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смешно
02-08-2007, 12:03 PM
Почитайте внимательно весь этот thread, посмотрите, что люди делают со своими авто и это серьёзно, мама родная! Гы-Гы.


http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151540&page=1&pp=25

INTRODUCTION
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There are two things that I have found that KILLS the TL's performance: Underhood ambient heat and weight. In the following post, I wish to discuss the advantages of weight reduction.

The benefits from weight reduction is threefold. Not only is acceleration improved, but braking and handling improves too.

The two areas that I enjoy the most with the weight reduction is the handling and the easy acceleration under light throttle.

The car's suspension has greatly firmed-up. By the way, my car is NOT ASPEC. I have the oem regular suspension in my 2006. The handling has greatly increased. It is now extremely nimble. If you was following me from behind, you would see the car rigidly following each bump and ripple in the road. It is getting to the point that I feel uneven expansion joints lightly in my kidney (which I like). The road-feel is fantastic.

I love how the car now accelerates with light throttle. If I am first in line at a red light, I love to give the car light throttle just to see how easy it is for my car to pull thru each gear and leave normal traffic way behind. It is hilarious. The engine just zips thru each gear as if I was traveling down an incline. Before, in oem trim, I was somewhat embarrassed that such a powerful car would somewhat labor just to accelerate briskly with everyday traffic (using light throttle...sure it hauls ass with WOT even in oem trim).

As you read, please keep the following in mind. If you are the type that tunes-in your radio and tunes-out you mind to how the car behaves, you will not notice the incremental improvements. And this is an important point. People will say that you will not gain any meaningful performance improvement by removing a certain piece from the car. I agree. Improvements from incremental weight reduction (piece by piece) in hard to notice. But, keep your eye on the CUMULATIVE effect. A pound here, a pound there.... it adds up to a meaning difference in the end. However, you would feel the "before" versus "after" difference even if you were not paying attention if you could experience it as a single step (all items removed at the same time).
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TIME TO BUY GROCERIES
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To give you a idea of what improvements can be gained, let's use this example.

When I go to the grocery store, the car feels like I am pulling a boat trailer behind me. Normally (without groceries), I apply very light throttle, and the car effortlessly climbs each gear as if the front-end was sitting up on blocks -- the engine seems to have zero resistance. Even with this light acceleration, I can feel the car pulling thru the gears and I can feel the car lightly pushing me into the seat from the light G's.

Now, let's compare the experience with groceries in the trunk. I buy $70 - $100 worth of groceries each Friday on my way home from work. This included typical items such as bath soap, frozen foods, frozen veggies, fruits, coffee, canned items, etc. The heavy items include three packs of sodas (12 cans per pack), a gallon of milk and sometimes a large container of Tide. Now, the car feels like stock oem again (me sad). So, compared to before buying the groceries, the car feels like I am pulling a boat trailer behind me. I hear and feel the engine straining it's way thru each gear. It takes much longer for the engine to works it's way thru each gear. I no longer feel any light G-force while accelerating. The car is just plan sluggish and lacks power given the same amount of light throttle. While waiting for the engine to works it's way thru the gears, I spend most of my newly-found time looking in the rearview mirror searching for the boat that someone hooked-up to my rearend. And, I no longer feel the ripples in the road.

And hard as this is to believe, I can instantly detect the added weight from groceries just from putting the car is reverse and backing-out from the parking space. Granted, I might not had been able to perceive the added weight months ago. But now after months of paying attention (admiring and appreciating) how my car feels with the weight removed, I spot the added weight instantly.
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YOUR MISSION IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT
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Here is an experiment for you if you wish to try. Run your gas tank down to approx 1/4 tank or less. Take out any heavy clutter (personal items) from your car and trunk. If you really feel brave, even remove your spare tire and jack. For the next day, turn off your radio so that you can tune-in to how the car feels as you drive around doing your daily routine. Pay attention to how the car pulls thru each gear as you lightly and moderately accelerate. Pay attention to how the car responses when you punch it to zip around slow drivers. Pay attention to how the car feels when you toss it into turns around town. When on the freeway, take curves much faster than you normally would to see how it handles (provided the girlfriend or wife is not with you).

