So I saw this one guy in the 3G TL forum doing all this weight reduction stuff and it got me thinking. Doesnt the 2G Honda Inspire in Japan have an option to come with cloth seats rather than leather seats? I saw some member here who lives in Japan post his Inspire and it had grey cloth seats. Im sure this would be a great form of weight reduction and since my leather is wearing out and has some tire marks on the rear seats (dad decided to haul some tires in my backseat...) it would be pimp. Black cloth would look nice imo. Or would the leather seats pretty much weight as much as the cloth seats? Thoughts?

 

Probably not much of a weight difference. And i would never give up leather for cloth.

 

I wouldn't imagine much of a weight difference either in the seat material. What can us TL owners actually do to reduce the weight of the cars significantly? I can't imagine much if we still keep the amenities and essentials.

 

I don't think the TL is the car to buy if you are looking into weight reduction. Unsprung weight is more important than sprung weight anway. Lightweight wheels, tires, springs, shocks, Intake, headers that weigh less that stock would give you more of an advantage than taking airbags, spare tire, panel coverings out.

It's more of a luxury sports sedan than a sports car. Buy an Integra, RSX, Civic and gut the shit out of it and have fun with that car IMO. I've been there. I had a 4dr GSR with weight reduction and it was annoying as hell to drive everyday. Yes it was noticeably quicker withouth the extra weight. I would never do that with my TL besides rims, intake and headers.


That guy took his side airbags out and I think that's very stupid for a street car. What if he or someone else died, but could of been saved if the bags were there to help??

 

 

I was also thinking to buy a under 2000 Honda and play with it as much as i want. But then i was thinking its better if i just keep this luxury sports car and make it beautiful and as fast as it can without pushing it. Luxury also matters to me as performance since Girls love luxury

 

I totally agree with you. What that guy did was take out some of that luxury from the TL. I know I would be embarassed to pop my trunk out infront of some people who are not in the modding scene and have them see metal on a car like the TL. Side air bags are life savers, I saw the crash videos for the TL and would never dare to remove them. This is just something I thought of today since I noticed the condition my leather is in.

 

I kind of went on a rant there. lol

If you wanted to put the cloth seats in (as long as they have side airbags) i would be all for it. I don't think they weight that much less though. Up to you on that one.

 

I hate it when people start thinking about weight reduction and automatically think gutting the interior is the way to meet their goals - it never is.

The items that wight the most on a car that can be replaced are windows (lexan or plexi replacements), body panels (plastic or fiberglass),

 

yeah... the TL's a heavy-ass car and removing the leather seats makes a negligible difference... I'm not sure if this is true or completely accurate (so please correct me if I'm wrong ), but I've heard that every 100 lbs. extra in your car slows you down by roughly .1 seconds on a 1/4 mile... replacing leather for cloth just makes it look like crap (it's a luxury car!!!) and the weight difference is, like I said, negligible...

 

If anything, just get some lighter (and hence much much more $$$) rims. Cutting down on rolling weight really helps alot. On an offroad forum I'm on, people swapped out their OEM alloy rims for stronger but heavier steel rock crawler rims, and they lost maybe a few mpg and hp due to the increased rolling weight.