was watching at the Houston Nat'l tour today and had a chance to corner-weigh the car..

LF: 1087lb
RF: 1072lb
LR: 753lb
RR: 732lb
Total weight: 3644lb!!!!!

Now, keep in mind this is "street weight" with me sitting in driver seat, stereo in the trunk, full tank of gas, heavy street wheels, and some other things inside the car (ice chest in front pass floor and foldup chair on the floor in the back).

If you look at the cross-weights on it, I'm actually in pretty good shape.
(LR+RF) - (RR+LF) = 6lb.. So that's good..



the problem is it's effin 59% front! I somehow need to move 290lb to the rear of the car!!!

I did some quick math in removing my amprack, spare tire, switching to my track wheels (15lb lighter each!!), losing 40lb myself (I weigh 215.. I should weigh 175), relocating the battery to the spare tire well, removing the front bumper support, removing all the dynamat in the car, and a bunch of other small things...
I estimate that puts total weight on the car around 3250 (3075 w/o me)..

The problem with that is my front weight % goes to 61.6% and my cross-weights are now 50lb off!!! the cross-weights can be fixed, but I now need to move 315lb to the rear...


Any ideas on how to shift more weight to the back?

Rig something up so you can sit in the backseat to drive
Sorry, besides what you already mentioned, I can't think of anything else. I don't even know if they make them for 3rd gens, but a CF hood would always help.

relocate the battery to the trunk, hehe

Lose weight then add some dead weights to the trunk.

Fantastic crossweight Matt. Car must be a blast to maneuver.

Battery is good start. I just went with a 12lb one up front but lowered next to the tranny. Relocating to the trunk would've added 10lbs of wire I didn't need (good for balance but not as light)

What about running a full tank of gas or keeping the spare in? Yeah it adds mass but definately helps handling balance.

Carbon fiber hood? Remove A/C?

the "modified" numbers I posted above included relocating the battery to the trunk.
I'm running an Optima red top (and need to because of the stereo), and it weighs aroudn 45lb. the huge 1/0 battery cable is already run for the stereo, so all I need to do is put some different terminations on the ends of it and I'm good there.

a CF hood is a thought, but it'll be the last thing I do because they're about $700... There's a lot I can do to add power for $700 and make up the difference in lap times over a CF hood.

thats a really good distribution. is your hood made of aluminum? if not try fabricating aluminum hood and trunk. maybe fenders too?

I'm not gonna do any sheet metal fab. that's crazy $$ and labor... If it were a race car, maybe..

Okay, I just had an epiphany here....
what's the heaviest thing in the engine bay?
The cast iron VG block!! (VE is still a VG at heart)
The block and rotating assembly (crank, pistons, rods) alone weighs 190lb.

what does a VQ weigh? 190lb.. TOTAL..

Just do it and make the perfect Maxima.

Oh, and add a driveaxle to connect the rears

I never said which VQ/tranny combo I was swapping..

No 3.5, no care

The 3.5 weights 175 lbs supposedly. It's certainly the lightest engine I've ever seen. The thing is so easy to move.

When at the track, you could knock another 50-100 lbs off overall by taking out the inner door panels and door speakers.....

Well sure.. but then it would take me 4 hours to put the car back together for the drive home!!

I'm considering building some lightweight door skins and speaker pods that bolt into the kickpanels or doors that I can remove in seconds at the track.. wouldn't be too hard... Bit of CF or Fiberglass, keep the original door handles. build some armrests on it and a hand-grab spot.. Put a small up/down switch on it for the windows (or better yet, remove the regulators altogether and latch the windows in place) and I'm set.