Now, after a day or two of driving with the empty gas tank and possibly no spare tire, let's compare the difference. Now, go get a full tank of gas. Put your spare tire back in the trunk. Go to the store to buy some grocery (be sure to buy several cases of soda). Now, apply the same amount of throttle as before to lightly accelerate, and pay attention to how the car sounds as it climbs each gear. Pay attention to how much g-force you feel while lightly and moderately accelerating. Punch it to aggressively get around slower traffic. Toss the car into a few corners around town to see how toss-able the car is. If you really feel brave, take a few curves on the freeway going faster than normal. However, I do not really recommend the fast freeway curves with your car being heavy... the handling will be ugly.
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HOW IT BEGAN FOR ME
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My first experience with removing weight was removing the underhood plastic panels. I initially removed the panels to help reduce the temps under the hood during the summertime in Texas. My performance was being zapped by the heat. This was with the oem air induction before I got a CAI. So, as an experiment to reduce underhood temp, I removed the cosmetic panels under the hood. While removing the panels and by chance, I happened to notice the "boat anchor" mounted above the front bumper. The anchor seemed easy enough to unbolt. So, I remove the anchor too just because it was ugly - bare steel with ugly rust.

After driving the car for the next couple days, I noticed that the car had a lighter feel to the nose of the car as I tossed it into turns around town. I thought I was crazy - there is no way that those few pounds could make a difference. But, it was undeniable to me. After days of doubting myself, it was obvious that there was a difference in how easy the car was to toss around. So, the illness began... I had a taste and wanted more.

As I removed more items from my car, I noticed the more brisk acceleration under light and moderate acceleration. I noticed that I was leaving the normal traffic further and further behind me with each item removed. Again, this is with light acceleration. The TL is such an animal under WOT that it is hard to perceive a difference in performance with WOT. However, when I give my car the typical amount of throttle for normal acceleration around town (light to moderate acceleration), I can easily spot the improvements in acceleration.

At this point, I decided to get the mid-muffler removed for the purpose of making the car sound more masculine. Cool, more pounds removed.

In my search for items to remove to lighten my car's weight, I became interested in getting a CAI and UR Pulley mainly for the purpose of the weight reduction that each provided. And, I was not disappointed. The CAI and UR Pulley was able to shed many pounds. Not to mention that both increased the throttle response to make the car feel even more light.

At this point, the car has so many pounds removed that my headlights are aiming too high. So, I learned to adjust the headlights to aim them down again. But, the point in mentioning this is that there was enough weight removed to cause this issue.

The addiction continues. Next, I attack the trunk. There is more weight in the trunk than you think. And, I am not including the spare tire and jack yet !!!! So, I drive around for a week or two, loving the gains.... That damn addiction.... The weight reduction has so many benefits (handling, braking, part throttle acceleration).... Need to remove more.... Next is the subwoofer because I don't use it anyway. Not an easy job to remove the subwoofer, but my addiction provided the motivation to get it done.

So, I drive around for another week or two, loving the gains.... That damn addiction.... Need to remove more.... Next is the side airbags. Big, big job to get removed. Required some internet research how to prevent warning light from appearing in dash. One whole weekend to remove the side airbags. Once I got the side airbags out and felt how heavy they were, I was happy and felt the effort was worth it.

Continue..

смешно
02-08-2007, 12:03 PM
The addiction continues, but all of the "low hanging fruit" is nearly gone. It is becoming harder to find things to remove. Up to this time, I have refrained from removing my spare tire because I need it. This car is my daily driver. But, I am haunted by that spare being in there. How can I remove it ??? Then, I find the answer. Get a lightweight air pump. So, I go to Walmart and purchase a 12V automotive pump. Once at home, I let the air out of my tire to test the new pump. It works good enough !!! The pump can only muster enough strength to add approx 28 PSI to the tire, but this is enough to get me home in case of a flat. And, the pump weighs only 2 pounds. Done. Out comes the spare, along with the jack. As I am driving to work on the next morning, I lightly punch the car (approx half throttle) to get around a slow driver. Holy Shit !!!! My car never before pushed me into the seat like this. Sold !!! That spare is staying out. On the same morning to work, on the freeway, I take a curve going much faster (90 mph) than I ever dared before. Holy Shit !!!! My car never handled like this before - glued to the pavement and very confidence inspiring. No way in hell that spare is going back in. DISCLAIMER - I use my car only around town as a daily driver. For trips, we take my wife's RL. Only if I was taking a trip in my car would I temporarily put the spare back in the trunk.



