so im trying to think of ways to cut down the weight of my 2001 jaguar s type 4.0 This is for an attempt to make her faster and a little more fuel efficient. any ideas?

 

lolz...remove the spare wheel from your trunk, that would cut down the weight substantially

 

you know i keep meaning to do that, but i want to cut down alot... like how much to the exhaust weigh. could i delete the cats and weld up a new one out of lighter material ?

 

Spare tire weighs more than the cats.

 

Install 22in wheels, pull the engine and tranny and hook your new whip up to a burro for propulsion.

Light weight and fuel efficient - Perfect...

 

To drastically lose weight fast the best thing to do is reduce rolling weight. ie lightweight wheels, brake rotors, shocks, driveshaft, basically anything that spins. This will be expensive as the only thing lightweight thats made right now is wheels everything else you would probably have to get custom made. It really wouldn't be worth it for the gas saved. Plus for the price you can just get a used Focus or something that sips gas and have it as your commuter. If you remove the cats you will have check engine light problems. You can do the spare things and just pray you dont shred a tire. You can make sure you run nothing in the car but yourself and passengers as in keep it clean and dont have a bunch of useless stuff in the trunk and back. I dont think you carry around bags of concrete but every little bit helps. Or you can just gut it and run just a dash and drivers seat but then why have the Jaguar in the first place. LOL. You could also pull out all the insulation and run no radio also. It really depends on how extreme you want to go.

 

Think personally. I need to do this before I go back out on the track.
This is how GM attacked the issue.

GM Diet Plan

 

lol thanks for the help

 

Hey I face this every year. It's a lot better for me and actually cheaper to lose the weight personally than to remove it from the race car.

 

You would have to remove ALOT of weight to be noticeable, I'm a avid racer and I'll tell you that as a GENERAL rule of thumb, every 100lbs of weight loss is a gain of 1 tenth of a second in the 1320, ie 1/4mile. On the street, that is a negligible gain.
Another way is reduce overall wheel size and weight. Unsprung weight hurts rpm change drastically as well as the centrifugal effects of have bigger wheels.

 

Do NOT do this... Most people don't understand that the tire in a unibody vehicle is actually designed INTO the crash testing.

The tire actually adds part of the strength of the floor tub. Not worth the 50 pound loss if you get rear ended.

Take care,

George

 

George I never would have thought! Makes sense though.

 

Drill holes in your gas and brake pedals. Few fat ounces there.



Replace all of your window glass with Lexan, or better yet - nothing for that true open-air feel. Heck cut the roof off too.

In reality, cutting weight from yourself would be the most apt way to go, unless you want to start chucking creature comforts like AC, radio/speakers, rear seats, floor mats, etc.

 

not trying to say im tiny but at 170 i dont think i could lose very much on my end.... i did pull my spare out but now i might be putting it back sigh i just want a eco boost, how about the grille block. theres a guy on some eco fourm that got clear plastic and put it behind the grill to increase his gas mileage combined with his mirrio deletion and tire deflectors hes getting 36 i believe. not sure i want to go that far but the grill would be hardly noticed

 

Wouldn't putting something behind the grill block airflow and cause it to overheat. If that happens mpg will be the last of your worries. If you want better mpg drive with the windows up and a/c on. It actually is more efficient then driving with the windows down and a/c off. They tested it on mythbusters. Not a huge savings but every little bit helps.
YouTube - Mythbusters - Save more gas with AC on or Windows down Ans with AC

 

What Vance said is correct. You don't want to block airflow...

There's one mpg increasing trick, but you trade tire and suspension wear for fuel savings, and handling / traction. Bumping the PSI up in the tires. (Think 40ish here).

Honestly I wouldn't recommend that either. The car is what it is. There is no magic trick to significantly change it's fuel economy. If it's that much of a concern, there are plenty of other cars out there that are better on gas...

Heck, the new v6 mustang has more hp than the v8 S-Type, and gets 31 mpg on the highway.

The ecoboost motors are pretty nice, and very tunable from what I've heard.

Personally If I had to buy a generic people mover, I'd seriously consider the ford fusion hybrid. Gets like 40mpg in a reasonably attractive package.

Take care,

George

 

lightweight magnesium foot pedals, carbon fiber body, lighter wheels (like some plastic mag wheel kids have on bikes), carbon fiber calipers, drop the exhaust, and may as well just ditch the whole radiator its just a big block of weight anyway. Take out the back seat, those can be heavy. Stereo and speakers? Remove those since without the exhaust you won't hear it anyway. See I've saved you a couple hundred pounds.
And if you don't care about looks, give me the car for 20min and I'll have it sit under 3k lbs!

I do kinda like those new mustang engines!

 

The 4.0 is a bad place to start. The 4.2 is more efficient for a whole bunch of reasons (engine + tranny).

Tires & wheels are significant so you want smaller diameter and narrower. But stay in spec for safety reasons.

Take the door mirrors off? At least the passenger one.....

Keep all openings closed (windows, roof, whatever). Yep, don't seal the grille without a plan to check you won't wreck the engine.

 

Try the minimalist approach:

 

The side bolsters look a bit weak.