Rack and pinion swap is a pretty big one- makes for a nice driving car too. There’s A LOT of weight that can come out, just a matter of if you wanna end up with a real race car when you’re done. Have an aluminum downpipe yet?

 

You are reading my mind, I was thinking about doing one when I swap the longblock. Which one did you guys do on the Nova? It would be tempting to do an aftermarket column too, I wonder how much that would drop?

I'm going to keep it streetable, the occasional cruise to a little show, that type of stuff.

What other little ideas do you have?

 

Aftermarket column is easily 15lbs. Our old stock frame had the TRZ rack kit on it. Smith Racecraft makes a nice one too for the stock frame. Gotta imagine that’s easily 25lbs (ours was in it when we got the car). Aluminum spindles from TRZ were worth good weight with no downsides (other than cost). Coilovers on the front with 2.5” springs are definitely lighter than a stock mount style shock/spring setup. Would just need brackets for the top (readily available) and different coilovers. Look at the engine too- lot of weight can be saved with motor plates VS stock style mounts, turbo headers VS exhaust manifolds, etc… Even the turbo itself. Bullseye has some really lightweight units out now, not cheap though

 

I think trz use to make a full tube front sub frame for the 67-69 camaro and the 68-72 nova that uses a Rack and pinion and drops like 70+lbs off the front of the car, not sure if it is still made or not.

 

Factory or glass bumpers?

Rack steering.

Factory glass? Optic Armor and Five Star are good.

Glass doors or fenders.

Tube front subframe.

Lighter column.

 

69-74 Nova - 67-69 Camaro Front Subframe SVRC-120010 - Skyview Race Cars

Fits 1st Gen Camaro (1967-1969) and 3rd Gen Nova (1968-1974) replacing OEM subframe using existing subframe mounting points. Subframe saves 60 lbs. compared to OEM Subframe Accepts Nova/Camaro Industry Standard/OEM Style Tubular A-Arms or SVRC Custom A-Arms Chromoly tubing and professionally...

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this is close to the one trz used to make.

 

also how a bout a bolt thru aluminum center section for the 9". lightened rear gears as well.

 

Crash bars inside the doors are worth 20 pounds per bar IIRC. Extra brackets on the front bumper can be removed. Any old radio parts, speakers, wiring, etc. can go. TRZ makes a nice steering column. Chromed fiberglass bumpers.

 

crash bars,,,,not on that one,major weight reduction is EXPENSIVE if ya want a light car go buy one,,,cheaper in the long run

 

67-69 Camaro/Firebird - 68-74 Nova Frame - Smith Racecraft

One stop shop for all your needs..."frame will save you 150lbs over factory suspension "

 

all above ......... and I know there are aluminum Spindles and if you are not running light weight brakes add that as well!

 

Smith Racecraft subframe and an aluminum block will save a lot of front end weight. You can probably drop another 40lbs if you replace the glass with optic armor. Another 40lbs if you go to a Lithium battery

 

-SRC front subframe is very interesting, for now would keep that on the back burner I'd have to redesign parts of my turbo kit I think.
-I have Strange 4 piston brakes on all corners, manual Strange master.
-No front bumper, stock rear (hmmm could do aftermarket rear and aluminum brackets)
-stock fenders and doors, prob keep I can make my car asag legal with a few changes (I have 2 trunks and 2 cowl panels). ditto for glass.
-rack conversion and column is very interesting.
-Doubt I'd go smaller battery with the electric load I have with my setup.
-Lars the dash is completely gutted.

 

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I bought a front clip from this place looks exactly like the Smith Racecraft clip for my 66 nova He sells one for your car as well

Read some people saying there not as nice as the smith Racecraft ones but I can tell you the welds like nice and it looks well made!

I have not bolted mine on the car yet ( bought it early this year ) but I picked this over the smith because it was in driving distance so I saved on shipping .... My buddy is starting a 63 nova build so we ordered two of them and I picked them both up!

 

Carbon fiber drive shaft

 

Yeah definitely front steer rack and column are on my mind.

Aluminum spindles, are those robust enough for the street?

