are carbon fiber parts worth spending money on? how much lighter will it make the car? i know the trunk and hood are already pretty light. will they really make a difference?

 

Not unless you plan on spending money for REAL carbon fiber (upwards of $2k for a hood). Even then you would only shed a few pounds if you are lucky. Other than trunk and hood there is not much more you can swap out without affecting the structural integrity and safety of the vehicle. Now if this was a track-only vehicle, that's a different story.

Most people here get CF stuff for the look and the added cooling (hood) benefits.

 

Get a lightweight battery and swap out your mid pipe. Check the rest of the site too, there are a few threads about weight and other stuffs.

 

^^ well said, both of you

 

what about carbon front and rear doors and roof? would you need to re-enforce the body? just curious btw

 

You would need a roll cage. The doors would shatter if you were hit. Have to install side impact roll bars. The stuff can be made stronger than some steals, but at a loss of flexibility.

 

and then you would be standing next to the car saying "wtf was the point ... what i replaced in CF has been nullified by roll bars."

 

If you want the car to loose weight. Get some good Racing seats.. the stock front seats have some good weight on them.

 

That depends on whether they are the cloth OEM seats or electric/leather and also whether you can live with a 1-piece fixed back racing seat or not. There isn't an adjustable back hinged seat on the market that once fully installed with sliders that is lighter than the cloth OEM seat assembly. It may give you more headroom and lateral support, but not weight reduction. Even with a fixed back racing seat you will not gain much weight once fully installed unless you originally have electric/leather front seats.

Getting back to the original question, most everything on this car is already so light you can't gain much at all. If you are building a race car cutting the understructure from the OEM aluminum hood and trunk will get you a lighter and stronger part than anything available on the aftermarket. The only thing that is built heavy duty on this car is the exhaust system. Most anything else you do is just like loose change; it eventually adds up if you build up enough, but it takes a whole lot of it to get there. In general, the aftermarket is not really your friend wrt weight either so most serious weight reductions require custom build parts for that purpose and you will be making all sorts of other compromises in return.

This is the reality of the RX-8 chassis; Mazda did an outstanding job between comfort, strength, and weight. I have mine at 2700 lbs and while running WOT for competition you don't notice all the noise, vibration, and discomfort that would drive you crazy on a drive around the block as a street car.

 

yah i want to get an aftermarket midpipe, someone was saying for when i need to get it smogged i should get a test pipe? they we saying that way i can put the cat back on when i go to get it smogged any thoughts on that?

 

If you wanna drop some weight I would say wheels, flywheel, and then toss the rear seats.

 

rear seats weigh next to nothing...and provide most of the sound deadening in the interior for the trunk area mounted muffler.....

 

How about you try start losing weight yourself? But if you really want to shed pounds, follow after the Revolution RX8

 

Lose the wife, instantaneous weight savings.

 

Lmao^ I didn't know you were over here too.

 

Epic fail, I thought I was still on the 7 forum.

 

So did I after reading your previous post about some Revolution 8 nonsense ...