Okay, so me and a friend are having a discussion about this topic. My friend thinks that a completely stock tC COMPLETELY GUTTED is faster than a tC with full interior with the addition of intake header and exhaust.

Again,

IS A COMPLETELY GUTTED TC FASTER THAN A REGULAR FULLY LOADED TC WITH INTAKE HEADER EXHAUST?

When I say gutted I mean no interior except for dash and 1 seat... NOTHING ELSE.

 

Gutted. I/H/E will yeild what. 20-25 hp? and that's being generous. So that'll bring you up to 180 hp. 3000 lbs
stock = 18.6 lb/hp
I/H/E=~16.6lb/hp

If you manage to drop a mear 328 lbs, the lighter tc will be just as fast as the I/H/E tc(at 2,672 lbs it has the same power to weight ratio as a stock tc + 20 hp). Every pound you drop after that makes the gutted tc faster then the I/H/E. And I'm sure you can drop atleast 400 lbs gutting the interior.

 

are you removing AC, Radio, speakers, sun roof motor, window motors, etc?

Or just the passenger seat, rear seat, carpet and plastics?

 

A general rule of thumb, 17 lbs = 1 HP.

PTuning got the tC down to about 2700 lbs, with full turbo system, roll cage, two seats, and some beastly tires (285's up front). So figure, N/A, one seat, no cage, stock wheels, nothing but a seat and dash, would probably come in at around 2500lbs (assuming you're going to also remove things like the glass roof, windows/motors, CF hood/hatch, etc). Based off the 17:1, that would be the equivalent to gaining about 30hp. I/H/E usually adds 15-20whp.

 

no radio, door speakers, no motors... nothing but a seat and the dash..

 

...

 

If you were going to do the 'typical' gutting(rear seats back), then yes, I/H/E would be faster. Going as far as you're saying, weightless would be a lot faster.

2500lbs @ 160hp is near the same as 3000 lbs @ 190hp.

Hell, if you gut it enough (get rid of most of the dash, ventilation, A/C, etc), a gutted 160hp tC will take on the S/C crowd.

 

I've had a couple friends weigh their tC's in around 2800 w.o.. keeping stock hood, hatch, glass. So I'd imagine it shouldn't be a hard task..

For handling you'd love every ounce that you can get off the top of the car.

 

gutted car would romp on the IHE all day. Not only would it be faster in a straight line, but it would be able to pull out of corners faster as well. PLUS since it wont COST you anything to "gut" a car, but buying IHE would, you could then buy suspension parts and slay that IHE setup on a road course or auto-x.

 

Converting the roof to aluminum or CF would drop a good 40-50lbs off the top of the car, hatch would lose maybe 5-10, hood maybe 5-10. It adds up fast, I seriously wouldn't doubt being about to drop to 2300lbs if you had no limitation, other than minimal driveability.

 

Yeah, looks like my friend likes to type for me too...

 

My goal is a little less then that.. but I'm losing the ability to drive it daily. I'd love to weigh in around 2400 said and done, with 5 gallons of gas and 2 full 10lb bottles, and my self.

 

This is all very entertaining to me. The del Sol was always considered "fat" in Civic terms, and mine weighed 2200lbs wet, even with a full audio setup, full interior, etc. I could have taken it down to 1900lbs relatively easily.

I'm glad the tC at 3,000lbs doesn't bother me.

 

It doesn't help that it shook like a homo holding a hotdog when you take the top off...

 

...and whoop your ___ in any race on Earth seven days a week.

 

Yeah, not with the top off.

 

I'd take a Miata over a Del Sol for the track ANY DAY. RWD > FWD.

 

I wouldn't. Take a Miata, you get to go up against 90 other Miatas, and they're all driven by 50+ year old guys that drive a helluva lot better than you do. We had several Sol owners on the boards that were extremely competitive in their cars.

Most times, there's more to a car than just how fast it goes around a track. The Sol was fun to drive, and it was actually livable.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't take the better car either...

 

Miata's are fun as hell to drive too, it's practically the same setup as the Del Sol, just RWD. If I could find one, I'd take an '89 Mitsu Starion over the DS/Miata.