#TimeAttackFoST Build Part 2 - Weight Reduction

After power modifications, one of the more common (and as an added bonus, one of the cheapest) ways to make a track car faster is to pull as much of the extra weight out of the car as you can (and maybe re-distribute the remaining weight to even it out across the chassis). We were pretty excited to wind up with a fully loaded ST3 Focus ST because that meant we would get to go from one weight extreme to another.

Just for curiosity reasons, we decided to keep a log of the weights of everything we took out of the car and the items that we replaced them with. I even went out and bought one of those postal scales for weighing packages just to be sure that we would get accurate numbers! Our goal is to shave about 800 pounds off of the car after everything is said and done (which as you can see, we got pretty close to...and there is still plenty we can do to shave a few pounds here and there, but that's for a later phase when we have some extra time). To begin with, we yanked out most of the interior and sold off the pieces we wouldn't need. This included the seats, plastic panels, carpeting, dash, sound system, center console, air bag system, insulation, and many other items.

After we pulled out all of the easy stuff, we decided to try our hands at removing all of the unnecessary wiring that was left in the car. This included wiring for items such as the radio/speakers, airbags, ambient lighting, etc. Trimming down the amount of wires in the car was not our most favorite aspect of this build by any means and we definitely couldn't wait to finish, but we did manage to get about 25 pounds of wiring weight out of the car! Before re-installing the dash (which we had to keep for classing purposes), we trimmed out all of its excess weight as well.

And then of course, we wanted to shave all of the extra weight in each door by removing as much metal and accessories from the them as we could, including the speakers, wiring, windows, and window motors. The sunroof system, was removed and a sheet metal skin was riveted on in its place. The hatch of this car was already slightly damaged in the wreck and the back glass and wiper was missing when we took delivery. Instead of replacing the glass with the heavy OE replacements, we opted to build our own custom Lexan (polycarbonate) window, which shaved an estimated 20 pounds off of the car. And since we already had a giant sheet of Lexan laying around, why not fab up some rear windows (including the corner windows) for the car as well (the front windows will be removed during track events anyways). Oh yeah, and we had quite the adventure with removing the floor sound deadening with dry ice (maybe a story for another article!)

But instead of me writing a long drawn out story about all of our weight savings, here is a detailed list of all of the weight that we have taken off of the car and added back either through aftermarket modifications or custom fabrication. (Maybe in the future I will do a blog article about the custom fabrication that we have done on this car!) I couldn't wait to share this cool information with you guys, so there are still a few items missing from the list that I will have to go back and add once they are completed.

Red lettering indicates weight that was shaved off of the car, the rest indicates weight that was added back to reach the final weight savings that we were able to obtain. This list does not take into account the weight differences in fluid levels left on the car, which will fluctuate (i.e. fuel level). Tires also play a significant role in weights so I just plugged in the numbers for the set that was currently mounted to our racing wheels. In the future, we plan on putting in "speed holes", gutting headlights, replacing the mirrors, and utilizing some more extreme methods of weight reduction. We also plan on trying to move some of the weight from the front of the car to the hatch area (ie battery relocation).

*LIST UPDATED 02/16/17-Some weight has been added back with the addition of a few things such as passenger side racing seat and aero modifications