Gutting interior pros
 

I am planning to take out the rear seats in my 01 zx3 just to experiment with some power/weight ratios in my specific car. Before I begin, however, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with gutting their mk1 and what the effects were. I'm not looking for a 10HP gain or anything, but is there any noticeable difference at all?

It takes dropping about 150+ lbs before you can actually notice any difference.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes about 20hp to really feel a difference in acceleration.

Stock focus zx3: 2500lbs(+160 for an average person, +60lbs in gas), 135hp

that makes about 20lbs per horsepower. So if we reverse that equation, we can say that if it takes 20hp to notice a difference, then it takes about the equivalent of 400lbs of weight loss to equate to a boost of 20hp in the engine bay.

That doesnt address the issue of performance, but I can say that gutting your daily driver isnt really worth it unless you go to the track often. Removing the back seat will have very little if any performance difference at all.

Also remember that your interior is also sound padding, gutted cars are obnoxiously loud to drive around in.

For every 100lbs you take off should net you .1 sec in the 1/4 mi. To most it's not worth it for the loss in daily convenience and quietness the interior adds. It's going to get loud and boomy on the inside.

Meh I did it and just put down some roof flashing stuff? (forget what it was called) and sprayed it with some sound deadening material. Needless to say it is rather quite but I also created a false floor with extra room for a full spare. So I am sure that the false floor helps pad some of the road noise as well.

Take your seats out and try it for yourself. You can always put em back in.

Unless it is an actual race car, don't bother. Stripped down, gutted, race cars suck to drive as street cars, so how much do really plan on racing your Focus?

There will be such a small gain, it will require the timing equipment at the track to see the miniscule difference.

It will make your car less fun to drive, less enjoyable to own, less desirable to buy, it makes you look like a wanna be street racer if you get pulled over by a cop, etc.

There are so many downsides, and the upside is measured in hundredths of a second.

I took out the rear seats to make a cargo shelf type rear seat delete. I put the seats back in the next day, too much noise. Scrapped that plan.

^^ reminds me of when i got pulled over after doing my svt swap. and the interior was totally out exept for teh front seats, front door cards and dash. the look on his face was priceless. he thought he was dealing with a full on race car.


that said i still prefer having the that gutted, or at least ahving some weight reduction. the responsiveness in corners is addicting.

If you want to try and gauge how much certain interior parts weigh and what you can save by removing it; tsm put together a list of weights:

http://www.topspeedparts.com/Ford-Fo...s_ep_55-1.html

While your at it, see if you have any weight on yourself to cut...its free [;)]

[welcome] to FF [ffrocks]

Have you seen UnbridledCarnage's ride, or talked to him?

Browse his build thread

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=304324

Be ready to have heavy duty torx bits for the seat belt mounts. I broke two while disassembling. Have that and a big breaker bar, PB blaster and patience (and beer).

Otherwise, the rest is a cake walk.

I gutted mine simply because I have no kids and I wanted the extra room to haul stuff around (mainly music gear when I was playing shows frequently). I also built a floor with a door that goes to the spare tire well.

Also, keep everything! Trying to reclaim all of that stuff from junk yards, etc. is a nightmare!