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The Elephant In The Room: unloading the load from a B-body.

Try stopping at Dragway 42, Kil Kare or London Kentucky from 148 mph with drums. all around 1400 ft shut down.
Doug
 
Using a set of scales to weigh all 4 corners is a good practice.

Pavement oval track racers use these every week.

On the dirt, with today's radical chassis setups, we use the scales to check total weight but seldom use them for setups.

Today shocks make the cars fast...
 
Try stopping at Dragway 42, Kil Kare or London Kentucky from 148 mph with drums. all around 1400 ft shut down.
Doug
The old 42 about 25 years was even shorter but it was slightly uphill. I went 11 rounds there back in the early 90's and my old drums were literally smoking in the finals.
Gus
 
The old 42 about 25 years was even shorter but it was slightly uphill. I went 11 rounds there back in the early 90's and my old drums were literally smoking in the finals.
Gus
I guess the reason why I never had real fade or clunking problems was that I never intended to go rounds. It was usually a few runs at different times of the day or night to get my NO TIME ballpark figures. Y'all know the drill.
Those days and nights are over and now there's no decent track within a hundred miles.
 
Into the interior looking for disposable weight. Right under both seats 6.5 lbs for sliders, each. I haven’t adjusted the passengers seat ever. Bingo. May do both sides while I’m at it.

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The shifter base also changed from steel to aluminum yesterday.
IMG_0197.jpeg


Like a treasure hunt.
 
Into the interior looking for disposable weight. Right under both seats 6.5 lbs for sliders, each. I haven’t adjusted the passengers seat ever. Bingo. May do both sides while I’m at it.

View attachment 1576328

The shifter base also changed from steel to aluminum yesterday.
View attachment 1576329

Like a treasure hunt.
The non adjustable aluminum A-865 and A-990 Super Stock brackets are lightest. You would have to fabricate/invent something to attach them to your existing seats if those are the ones you will be running.
PS: Your Super Stock interior door panels look sweet. I have the same ones in black.
 
The non adjustable aluminum A-865 and A-990 Super Stock brackets are lightest. You would have to fabricate/invent something to attach them to your existing seats if those are the ones you will be running.
PS: Your Super Stock interior door panels look sweet. I have the same ones in black.
Well the sliders are gone from the passenger’s seat as well as the fabricated metal bracketry that they used to attach to. I won’t be using Super Stock brackets on these seats but rather fab’d spacers.

Solid billet aluminum spacers cut to proper height, drilled and taped on the lathe made this a snap.
They secure solidly to the seat frames and studs on the bottoms of the spacers and through the floor makes the seat a one-minute job to install / remove.

Tomorrow the driver’s seat is going to lose its slider too. Will do a final weigh in tomorrow, expect it to be 24 lbs a side including the aluminum spacers.

Passenger seat in place and mounted. Looks like I’ll be losing 15 lbs with this upgrade. I was sitting on unnecessary weight and never gave it a thought.

IMG_0203.jpeg


Thanks on the door panels. They all turned out nice. The rear seat is covered in the same vinyl as the front buckets (bought the material from ProCar) when I purchased the seats. The top of the rear seat is fading though from sitting in the sun at the track. Gonna have to throw a cover over it or get a tent or awning.
 
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Well the sliders are gone from the passenger’s seat as well as the fabricated metal bracketry that they used to attach to. I won’t be using Super Stock brackets on these seats but rather fab’d spacers.

Solid billet aluminum spacers cut to proper height, drilled and taped on the lathe made this a snap.
They secure solidly to the seat frames and studs on the bottoms of the spacers and through the floor makes the seat a one-minute job to install / remove.

Tomorrow the driver’s seat is going to lose its slider too. Will do a final weigh in tomorrow, expect it to be 24 lbs a side including the aluminum spacers.

Passenger seat in place and mounted. Looks like I’ll be losing 15 lbs with this upgrade. I was sitting on unnecessary weight and never gave it a thought.

View attachment 1576657

Thanks on the door panels. They all turned out nice. The rear seat is covered in the same vinyl as the front buckets (bought the material from ProCar) when I purchased the seats. The top of the rear seat is fading though from sitting in the sun at the track. Gonna have to throw a cover over it or get a tent or awning.
Geeeesh, those seats look really nice aside from seeming very comfortable at any speed.
 
Believe it or not, factory steel fuel lines can be lighter at 5/16 or 3/8 in size then some of the fancy braided steel lines out there.

