Heavy

[Captain]

I bought my 90LSC at the beginning of the year and quickly realized that the car is heavy. Has anyone lighten theirs up and how much do could i expect to take out of it?

[Lscman]

You can gut the whole interior out of the car, remove the power windows, stereo, locks and A/C and install an aluminim folding lawn chair in it. It'll still weigh far more than a Mustang. The car is intentionally fat, long and big to provide a smooth, quiet ride and ample legroom. You can not lighten the car significantly without destroying every redeeming feature of the car. If weight is a concern, you most definitely bought the wrong vehicle. You will not feel any improvement in performance by removing interior parts or installing lightweight, trunk mounted batteries in a 3800 lb street car. Believe me. The car is light and nimble enough to compete with Porsches and ponycars in amateur autocrosses and Road Races (when driven properly) with only aftermarket shocks, tires and swaybars. Extreme lightening techniques used by pony racecar owners result in 250-300 lb reduction in weight for about $5K in parts (aluminum heads (60 lb), race battery (25 lb), race seats (75 lb), no rugs (15lb), carbon fiber hood (40 lb) etc). I doubt you're interested in a $1,500 carbon fiber hood on your $4,500 Lincoln. A 250 lb reduction in weight will produce about 0.1 sec reduction in 1/4 mile times that you'll never feel. Try to accept the fact you bought a big american luxury car with a cast iron solid rear axle assy that weighs more than a ricer motor. It can not be transformed into a 2600 lb Honda or BMW M3. Embrace bulk!

------------------
Rick, Road Track Terror in my '88 Mark VII LSC. See ya at Northeast Events! Pgh, PA

[This message has been edited by Lscman (edited October 23, 2000).]

[Eyelawdoc]

You might try installing a set of weld-on, full legnth subframe connectors in your Lincoln. It will increase the total weight by about 20 lbs, but the reduction in chassis flex makes the car feel about 500 lbs. lighter! :)

[bigant]

actully you can lighten up the car a lot! for instance the abs brake boster can be replaced that is a good weight reduction replace it with one of a mustang. also the tracks on the seats weigh about a 100 pounds each so take them off both seats and replace them with manual tracks so you can move the seat back and forth manually also under that carpet is a ton of padding and tar!! take all that out and man a difference that makes take it out and just put the carpet back in. i have seen this done and the lincoln put back together weighed 3500 pounds!! he did take out the seat tracks so if he had taken those out it would weigh about 3300 thats pretty light for a car our size!!

------------------
http://smilecwm.tripod.com/cwm2/Up_to_something.gif http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net5/readPB.gif
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>BIG FAST BILL BLASS
<LI> YES I KNOW ITS A LINCOLN AND YES I CAN MAKE IT FIT :p
<LI>14.5@96.6
<LI>screename EARLBIGINS
[/list] http://tnmotorsports.com/lsc/Images/side.jpg

[Lscman]

Well, no disrespect but I'd have to see that for myself. My '88 seat tracks can be held head high with one forefinger and the power reclining seats are useless without them & a manual ratchet unit can not be fitted easily. They surely do not weigh 100 lb ea! Heck, that's two car batteries each. I'd say closer to 10-12 lb. As for the tar & padding weighing a lot, I believe it weighs approximately 30-40 lbs in the Mark series, if you include all insulation from the hood, under dash, inner fenders, floor, trunk to the taillight assy. I've gutted several cars and carried this crap around. In my opinion, the interior carpet PLUS interior padding and tar weighs no more than 40 lbs. The '93 Mustang Cobra R had no power anything or padding or rear seat or radio or A/C and many other items were deleted. Those cars weighed over 3200lb. The padding and tar on the Mustang GT weighs 25-30 lbs and those cars weigh 3300 lbs without a sunroof & no power seats. Considering the additional width, rear overhang, whopping 8" additional wheelbase, massive steel inner and outer bumpers and structural integrity of the Mark VII, I doubt removing insulation and stamped steel seat tracks with tiny electric motors will make a Mark VII weigh less than a Mustang SVO. They weigh 3340 lb with 4 cylinder Turbo. The extra 450 lbs in the Mark VII over a ponycar is primarily due to trunk overhang and wheelbase/total length. This weight is due to additional unibody structure. You can not remove it. Removing all insulation will make the car sound & feel like a '63 Falcon.

[This message has been edited by Lscman (edited October 29, 2000).]

[HTRDLNCN]

The power motors and brackets under the seats weigh exactly 37.5 pounds each,I know I weighed them from a stripped car,thats 70lbs for the pair,the carpet,jute,padding,rubber under dash and tar insulation weigh a total of 147lbs,we have also weighed that.The frontb seats weigh around 39 pounds by themselves for almost 80pounds for the pair,so theoritically removing the power assemblies in the seats plus the seats and all the stuff I mentioned above would remove close to 300 pounds,throw in some Jaz race seats with manual brackets and a lightweight carpet and you end up with about 220lb reduction.

Of course I woudnt do any of the above but different strokes for different folks..

Rick,theres a guy down here with a 460 MK7 that runs it on the roadcourse at Moroso,,even with all that extra weight up front he says he does very well.

[bigant]

hey disney lincoln weighed in at 3500 pounds so it can be done!

------------------
http://smilecwm.tripod.com/cwm2/Up_to_something.gif http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net5/readPB.gif
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>BIG FAST BILL BLASS
<LI> YES I KNOW ITS A LINCOLN AND YES I CAN MAKE IT FIT :p
<LI>14.5@96.6
<LI>screename EARLBIGINS
[/list] http://tnmotorsports.com/lsc/Images/side.jpg

[Eyelawdoc]

Anybody tried filling the tires with helium? LOL!!!

[Avu3]

I think Hydrogen is lighter than Helium if you really want to get ridiculous.

In automobile racing they use Nitrogen, but that's not to be lighter, but because it doesn't expand as much as "air" (I think)
avu3 http://www.dogg302ma.com