I have a Strange/VRN 3.5 chromemoly driveshaft, gonna stay with that I'm going to hit it with 1100 HP.

How much weight if I make the rear windows fixed?

 

You do know Pro Mods make 6000 HP now a days.



.

 

With the Lithium battery, you don't need to go down in size or capacity. I have a Braille Lithium 34/78 equivalent, it's only 9lbs. Costed me $850 though, lol.

 

My half birthday is coming up if you want to surprise me.

I'm wondering @18degsbcregal Vinny any little things I'm missing, I could take the whizzer wheel and cut some little brackets off the back floor and I never roll down my rear windows so I could make them fixed a a friend has done that. Gonna cut the side wings off the firewall at some point for room for my fender exhaust.

Definitely going to to a front steer rack now, SRC and TRZ have em.

 

Aluminum bolts for the front body panels (lots of anti seize), SRC trans crossmember fits a stock frame and is lighter than the box steel style or stock ones, rear seat belt attachment point backup plates can come off the bottom of the floor, smaller fuel cell depending on what you have in there now, aluminum lug nuts, lightweight steering wheel, minimize wiring, anything that doesn’t need washers, don’t use em, trim or replace bolts to be just long enough, optic armor windshield/rear window, any brackets that aren’t doing anything anymore can be cut off, stay away from billet catch cans and go for fabricated sheet aluminum ones, sheet metal trans pan VS a cast one is big weight, fabricated aluminum oil pan is considerably lighter than a cast style LS pan, sheet aluminum valve covers VS stock style or billet ones, try and make the charge tubes out of one welded piece of aluminum (minimize couplers/clamps), tubular driveshaft loop VS 1/4 flat steel one if you can fit it. Every little bit helps

 

Thanks for the detailed suggestions Vinny. Yeah I'm running a T400 cross member from one of the big Camaro houses.

I'm running a Grant steering wheel. I plan to at some point go over the wiring in the car, I can shorten some stuff and there might be a couple of lbs of extra wiring.

I'd really like to get the car to 2800 + 200 for me. But still street drive it.

Mrdragster noted on the driveshaft, I think I'd change my front tires to bias and before I sprung for a $1000 driveshaft (is that what they cost?).

 

Thanks for the detailed suggestions Vinny. Yeah I'm running a T400 cross member from one of the big Camaro houses.

I'm running a Grant steering wheel. I plan to at some point go over the wiring in the car, I can shorten some stuff and there might be a couple of lbs of extra wiring.

I'd really like to get the car to 2800 + 200 for me. But still street drive it.

Mrdragster noted on the driveshaft, I think I'd change my front tires to bias and before I sprung for a $1000 driveshaft (is that what they cost?).

PST has them, they start at $1,249

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pstds.com

 

Yeah I think when I spend a grand plus on the car for weight reduction, it will be the rack and column. I figure between the two I can drop 40 maybe 50 lbs.

 

@mrdragster1970 lol I'm bleeding out over here between property taxes and paying for college for my kids.

 

You cant race a degree. Get the carbon fiber driveshaft

 

Hi this is John's wife posting under his account. I just layed him out with a frying pan and there's your answer.

 

So race steering columns, decent on the street, do I need to do a lot of custom work to secure it?

I'll do the rack and steering column, and cut misc bits off the floor and clean up the wiring. Cut and sheet metal the firewall heater wings/coves. I'll look into an aluminum exhaust I'd do one of they hold up for a few years.

 

Lightened 1st gen rollers are rare and pull big bucks. I've only seen two in the last couple of years that were lighter than mine that were not gutted out tube cars.

I won't be doing ultracarbon doors or front end, I won't satisfy a number of class requirements then.

 

Aluminum downpipes work great, go with 1/8" thickness. Motion raceworks makes a nice and simple bolt-in steering column kit which can interface with factory steering shaft at steering box, or straight to a rack.

 

Good to know. My 4" DP is stainless.

I'll check out Motion's steering column kit. Since my longblock is coming out before the 2025 I will likely swap to a rack and a column for the weight drop.