I'm interested in how light anyone hase made their RS or WRX.

anybody stripped out their car and weighed it before/after ?

or maybe made a list of the items stripped and weight saved for each ?
maybe this list should be split into 2 parts...
Free or cheap items, and $$$ items.

I took off turbo heat sheild, exhaust heat/sound deadining sheilds on cat back, Intercooler scoop shroud, Trunk carpet, tire, jack, sound deadning material. That is nice = more room. Ugly ass visors, daytime running lamps computer, underbody shroud, console weight savings mod, and that heavy orange condom over the front blinkers. I dont reccomend this on such a new car, but removing the A/C. Some of my aftermarket weight savings. Gruppe-S up pipe, HKS down pipe, Apexi N1 cat back, STi carbon side markers, Injen intake, Fidenza 9.5lbs flywheel, dumped stock seatbelts for 4 point harnesses. You could buy to save weight. Carbon Fiber hood/scoop/trunk, Carbon/Titanium exhaust, Carbon/Alluminum smaller mirrors, non electric rear-view mirror, short ram intake, light battery, alluminum radiatior, Sparco/Momo seats and steering wheel, take off sound deadning material on bottom of car, coil overs, alluminum big break kits, ceramic turbo, pulleys, headers, light weight wheels, japenese bumper beam with cut front bumper cover, smaller stereo deck, 3rd tail light delete, STi alluminum suspension, hollowed front swaybar, take out floor mats, STi windows or lexan, and you loose some of that beer gut. Just giving info, you would need a hell of alot of money to do all that.

Nick

and maybe the driver needs to be on a diet too?
hahahahahaha j/k

some of that stuff is just stupid. get a short ram intake to save weight, among others?

Originally posted by mr. m
some of that stuff is just stupid. get a short ram intake to save weight, among others?

Yeah...I've done a few of those, but the turbo heatshield is there for a reason and the scoop shroud ducts air THROUGH the IC rather than letting it flow AROUND the IC.

I guess some people don't think very far ahead before they just throw necessary parts of their car away.....

More air will flow to the intercooler. May not stay all on the groves but its still goin into it. The air also is coolin down the rest of the engine bay. My temp gauge went down a notch since I took off the shroud.


Nick

Took off the intercooler shroud?

You might want to avoid washing your car, or driving in the rain, or allowing your hood scoop to ingest insects/dirt/dust/small rocks/candy wrappers or other assorted highway debris... :)

This reminds me of my brother, who likes to "mod" his PC. He put about five fans on it, all blowing IN, and then cut off the wire finger-guards and anything else that might obstruct airflow. Then he *****es and moans about how dusty his motherboard gets! :p

The stock shroud didnt have anything to stop things from flying in there anyway. Not shure on this but, shouldnt water (rain) cool off the intercooler dropping the intake temp. I havnt had any probs with that missing.

Nick

but when the engine is hot, just make sure that no water hits the engine.

Originally posted by Jonnathan
anybody stripped out their car and weighed it before/after ?
chart (http://www.oakos.com/wrx/weights.htm).

Guys, the turbo heat shield and intercooler ducting with rubber seal are put there by Subaru for a reason. GM's 'Boss' Kettering used to say, "Parts left out cost nothing and cause no service problems."

The proximity of the turbo introduces a lot of heat to the intercooler, causing heat soak when the vehicle isn't in motion. The intercooler ducting and rubber seal insure that air captured by the hood scoop is forced through the intercooler and not diverted around the intercooler to the surrounding engine compartment. I think the factory ducting also has a small slotted area to channel a bit of forced air over the turbo heat shield when vehicle is moving, further directing the heat from the turbo away from the intercooler.

Engine cooling is performed by the radiator, coolant, electric fans, sensors, and ECU. They are up to the task. Blowing some air across the top of the engine doesn't do a whole lot unless your cooling system has a problem. If you want to do something quick and probably worthwhile, take some foam weatherstripping and seal the gap around the radiator and radiator support so that air doesn't flow around the radiator, but through it.

Tuners such as Vishnu Performance (http://www.vishnutuning.com/) have told people that no matter which top mount intercooler you use, make certain that there is a OEM-type rubber seal that mates up to the core.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

Thanks Wingless Wonder, sone sound words, and a really nice list of weights of parts.