Braided stainless steel impregnated with nylon lined rubber can add up in pounds as the footage covers the entire length of a car, especially on a long and wide B-body.

As low tech as this subject should be, here's some high tech pronounced words that simply narrow down to rubber.

Only after learning that nylon braided viton (Fluoroelastomer) hoses were more than 30 percent lighter than my stainless steel PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) nylon braided hoses did I break out the pencils and blueprints to refigure the system. The Viton hoses are the alternatives that are super lightweight in low key black and available from various companies such as Raceflux, Aeroquip, Earl's and others.

I personally liked the old and true Moroso natural finish hard aluminum fuel lines, but they don't come without their minuses.
I almost broke my thumbs and wrists making the tight bends and turns in order to follow most of the factory fuel line route with the stuff, especially when the line size was #8. The tight bends and twists didn't allow for one of my tube bending tools to get in there enough to do the job, so a lot was done with the slinky spring bending tools or by hand.
Bending by hand was tedious because I wanted perfect mandrill type bends, but it was achieved.

Aluminum lines are rumored to crack and rupture over time, but after 10 years of use, I beg to argue that point in that who ever came up with that assessment, must have not known what they were doing. Aluminum should not be applied where there is a good chance that it will vibrate. Secure it well and be done with it, but on the same token, keep an eye on it being that lots of parts are often eyed.
If it were up to me, I would have had a 3/8 factory steel line and called it a day, but the Aeromotive 1000 pump and filter out back and the fuel log upfront demanded for a #8 feed line and a #6 return line. Being that the return #6 line had a semi-different route and a few more complex bends compared to the feed line, Raceflux Viton got the nod for the return line.

The aluminum line and Viton return line were light to say the least. 3-1/2 Lbs and not counting all the aluminum AN fittings and second inline 100 micron filter.

The old braided steel lines with all aluminum fittings weighed 12-3/4 Lbs.

I was shocked to find that the stainless lines were more or less 9-1/4 Lbs heavier.

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Geeeesh, those seats look really nice aside from seeming very comfortable at any speed.
They are comfortable but made for a skinnier arse-type person. I find that the side bolsters are somewhat in the way when climbing in and out but they are staying put. The interior weight pail is adding up. Currently at 17 lbs. I flipped over the rear seat and there’s lots of steel under there.. I’d imagine a guy could squeeze a couple lbs out. ?


Passenger’s seat was back out today for some minor adjustments and what not. Rock solid and lean.
IMG_4244.jpeg



Removed interior weight pail is currently at 17lbs.
IMG_4245.jpeg
 
Lots of heavy metal in the factory discs 40 pounds per side. My new brakes are less than half of the old ones. Should help out my short times with less rolling resistance.
Gus

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20231220_142355.jpg
 
Lots of heavy metal in the factory discs 40 pounds per side. My new brakes are less than half of the old ones. Should help out my short times with less rolling resistance.
Gus

View attachment 1577287

View attachment 1577288

View attachment 1577289
Gus.
Both factory discs weigh 80 Lbs total. So do you mean that both sides Dynalites weigh in at less than one side factory disc which would mean that you cut 60+ Lbs off or each side Dynalite weighs less than each side of the factory discs which would mean that you cut off 40 Lbs?
Either way, congrats. You cut off a substantial amount which is also rotating weight. Watch those red eye's now.
 
They are comfortable but made for a skinnier arse-type person. I find that the side bolsters are somewhat in the way when climbing in and out but they are staying put. The interior weight pail is adding up. Currently at 17 lbs. I flipped over the rear seat and there’s lots of steel under there.. I’d imagine a guy could squeeze a couple lbs out. ?


Passenger’s seat was back out today for some minor adjustments and what not. Rock solid and lean.
View attachment 1577214


Removed interior weight pail is currently at 17lbs.
View attachment 1577215
Malex.
Are your side windows Lexan?
 
What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IIRC since it's so back on the thread, there's almost 35 Lbs on just the side glass alone.
That’s a pile of weight right there. With factory glass still I expect to see 3180 with 6 gallons of fuel, less driver next season.
When I built this car I installed Right Stuff rear disc brakes. Completely ignorant to their weight. A set of Strange rear discs weighing 24 lbs would be good for close to dropping 35 lbs. the majority being rotating weight. Thinking about that..
This picture is from last season. I’m legal to 10.00. Check my dial. Car weighed 3250 last season.
IMG_3877.jpeg
 
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