This is where I am at today. I see no further items that I can remove. Perhaps the actual rear bumper that hides behind the rear facial. I will need to look to see if the bumper is removable via bolts, and if the bumper is required to support the facial. I quickly looked at the front bumper, and it looks like it is needed to support the front facial. So, the front bumper seems to not be a candidate.



In the future, I would like to try a lightweight battery. Perhaps later, I might try lightweight rims.



And for those folks that enjoy teasing about removing the car seats, this is not an option. My guideline is not to remove anything that is readily apparent to the normal person.

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THE UGLY SIDE

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I know that some readers will say that I am destroying/trashing a nice luxury car. My feeling is that it's just a car. The car will serve a useful life of approx 10 to 12 years. I might as will make these years enjoyable *to me*. I have no intentions of trading-in or selling my car. Didn't with my previous car... the car died naturally. It was 14 years old (190,000 miles) and encountered a "fender bender". So, the insurance company totaled it. Probably will be the same fate of my TL.



On the surface, one could say this weight-reduction modification is free. Actually, it is free today. However, tomorrow it could cost in the resell value of the vehicle. For me, I have kept all of the pieces that I removed. If I decided to trade-in the car, I would attempt to restore most of the pieces as possible. But, I realize that most likely the car would not be restored perfectly. Worse case scenario would be if something happened to me (sudden death or disability), my wife would be stuck with the de-valued car. But after the car gets paid-off in another two years, this will not really be a concern any longer.

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WHAT WAS REMOVED

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The following items are sorted from heaviest to lightest (based on my judgment, not actually measured).



1) Tires. Changed to 255/40-17 on oem rims. This was not a weight saving modification. However, it had the same effect. The car felt lighter because the overall diameter of the tire is less than the oem tire. So, in effect, the car can stop easier and accelerate easier due to the smaller diameter tires. And, the car steers more precise and has a lighter feel with these 255/40-17 tires. Overall, the tires make the car feel lighter.

2) Carry just enough fuel that I need for 2 days (4.8 gallons). I go from 3/8 tank to empty tank.

3) spare tire & jack. Use a small lightweight (2.0 Lbs) 12V air pump instead.

4) Oem crank pulley replaced with UR Underdrive pulley.

5) Mid-muffler and it's heat sheild.

6) Vibration dampner located above front bumper.

7) Subwoofer speaker.

Oem air filter/resonator replaced with AEM CAI.

9) All interior trim pieces in trunk and trunk lid.

10) Removal of the side airbags (front airbags still functional).

11) Plastic covering (ground effects) under engine and under transmission.

12) Plastic coverings located underhood. These includes the obvious pieces along the perimeter, and also the plastic piece covering the intake.

13) Rear floor mats and passenger floor mat.

14) Heavy Owner's manual.

15) Use only one pint of water in windshield washer.

16) Plastic cosmetic cover located under the trunk on the outside under car. Most people mistaken this cover for being the fuel tank.

17) Thick felt covering on backside of hood.

1 Plastic cosmetic covers located under car (under the rear floor mat area).

19) Vibration dampner located inside trunk lid.

20) Rubber weather strip running along back of hood near the bottom of windshield.

21) coin holder in center console and sunglass holders in side of doors.



And, obviously, I do not carry any personal items (aka, junk) in the car.

Sixteen
02-08-2007, 12:12 PM
а можно было просто сиденья заменить в салоне.
сиденья, особенно моторизованые - очень тяжелые.
машина бы ваще в два раза легче стала. и моторчики из окон выкинуть.

а ваще щас появились новые ротари энджины которые
весют в два раза меньше чем поршневые системы.

смешно
02-08-2007, 01:31 PM
Как без моторчиков в сиденье? Это клёвая штука. Нажал кнопочку и всё встало по размеру 2-го драйвера.

Alex_3112
02-08-2007, 04:11 PM
а можно было просто сиденья заменить в салоне.
сиденья, особенно моторизованые - очень тяжелые.
машина бы ваще в два раза легче стала. и моторчики из окон выкинуть.

Или просто вместо Acura TL купить Subaru Impreza WRX :)

Sixteen
02-08-2007, 04:17 PM
Или просто вместо Acura TL купить Subaru Impreza WRX :)

ему нужен картинг. это такая децкая ф1 с рамой, двигателем и
малинькими колесиками, а вовсе не акура тл или субару импреза.