for normal sized people(200+lb), it is not easy to get to 2600 lbs even with an early car. with a later car, i would say almost impossible. or is this a weight penalty to offset the perceived increase in horsepower of the later engines?

Spend a little more time on the car. I had my late car under 2,300 dry with a full Hanksville care, with a few extra bars, and no undercoating removal

1. Replace the sunroof with an aluminum panel - saves 15 lbs

2. There is almost 35 lbs of wiring in the car, you save 25+ lbs there.

3. If you have an oval dash car, make a simple aluminum enclosure - 15-20 lbs there.

4. Remove the the rubber bumper extensions - 15+ lbs there.

5. If you get desperate, go after the undercoating.

If your under 300 lb, you can get to weight, but you may have to work at it a bit.

I'm ~200 lbs, and my '83 is about 2630 when out of fuel. Here's what I got rid of:

entire interior except for driver seat and dashboard
door window glass
entire A/C system
headlights and motor
heater core and all HVAC stuff
windshield wipers (not a lot of weight, may be worth keeping)
my car is manual steering
firewall insulation / sound deadening
some of the tar sound deadening from inside the car


I still have the heavy stock battery, heavy stock driver's seat, and plenty of undercoating. I'm going to swap out the seat with a lightweight race seat, and get rid of the tar on the driver's side floor (my cross weights are heavy on that side), so that should get me to 2600 when out of fuel.

I'm 220+ and have 20 lbs. of lead in my car. Still have sunroof, undercoating, stock wire harness, dash etc.

Car is an 85.5 with weld in cage.

No need to make a weight adjustment IMO.

No New Rules!!!!!

I have always felt the ideal weight will be when you have a few guys carrying ballast and a few bitching about not being able to make weight. If everyone is carrying lead or nobody can get to weight that means the class min is not set right.

Seem like we are just perfect right now. Frankly if you are a bigger guy you have a couple things you can do.

1) look for an early tub. These tend to be lighter.
2) work harder at pulling weight out of the car.

Doing both gives you the best chance to get down to minimum. If you are 135lbs then you will probalby not want to strip too much or will need lead. For those that doubt 135 lbs driver exist we have probably 3-5 944 guys in Az sub 160lbs carrying lead or are "lazy" on stripping out weight.

I have 20 lbs of ballasts in my car and my car weighed in at 2606 with a tick over 1/4 a tank of gas . I barely even tried to get my car down to weight and still have all my undercoating, stock battery, blah blah blah. I dont want to have to add 50lbs or 60 lbs MORE of ballasts...