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Okay, ASSUMING that the weight mods do not change the way the car handles or sounds, or adds vibration or resonance, etc., why would removing the weight make the car drive worse?
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It won't. There are very few weight mods that do not change the way the car handles and sounds (if we ignore that weight inherently changes the vehicles handling). Since we're talking about cars with a finite number of parts, it will be more productive for us to talk about specific parts for removal rather than trying to draw this up in the abstract.

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The main ones I was looking at for right now were the rear seats (I just like the look) and AIR system (no needfor it), chrom moly k-member, a-arms, lightweight battery, removing the jack and spare for driving around town, slightly lighter manual seats, and changing to the lightweight carpet (you think I should just spend the time removing the sound deadening from my carpet and add my own new sound deadener?).
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The above weight mods will save you about 117#s, thats about 11hp worth. They will cost $1075 + install time.

There is no real "big" trade off with them other than the money. The kmember/aarms will rattle, the dynabatt will leave you stranded if you're not careful, and the !back seats/carpet will look horrible. If you're willing to deal with that fine, its your car and its your criteria for what you do and don't like.

So after spending $1100 and all the time to install them, and driving around a car that does not look stock at all, you'll shave around .1 - .15sths off your 1/4 mile times. Not enough to even notice on the street. Doesn't seem worth it to me, but I guess it takes all kinds. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

Frankly if you're "not ready" to go in to your 2002 motor, just hold off modifying the car until you are. If you drive up to the dealer with kmember/aarms, no back seats, different carpet, air stuff removed, etc, $50 says they void your precious warranty even if you haven't gone in the engine. You are better off just leaving it 100% stock.

 

okay, I'm actually starting to be a little convinced <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> I have not decided what to do yet. I will probaby mix and match a little. How much more do the manifolds weigh then LT headers? Why do the a-arms/k-member rattle? Aren't they a solid piece? If they are professionally installed and greased, how will they affect driving? Once again, I like the look without the rear seats as long as the carpet is high quality and does not have all the holes left over from the seats.

 

That Terry can get it going. There is another way to approach this. I did the usuall mods such as: hpertech, 3:73 gears, carbon fiber driveshaft, 3200 vig.,ASAP pulley, FRA, LID, HAL shocks front and bac, hal front drag springs, TA torque arm, metco lower control arms, FLP Headers and SLP catback with no cutout, hotchis STB, 17 inch Nitto's front and back on a 99SS Camaro and ran a best of 12.43 on a full stock car minus spare tire and jack. If <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> I had gone with skinnies on front and slicks on back, times would have gone down further such as 12.20's and mabe lowered for fine tunning and good weather. I know in good weather the car listed above would have ran easily in the 12:30's in stock and on street tires (nitto's on back). This is just to give you more data and information. Frankly, now I wish I had seem how fast the car would have gone in street form, but I didn't. But I still enjoy the car, and sometimes I run in the eleven's with the head/cam job. Wishing you good judgement and discretion. Kent