rantarC63

It seems that most are interested in increasing the power output of the stock car. But what about reducing the car's weight? Other than carbon fiber body parts (i.e., hood, trunk, & roof), wheels, and rotors, there does not appear to be much that people have done to eliminate weight. What about replacing the front seats with lightweight seats (at the cost of eliminating the seat mounted airbags, of course)? Has anyone removed their rear seats completely?

Post your ideas or what you've actually done. I'd like to know.

sflgator

It's a Mercedes-Benz...it's supposed to be heavy AND safe! Otherwise, if you really want to rice it out, like you said, just take out the passenger and rear seats.

Seriously though, I would say a lighter exhaust, wheels, battery, and maybe the hood would decrease the weight quite a bit. You could also remove the spare tire in the trunk as well.

nrgy

I think the idea of reducing weight is great, the only problem is it's expensive and I'm not sure worth the effort. 100-200 lbs could be shaved off fairly easily, but after that it becomes increasingly difficult.

Although the rear is not the ideal place to shave weight in this car, for overall weight reduction you can save 80-90 lbs by removing the spare tire and tools, and going with a lightweight Braille battery. That's probably the easiest and least expensive way.

I've heard the DTM/Euro spec seats would remove around 100+ lbs. But @ $5k for the pair, and dealing with airbag issues it's not worth the effort imo. Besides, we already paid good money for the seats in our car, which are some of the best factory seats around.

In the end, I could see where 400 lbs could be saved, which would make a huge difference I think. The only problem is, you would probably spend $10k to do it.

MikeG_C63_AMG

I have done this "ghetto" modification. I figure I rather take my chances with roadside assistance and getting my tired fixed or replaced then driving on that donut.

nrgy

Haha, yeah I actually had a bad experience when driving with a spare, I ended up having to call roadside assistance anyways. So I just leave it out of the car.

rantarC63

Well, the SLS is about 400 lbs lighter than our cars and the CLK Black has no rear seats. Are those "riced" out in your opinion? And what about the upcoming M3 GTS? I suppose that's also "riced" out.

I am surprised that at the prices people are paying for exhaust components for this car, no one has made a super light weight titanium exhaust. The reduction measure I'm most interested in is the elimination of the sunroof but it seems there are only replacements that require you to take off the entire roof. I think that would have a much larger impact than the hood alone.

You're right. It will likely prove expensive but then again, some people are dropping $10K on headers and more than $1K per wheel. I wish the factory had offered a lightweight manual seat option but that would likely not have met DOT regulations. Also, as you noted, the airbag issue will likely kill any option for swapping out the seats.

Just doing my research to see what the options are.