For those who strip their interior before a track day..

[hotdc2]

As some of you may know, my car is undergoing a pretty big build and the shell is currently being stripped and resprayed. A lot of the junk that came out won't be going back in (as per usual track cars), however whilst gutting it I came across something I'd like to share.



The red circles indicate a patch of sound-deadening. In a Dc2 Vtir, there are a total of 9 patches of sound-deadening. I know it doesn't look like much, however after we took it all out, we put it in a bucket and weighed it. I was stunned that it weighed in at whopping 10.4kgs.

If I had of known the weight that I could have saved by stripping this sound-deadening out when I was racing the b-series, I can guarantee you all that it wouldn't have taken me this long to finally get rid of it.

For all of you out there tracking your Honda's, can you afford to carry around 10kgs more than you need? Our cars our built around the concept of power:weight and whilst having light cars to start with, there are several other little things like this that you can do to improve that ratio.

I just wanted to point it out - majority of you lot would already know this, however this is mainly for the newbs just getting into it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you how to do it (there are DIYs for that), I simply wanted to share my experience, and maybe amaze some people as much as I was when I saw the reading on the scales. It's such an easy and relatively cheap modification to make to your car that can help you shave hundreths of a second off of your lap or 1/4 mile times. If you already strip your seats and carpet for raceday then this is just something else, that if you're super-keen, can help you knock your time down. I know when I first started drags, and was stripping the interior, I had no idea that this stuff was there let alone weighed as much as it did.

This is what it looks like when it's cleaned up:




You can always put your carpet, trims and seats back in after as well and no one would be the wiser.

So what do you guys think?

[EG5]

Strip down under body sound deadning

[SPEEDCORE]

So did you get the firewall mat out also?

Cause that will get you to around 15kg if you haven't already done so.

[hotdc2]

the firewall mat is between the dash and firewall right?

how would you get the under body sound deadening off? you cant really soak it in solvents

[EK1.6LCIV]

we got over 14kgs out of my buddy's Fiat from under the arches alone lol

I'd paint all exposed areas tho and use fish oil prior to prepping

[hussLEr]

Ah...the joys of stripping tar!...not the best when using a hammer and chisel and NO dry-ice..!

[tekung89]

Ah...the joys of stripping tar!...not the best when using a hammer and chisel and NO dry-ice..!

fyl and fml, it was no fun. i rather drag my ass through a mile of broken glass then to ever do it again

[EG5]

the firewall mat is between the dash and firewall right?

how would you get the under body sound deadening off? you cant really soak it in solvents

rip it out
its easy

[bennjamin]

just a note for those thinking about it....


its free to do.
it really does make your car sound that much nicer/ rawer. (pro or con)
Free unseen weight reduction - i pulled all the sound deadening i could see out of my EG hatch - which resulted in 12kg of dead weight removed.

[hotdc2]

and is the unbordy deadening just in the arches?

[bennjamin]

and is the unbordy deadening just in the arches?

under the entire car. The entire exposed chassis is covefered in sound deadening tar. Removing it would net a a decent amount more saving IMO ...i might do it overa few lazy DIY days in future. But its not for people who live at the beach !

[hotdc2]

Ben, we should organise a 'strip your car of useless tar' meet where by we all get there, crack open a beer and get the shit off. at least then we can have a laugh while we FML