legacycentral bbs

As some of you know, I have a 94 Legacy Sport that I got fully built into a rally car. It is a beast, but I will be down on power as I will not be running a turbo, so the best way to get acceleration (and improve everything else) is to drop weight.

I've already gone through most of the essentials:

- Removed complete AC system, including condenser inside the cabin
- Removed cruise control
- Removed every trace of sound deadening
- Removed all of the interior except for the dash and front door cards
- Removed any non-essential accessories (radio, antenna, associated wiring)
- Will be getting a lighter weight battery


However, I want to know if there are any other tricks on these cars for reducing weight? Are there large bumper beams that I can drop? Lighter hoods I can buy somewhere? Has anyone gutted the rear doors and put lexan in place?

Looking to drop another 100lbs or so off the car. Still need to take it to the scales to see what I am weighing in at, but I know it will be a porker compared to the 93 Impreza L's I am facing....

If you have someone who can do welding, the front and rear bumpers can be cut to lose 10-20 each depending on what you keep. Not much else you can lose. Might consider dumping the sunroof, as it is 15 lbs.

That already is gone, a sheet metal plate is riveted/caulked into place with some roof vents.

Aluminum control arms, wheels.

dscoobydoo wrote:If you have someone who can do welding, the front and rear bumpers can be cut to lose 10-20 each depending on what you keep. Not much else you can lose. Might consider dumping the sunroof, as it is 15 lbs.

Its gotta be closer to 45.

The aluminum control arms will save negligible weight and aren't cheap. I have them and they're not terribly light. They appear to be strong as a mother, though. The bumper beams are definitely heavy and being at the ends, those are good places to lose weight. Since you'll be caged, I imagine, depending on rules, you can lose as much of the beams as you feel comfortable chopping off. The bumper cover only needs the outer rings of the upper and lower forward extensions to mount to. Do they let you replace glass with plastic?

I have a set of Al Control arms sitting in my garage for my GD WRX, but typically the steel ones are better for rally I have heard.

I will definitly be looking into taking the bumpers off and getting to the bumper beams. They do allow for plastic/lexan windows, which I would like to do on the rear windscreen and rear windows. Does anyone have any pictures of gutted Legacy/Impreza doors for the rear? The fronts will be left alone.

Thoughts on removing parts of the supporting structure for the hood and trunk?

I removed the bracing on the underside of the hood on my chumpcar project. Its really flimsy with out it. Also gutted the rear doors, but plan to fix them shut once the cage is in.
Undercoating is another good place to shed some weight. That stuff is thick, nasty, and heavy. Kinda like my first junior high school girlfriend.

Get a hole saw and plasma cutter and have fun. Pull all the trunk stuff and get exterior latches. Gutting the doors. If its not a support cut it out and replace it with the thinnest AL you can find. It really just depends on how extreme you want to go.

I love making cars lighter. Its fun and rewarding. Believe it or not wiring weighs a ton. Pull all your stereo wiring, a/c control, heat, lights no longer in the car. I know of people pulling 20-25 lbs of harness out of their cars.

Just look around and ask yourself the question. Do i need that? If the answer is no cut it out.