DawnMC

I can't find anything in the archives that shows how much a lb. is worth...

For example, pull out the front passenger seat (no, I'm not doing that, this is purely hypothetical) and it weighs 90 lbs..... what kind of gain do you get for that? I know every pound counts, I just don't know how much.

Kevin K2

roughly:

wheel hp = (200 x wt)/(ET)^3

so acceleration wise, drop 3% weight is like adding 3% more hp, roughly.

ottobahn

...the article on the cover goes into serious detail about this.

And to add my meager 2 cents:

On a sub 2000 lbs car, I would make an effort to lose weight, but on the A4, there is no reason. All the wiring, undercoating and sound-deadening (sp?) material weigh too much. But that is why I like it, it is quiet, things happen at the touch of button and it will not rust. Unlike my old GTV which I got down to about 1800 lbs and I could tell a major difference with a full tank of gas and was a very unfriendly daily-driver.

Augie

...assuming you're speaking about acceleration. The performance change is equal to the cube root of the power-to-weight change. Therefore, if you lose, say, 3% of the vehicle's weight, you can expect an improvement of about 1% in acceleration, over, say, a quarter-mile. As an example, a 16 second @ 85 mph car would have the potential to go about a 15.85, at just under 86 mph.

Adding 25% power (such as a chipped S4) would have the potential to improve acceleration by about 7.7%, meaning a 14 flat at 98 mph car might be able to go 13 flat, at about 105.5 mph.

Dr. Mike

Use 234 rather than 200 for the correct proportionality constant. NT