Official lightening the mk3 thread!!!!

[joel w]

A lot of people try and lighten the car up, but it will always be a heavy car... imo..

I upgraded the turbo and added supporting mods which added weight, but now makes more power, so it just seems the car is lighter..

To add to this thread now, My favorite answer is to take out the spare tire and replace it with a AAA card..

[Isphius]

AAA is really good actually. My friend got a flat tire at school and they were there and had it changed in under an hour. Im gona fab up some subframe connectors before i do anything else to the car just to see if they work good. And next is welding the entire inside of the car up. Its a targa...so it needs the stiffness.

[joel w]

Isphius: Look at MDCMotorsporsts site, Jon has some sweet cages that will stiffen flex.

If I was going to drag race at all, I would leave the MK3 supra in the driveway and pick up a MK2 chassis and install a 7mgte for an instant 800lbs in weight reduction from a MK3 platform.

[theWeezL]

hey for you Targa guys looking for a way to reduce flex, Im now working on a targa brace that will be available soon. I should have my prototype by the end of this week.

I'll keep ya all informed when I have more info

[Isphius]

There is a pretty nice looking mk2 for sale by me...im gona see what he wants for it.

[theWeezL]

Originally Posted by Isphius

shocks just resist the movement of the suspension, and give the spring a place to act, in the mk3 anyway. A strut is actually a structural piece of the suspension. It takes the place of the upper a arm and shock/spring. Which is why strut bars and camber plates are useless on supras. Camber plates are for whne you lower a front wheel drive car, it moves the struts out, so the camber isnt so far in. And stut tower braces stop the struts from moving closer and away from each other, which also doesnt happen on a supra, because it has shocks. Mk3 btw, not too sure if mk4 is struts or shocks

I was going to differ with you, but then I went and looked again and sure enough we do have upper control arms! I had just kinda assumed that since the shock/spring combo on the mk3 LOOKED like a strut it WAS a strut, but now I see your point.

however I will beg to differ on the strut bar not helping. It all depends on the type of strut bar you use. If you have a simple crossover bar, its doing very little if anything. But if you have a triangulated bar tying in the firewall you have created a triangle at 90 degrees from your frame/fender/firewall triangle. This will infact reduce chassis flex and most definately improve a "loose frame". These triangle bars are especially useful on Targa's, where chassis flex is a real problem.

[Isphius]

Truth! but i havent seen people use any of those yet. But then again they dont need to connect to the shock towers, It would help more if they were attached to the subframe by the suspension mounts. Im gona try to make something like that. What would also work on the shock mounts, which is kinda impossible, is a triangle going through the engine block. Like the triangulated ones, with the back point facing straigh down. That would stop them from up and down moving.

[Isphius]

AHH!!!!!!!!

[drmmr15]

How much would one of those Targa braces go for? I do not currently own a Supra, but I want to buy a MK III Turbo Targa in the next few months. The thing is, Ive heard the frame flex's quite a bit and it would be better to get a hard top...? I guess a brace would fix that though.

[Isphius]

Weezl sells those. The car is fine with the roof on, its just like any other car, but with the top off its pretty annoying, but its not bad/detrimental, just get used to the rattles and youll be fine.