Honda Weight Loss Guide:

With all the performance parts on the market today, you can get lost in a sea of Autobacs stores in Japan. With the ever growing demand of more advanced parts. One might loose hold of an important performance aspect to consider. Lightening your vehicle. Now with most aftermarket performance parts, you'll mostly find a loss of weight in comparison with the OEM part. As most companies try to aim for this attribute as well, creating a lighter & better performing part.

There are many positive effects of lightening your vehicle. It creates faster acceleration (consider this almost more horsepower when you loose weight) because essentially your power to weight ratio is now greater. It also has two more main attributes and a few other little helpful things that go along with lightening. Stopping / Braking performance increases. With less weight acting upon the car to propel you further. Your braking system wont need to work as hard....and when it goes full max it will also stop quicker with less weight to stop. So extended braking life and added performance. Then finally you increase your handling and response. With less weight acting upon the suspension [unsprung weight] your suspension can do its job more efficiently. Its quicker to react so thing will not only get more comfortable , but it will also handle better. It does matter sometimes where the weight is being lost on the car as this can change the balance of the car. Look into a few things when trying to better your suspension through weight.

The final factor of this, everything is being used less....even the engine. So you get more reliability , better gas mileage , more performance & less wear and tear. It all equals pluses and remember most vehicle manufacturers now adays are always playing the weight battle. Soichiro Honda, was the man who really introduced the lightweight engineering aspect to the auto industry. He would be known to inspect vehicles after completion and find bolts that were a few threads over the nut and would order them shaved down & the part changed in final assembly to further save overall weight.

The Part List:

The FREE / Race day List:

More will be added to the list very soon.

Most of the time you have nothing to worry about unless you are strengthening something or an object. AKA more durable , beefy parts. These usually sometimes have to be a bit heavier, to create that strength. Watch out with sway bars , big brake kits. They are sometimes considerably heavier and also brake kits are rotating. So you loose power to the wheels....

Full Carbon Fiber AUTOBACS NSX

You can also be sure that most of the time a carbon fiber part is going to weigh less. Odd things though , you can sometimes find CF parts that weigh the same. It really depends on the manufacturer. Most of the time I would say if the CF part is done right & needs strength its going to weigh slightly less than a metal part. A hood really doesnt need to be too strong, so finding weight saving there would be a good idea. The thing with the cheaper CF hoods is they normally are lighter , but more flimsy. Its good to look around and ask people what their hoods weigh how they like them. Lots of CF manufacturers out there so get lots of opinions first.

Beyond that you can pretty much be sure: Intake , Header , Exhaust , High-Flow Cats or tests pipes, will be quite a bit lighter than the stock OEM parts. They are normally much lighter & stronger metals , with lighter flanges. A good comparison is a stock catalytic converter VS a test pipe. Even more so a welded in test pipe with no flanges. The weight difference is like holding a lightweight bowling ball compared to a toilet paper roll. :)

Final note, once all said and done, with the parts in your hand. Be sure to weigh both parts OEM VS Performance. Nothing like testing it yourself to see the actual weight loss for your specific vehicle, your home scale can handle lots of weight... You can also weigh yourself , then hold the part and subtract your weight from the final weight =  your parts weight.

Submit your weight savings in the Honda Weight Loss Thread in The Garage.
 

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