6 months to live build thread

[Racer Boy]

I looked online, but couldn't find an article I read in Hot Rod magazine many years ago. They took a giant late '60's Pontiac sedan with a 455 cu-in V8 and wrote about the performance gains possible from reducing weight.

They started out with 4 very large men and a trunk full of tool chests, and ran a 21 second 1/4 mile. They then set about removing weight with a cutting torch. By the end of the article, it was basically a bare chassis with a milk crate for the driver to sit on. They did put slicks on the drive wheels, because it was so light that it would just smoke the tires the entire 1/4 mile. If I remember correctly, they ended up with the car weighing less than half of it's original weight, and were able to get into the 11's in the 1/4. That is with no modifications to the engine or drivetrain, simply less weight.


It will be interesting to see how far itsnotanova will go to remove the pounds from the car.

[itsnotanova]

Here's the pile of stuff going straight into the garbage. An equally size pile was saved to sell. I still have quite a bit of wiring to remove but I want to get the exhaust and cooling system done first. I've seen people go crazy ripping out wiring and then have issues. I plan on getting it running and then slowly removing unnecessary wiring.
I spent a lot of today planning out how to modify the exhaust and cooling system. The 986 exhaust system is extremely restrictive and heavy. Mostly the catalytic convertors are worth money and that's the biggest reason I'm going to make my own exhaust. I had these 997 exhaust manifolds laying around. As you can see in the pictures, the difference in tube size is huge. Maybe even too much.


They aren't a bolt in but I should be able to mount them and run the exhaust over the axles like the 987. For the cooling I've decided to use a 987 radiator mounted inside the frunk. I'll take some pics of that when I'm done.