I think my car needs to go on a diet

Just as good as upping the HP of the engine is lowering the weight of the car. Since the Power/Weight ratio is what decides how fast this car will be. What's everyone's suggestions on best places to lose weight?

For starters I'm thinking about the BMW performance seats up front. Possibly the lighter Braile battery in the trunk. I'd rather not lose my rear seat cause sometimes I do need it. But this car still weighs too much.

U WANNA spend over 5k in seats to lose wieght? Why not put another 5-7k more and get a s/c

I'm pretty sure that those BMW Performance Seats are still really heavy. I might be mistaken, but you might want to check the specs.

I think that Lucid removed (or removes) his back seat for track days...you could ask him how it affects performance.

Here is a thread re: the seats -- http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3522236&highlight=seats#post3522236

It appears that installation of performance seats in the front will save you about 15 pounds (7.6 each).

I'm not set on the seat change. But there's gotta be some areas to lose weight? I don't want a super charger, I like my NA engine. A little bit of weight def makes a difference you can feel in this car. I notice the difference when it's just me or I have passengers. If I could find a way to lose a couple hundred pounds (if even possible) it would be great.

If I was desiring what you seem to be. I would do just a few things. First and foremost get yourself a nice set of 18 Advan rs or any wheel which lowers the weight significantly but still has strength. The wheels alone on that setup could lose you 30 40 pounds of unsprung weight. That's gonna change a lot of characteristics of the car. Along with the battery taking the rear seats out occasionally and maybe even the performance seats for the ultimate setup. The choice is yours but if I was you I would start with lightweight rim/tire setup.

The BMW Perf seats are barely any lighter than the OEM seats. They are based on the Recaro Sportster CS, which is a bit lighter because it doesn't have airbags.

EAS is running Recaro Pole Positions in their M3 and they look good.

I'm looking at a few different options. Since I have a sedan I don't have to worry about a seat that tilts. The seat I really want, the Sparco DTM, appears to be discontinued.

how much do you weigh? i'm sure you could starve off about 20-30 pounds easy. plus it wouldn't cost any money. best mod so far.

ha I can't afford to lose that much weight. I'm only 165 lbs. I'm far less overweight than my car

If you want a light car, why did you buy the M3?

One of the things we always say in motorcycle racing is go on a diet! Of course that usually doesn't work as well in the car arena...that's why Akra makes titanium exhausts and we willingly pay 6K for wheels.

Ca$hOnly wrote

If you want a light car, why did you buy the M3?

excellent point and I have nothing further to add

Boosted335 wrote

U WANNA spend over 5k in seats to lose wieght? Why not put another 5-7k more and get a s/c

Cause an SC is much more that 5 or 7 kilos, its not only the weight of the components that are more than that to begin with, but also the additional liquid cooling requirements etc... add to that the fact that this weight is at the front portion of the car and some of it even in front of the suspension where it has a further negative effect. Of course, if you are gaining 115 bhp (as per GPower Stage one rated by them at 535bhp DIN up from 420bhp DIN) and say only 100 pounds, its probably well worth it but there will still be, if only a tad, some performance loss. On the other hand, weight reduction will always improve handling. Of course, this can only effectively be done to a certain point.

Kobaiyashi wrote

Here is a thread re: the seats -- http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3522236&highlight=seats#post3522236

It appears that installation of performance seats in the front will save you about 15 pounds (7.6 each).

Appears to be about right, I weighed the Performance seats on my car if some of you recall, but I took the stock weight from someone else, so I might weigh my stock seats in the same scale.

FStop7 wrote

The BMW Perf seats are barely any lighter than the OEM seats. They are based on the Recaro Sportster CS, which is a bit lighter because it doesn't have airbags.

EAS is running Recaro Pole Positions in their M3 and they look good.

I'm looking at a few different options. Since I have a sedan I don't have to worry about a seat that tilts. The seat I really want, the Sparco DTM, appears to be discontinued.

Not sure if this is what you mean, but BMW Performance seats do have airbags and is the reason I acquired those instead of much lighter (and less expensive) Recaros Sportster CS and the like. BMW perf seats are nevertheless better looking than stock (subjective of course), hold you down better, can be easily adapted to 4 point seat belts and a tad lighter than stock.

J08M3 wrote

Just as good as upping the HP of the engine is lowering the weight of the car. Since the Power/Weight ratio is what decides how fast this car will be. What's everyone's suggestions on best places to lose weight?

For starters I'm thinking about the BMW performance seats up front. Possibly the lighter Braile battery in the trunk. I'd rather not lose my rear seat cause sometimes I do need it. But this car still weighs too much.

I started a thread on this and maintained it over time. It is fairly up-to-date:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135122&highlight=weight+savings+benchmarks

Big Windy wrote

I think that Lucid removed (or removes) his back seat for track days...you could ask him how it affects performance.

Removing rear seats literally takes 5 minutes, and saves ~45lb as I indicated in the weight savings benchmarks thread (see link above). It affects performance as much as driving with 1/4 tank less gas.

Ca$hOnly wrote

If you want a light car, why did you buy the M3?

There are many reasons why I wanted an M3 and way to long to list on here. There's not many other cars I would rather have, and furthermore the few I like are way beyond my price range. Weight of vehicle was far down on my list of wants for a car. This thread was intended to compile a simple list of solutions to shed some of the excessive weight this car has.

Lucid,

thanks for the link... I remember reading that post a long time ago and it was extremely long. I hadn't seen all the updates to the first post on there

lucid wrote

I started a thread on this and maintained it over time. It is fairly up-to-date:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135122&highlight=weight+savings+benchmarks

Wow, hadn't seen that before. Fantastic thread.

lucid wrote

Removing rear seats literally takes 5 minutes, and saves ~45lb as I indicated in the weight savings benchmarks thread (see link above). It affects performance as much as driving with 1/4 less gas.

Though it makes total sense now that I think of it, I never appreciated how much gas weighs!

J08M3 wrote

Lucid,

thanks for the link... I remember reading that post a long time ago and it was extremely long. I hadn't seen all the updates to the first post on there

Yep, I try to update the numbers. I am now also looking at Recaro seats for the summer. Pole Positions did not fit me (my shoulders were too high). After installing the necessary hardware, they would save about 30lbs per seat. I should update that!

Car needs to go on a diet? Maybe you could ask this guy what he did: