Tranquil wrote:Did he remove the backseat and passenger seat? Or are we talking serious strippage e.g, pull the dash, carpets, sound deadening tar, door trim, electric window gear, locks, boot release cable, cut the floor pan, remove all unnecessary wiring (e.g for the rear demister), remove the fuel level meter from the tank, modify (drill) the feeder and primary pump bracket, etc etc.
Alright, I removed the following:
Back seats
All interior panels except dashboard, roof liner, and pillar coverings
Heater (already had removed aircon system)
Stereo (not a particularly heavy one at that, just 2 8" speakers in the doors and some 4" components"
Back window wiper
Power antenna
Rear bumper support
Rear seatbelts
Removed a couple of sheets of dynamat from the doors and rear 3/4 panels
Rear spoiler
Aswell as many small parts that I deemed unnecessary.
Even will all the above i fail to see how that would net .4 seconds.
Anyhoo a claim of .4s reduction in ET is nothing more than a claim without citing specifics. This includes details of track conditions (temp & baro pressure) weight of fuel, tyre pressure's, was there more VHT on the track between the runs? ET = a crappy measurement. What were the top speeds for both runs? Also im assuming you were using launch control for super consistent starts.
Oh well, I'm not all that concerned as to whether you believe it or not. Both times I ran with a nearly empty tank, both were Friday afternoons at the night drags (one in Feb, one in March), neither had any track prep, the second (faster) time my wheel alignment was stuffed and the gearbox on the brink of destruction (was whining terribly at the end of the strip), not only that but on the faster occassion I only got one good run. The top speed of the faster run was only 3km/h higher but I believe this to be largely due to the extremely stuffed front wheel alignment and the extremely stuffed gearbox. My 60ft was nearly .1 faster.
Anyway, I didn't say stripping interior = 0.4s faster on any st185, I said it was worthwhile and on mine improved my 1/4 mile time by 0.4s and made the car feel completely different (it was loose as hell for an st185)
