDAY! Right now I'm putting about 500-600 miles a WEEK on this car (with the 4.71s). If they think this is unstreetable, then every A4 car with 3.73s is more unstreetable since they tach 100 rpm more than me at 70 mph <img border="0" alt="[chug]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_chug.gif" /> But don't get me wrong, there are some aspects of the car that make it seem unstreetable to some: Iron disk clutch, Detroit Locker, Rollbar, BMR Xtreme Drag Rear swaybar (to be installed next week), etc.

As for gutting, my view is, sure gut the hell out of the car...but IMO its not a street car, it becomes a full racecar (even if its only for the night). Its more satisfying to run awesome ETs and having those guys with the true racecars drop their jaws when they see a fully loaded T/A returning to the pits.

<small>[ March 18, 2002, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: Fireball ]</small>

Raughammer

Nittin, who the hell cares what somebody else thinks about what your doing with YOUR car?
Screw em', do what makes you happy and go kick some ***.

As long as YOUR having fun...

cablebandit

iTrader: (37)

I'm with Raughammer...its not up to me to decide what people should do with their car. I personally wouldnt strip my car to get faster but I think its cool that we have all these different approaches to getting faster.

racer7088

Acceleration is a function of power and weight so obviously you will go faster the lighter you can get things. People just need to keep that in mind when relating quarter mile data so people can gauge their own performance from the right perspective. There always at least some weight removal on most cars so where do you draw the line? It's really up to the individual as to what they think is a lot of work to remove and reinstall all that stuff. I know guys that take the whole interior out and put it back in later and yet others so lazy that they don't even take the spare and jack out. I know others that keep there car the same weight to see how much power they are making as compared to the last time. Of course the weather is also responsible far more than many understand.

LEO

iTrader: (3)

If you want to be the TOP DOG, you've got to go to extremes. I think you shouldn't worry what others think as long as you're happy with your combo.

quickWS6

Yeah, if you want to be on the top, you gotta lose weight. Sometimes, a LOT of weight. I've stripped my car down one time, and I don't think that I will do it again. I just didn't feel very good about it. But, while the carpet was out I got to clean the metal and add some Dynomat. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

<small>[ March 18, 2002, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: quickWS6 ]</small>

CHRISPY

If you are going for records then go for it.
I am more partial to stealth weight reduction. Have a full looking interior (carpet in the car but lightweight)
Reduce weight in non obvious areas. (PA K-Member and A Arms, front sway bar removal, lightweight glass hood etc)
People should do whatever makes them happy IMO.
I am still on the fence on how much weight reduction I am going to do.
No doubt about it people give a fast car with full interior more props than the car with nothing in it. Is it justified, I dont think so but that is the way it is.
Cheers,
Chris

99MONGOOSE

I think its nuts to strip out these cars, but thats my opinion. Thats the difference between running a little quicker then the average street car and being a racecar. To each his own!

Black Sunshine/ 00SS

iTrader: (1)

some times ya gotta do what ya gotta do

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

I agree with Chris, stealth weight reduction is the way to go.

Onyx LS1

iTrader: (5)

IMO there is no problem at all with gutting your car as long as you are honest about it. My car was gutted for my 11.81 but I did have a roll bar which added the weight back (that was why the car was gutted, to get it welded in).
I think the furthest I am planning on going any time soon is the seats (besides the things that are permanently removed). It's just to much of a pain to pull everything out of your daily driver, in my case my only car.

Form4speed

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Raughammer:
<strong>Nittin, who the hell cares what somebody else thinks about what your doing with YOUR car?
Screw em', do what makes you happy and go kick some ***.

As long as YOUR having fun...</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Excellant comments. Those people who do not like stripped cars do not own my car. It is up to owner to decide what he wants to do with the car.

Patman

I'm all for weight reduction. I took over 300lbs out of my 87 Mustang GT and there were no major ill effects, even with driving on the street a lot.

I had that car down to 2965lbs (from 3300) and it was a night and day difference.

You also have to remember, a lighter car means less breakage on the parts too.

