1) don't have quattro<br>2) gut your interior, replacing heavy leather heated sport seats with fiberglass or carbon shells<br>3) replace your body panels with similar panels made from carbon fiber or other composite materials<br>4) keep driver weight down<br>5) forget the fuzzy dice<p>Warning: The fifth option might not be a serious weight-cutting measure.<p>Cameron

Couple of issues:<br>I don't know which A4 you have so I'll give you some basics. The 2.8 is heavier, quattro is heavier, etc. I also don't know if you still plan to have this be a daily driver. If you were really serious, you can take lots of interior stuff out, like how the BMW superlights are built, which have no sunroof, no A/C, no frills. However, I will assume you don't want to go THAT extreme.<br>Some of these options are not cheap, because you would be replacing your stock parts with hi-tech material parts that race car drivers use to make their cars lighter.<br>So some will only be options if you have money to spend, of course.<br>You can do: <br>-Race Seats (much lighter than stock seat especially the heated versions) <br>-Lighter wheels (i.e. A!AvantGarde has a new superlight wheel for the A4)<br>-Carbon Fiber body panels (hood, fenders, etc.)<br>- Remove any sound deadening insulation from inside door panels, engine compartment etc. Be advised that if you do that, you'll have more cabin noise while driving.<br>- Oh yeah, you can always lose a lb. or two of your own body weight if you have a few to lose ;-)<p>I don't recommend removing your spare wheel/tire for a couple reasons. Most importantly the spare is designed by automotive mfgs. as a part of the safety cell during a rear-end impact. Secondly, you actually do want to have weight in the rear to make the car's weight more balanced (because of all the weight being up front in the engine bay).<br>-Cathleen<p> <br>

Hi Cameron!<br>Ha, ha, we both posted the same ideas! I guess you know what we're always thinking about!<br>;-)<br>-Cathleen

Only get a gallon of gas at a time and save about 104 lbs per tank full. :-)

Keep in mind, lightening your car up will not help that much unless you go to extremes. You change the seats and hood to carbon fiber, you will probably save about 50 lbs. according to my calculations that would give you a few horses. If you want to go to extremes and shave off 100+ pounds you will start feeling the difference. otherwise its not worth the money. Changing the seats and hood costs you about $1000 and it usually done more for looks than anything else. Sone considerations, the seats will not be that comforatble or adjustable, carbon fiber hoods have been known to vibrate a lot under highway speeds. I would not reconmend doing this to your A4 unless you are intending the car racing purposes.<br>E-mail me if you have any questions<p>Scott

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Hmm... only three more days until you guys drive through Chicago. Can't wait to see the car now that things have settled on this end and things are nearly done there (clutch yet? clutch yet?)<p>:)<p>Cameron

. . .the handling a bit. And if you replace a 45lb battery in the front with a 20lb gel-cell mounted lower in the trunk, you can start working out some of the oversteer as well through wieght bias. Then there's Cam's ideas, and Cathleen's ideas, and. . . .<p>Colin Chapman would be challenged in lightening an A4, but then, how far did YOU want to go?

- strip out A/C<br>- strip out front & rear seats, install fiberglass race seats<br>- Strip out entire interior (all carpeting and sound insulation)<br>- Replace all glass exc. for windshield with plexiglass<br>- Remove glass sunroof & motor, glue in piece of sheet aluminum<br>- Strip off all the paint<br>- Convert Quattro to FWD<br>- Replace gas tank with a small fuel cell<p>Should save you several hundred pounds.<br>

nt<p>KLHI<br>99.0 2.8QM Melange/Onyx Cloth (no mods)

nt<p>KLHI<br>99.0 2.8QM Melange/Onyx Cloth (no mods)

Any quality carbon fiber hood will cost more than $1k. However, if it is a solid, well-constructed hood that is properly fitted and secured, it should be not be rattling at any speed.<br>-C.

to get a good one for that price!!! Your guys at Vortrag have them, I'll probably get one (poss. w/ fenders, bumper, more?), but I'd certainly LIKE to pay just $1K. Dat stuff aint cheap.

Unfortunately, you're not talking about a mass production part that thousands and thousands of people buy so you economies of scale is not good. Then add to that R&D time that it took for development, the materials are expensive (that carbon fiber cloth is outrageous, and that in some cases shipment damage occurs. Yes, our wonderful carriers can't read at times. Even with HUGE lettering on a sturdy, well packed shipment that says "TOP FREIGHT ONLY, FRAGILE GLASS, DO NOT STACK BOXES ON TOP" and so on they still manage to crush stuff. What, did a truck run over this one? Geez! That get's really expensive, not to mention frustrating for the person hoping to get his hood that day as well as the supplier who has just lost money that they'll probably never recover from the lousy shippers.<br>It's not at all easy or all that profitable as someone might imagine. Also, really good quality parts that are built well naturally cost more because they are not skimping on material or processes.<br>There are options that might help the budget in the purchase of a vented hood such as going with a fiberglass hood or a combination of fibergalss and CF. Of course, they weigh more than straight CF but they DO still have less weight than a stock hood AND they come with the added benefit of being engineered to decrease your under hood temperatures.<br>-Cathleen