We all want to go faster, so why not do as much as we can to get to that goal? It all depends on what you're comfortable living without. Some people can't live without power steering and AC, while others can. I have a friend who had his 88 Mustang 5.0 down to 2700lbs, even with a full roll cage! It was basically a shell of a car at that point, but he still drove it on the street (not for long distances mind you)

Jantzer98SS

iTrader: (54)

Whatever it takes to reach YOUR goals. That's all there is to it. It's all a function of power/weight/weather. Power is expensive, weather can't be controlled, but weight can easily be removed. If your goal is to go fast, it's stupid to spend 3K on a set of heads, or 10K on a new motor, yet you don't strip the weight.

I would strip the weight as stealth as possible. But if something is easily removeable and adds significant weight, I'll take it off at the track anyday. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

mattf2

As long as everyone's honest about raceweight, who cares how much is taken out? The only time that you have to have some of that stuff is on street night or some of the events that have min weight of no less than xxxx lbs. Some of them even allow you to put some weght in however you'd like.

If my car, at a little over 3500 is running 12.30 at 115 and someone else at 3200 is running 12.00, i'm pretty sure that things would be close if both cars were the same weight. I'm just not as far up the list. No biggie.

I'm too damn lazy to strip my car and then have to restore it every time I want to set a new best. I have no problem taking out seats, jack, spare, sway bar (the quick stuff). I just need to find a cheap, used set of skinnies to throw in the back of the car to change at the track.

1madss

iTrader: (10)

I have to do it just to get down to comparable race weights of other peoples cars. My r/w with a full interior no jack or spare and skinnies and welds comes in at almost 3600 pounds. Part of that is due to me weighing 230 pounds where most of the drivers are at least 50-75 pounds less. As far as I strip the car is taking out the seats and back quarter panel covers, even with this I'm only about 3475. It always cracks me up when somebody comes over and says "Oh, thats why your car is so fast, you have your seats out." Come on, we are only taking about maybe a tenth of a second, it's not like I'm spraying the car <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

Mark

<small>[ March 18, 2002, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: 1madss ]</small>

NASSTY

I do find it amuzing that people buy $25,000 ls1 f-bodies with leather and power options and then strip it out. I mean why not buy a earlier model and the money saved can be used for a motor and such, or just buy a wrecked 6 cyl. build ur own motor and strip it down <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

But I with everyone else, its your car. Do what you want and just be honost. But remember that you put yourself into a class with most track cars. You can't complain if someone has all chomoly parts and plastic windows and 1 race seat, <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="gr_tounge.gif" />

I'm puting my car on a diet, just gonna retain leather, CD player, sub, and carpet (but she will be light)

Skelton

I say to each their own. Its your car and do as you please. When I bought my car, I needed a goal so I saw that Raugh and the Colonel had both gone 11.50's with bolt ons.I was impressed. I thought that was a good plateau to reach so I set my sights on 11.40's. I can honestly say thats all I wanted the day I picked it up. I never pulled the interior out other than the back seat and I installed a light weight carpet. All pwr equipment is still functional minus ac and pwr steering. RUQUIKR took it to 11.30. Do I think I could do that or better, I sure do. I just dont care too.Sure I could lose another 100 lbs, get rid of TM(which is really bad in my car), Spool, custom tuning,etc. I met my goal and now my next is 10.50's with heads, cam, tuning and 9.90's with a 150 shot of TNT. I may go ahead and strip it for that effort if needed but will try to do it in what I consider everyday driveable street trim and thats what I ran the 11.44 with. Since this is just a site to gather info/chat and not a sanctioning body, what does it matter? If it were class racing and money was on the line, it would be a different ball game.Just have FUN and enjoy your car the way you see fit.

1madss

iTrader: (10)

I want my car to be light also, but number one it needs to be safe. My kids still ride in my car everyday. I will not be removing any saftey related items until I get a cage. I can pull the seats and put them back in again in about 15 minutes. Thats not true for air bags, bumper supports, door beams and so on. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />