[cmiovino]

Basic, but controversial topic. We all can agree that less weight is better. However the entire fuel tank is 13.2 gallons and with higher octanes coming in at 6.1lbs, that's a maximum of 80.5lbs in fuel.

The fuel light comes on right around 3 gallons being left, so you need at least 18.3lbs in the car more or less to be running with the light just coming on. I haven't seen any fuel starvation issues doing this personally and other 1st and 2nd gen owners tend to agree if you're on street tires.

Give or take, it's a little bit over 60lbs you can either run with or not, which for the record is located at the lowest point in the car and towards the rear.

The first gen's curb weight comes in at 2,835lbs. I've had mine weighed with me in it and it was around 2950 with me (150lbs) and half a tank of fuel, on the gauge at least. This was also with the spare removed.

Bottom line, it's about ~2920 if it's with the fuel light on or 2980, or about a 2% overall deduction in weight at a maximum. More like 1% or 30lbs if you're running 1/2 vs with the light on.

We even have people running around in grid before runs putting a splash of fuel in, trying to shave off <5lbs. It seems nuts.

Most of the time I'll fill only ~5 gallons before the event, drive an hour there, run, an hour back, and I generally use about 4-5 gallons doing so. I sort of hate doing this because I know 1/2 gallon of that is likely 87 octane from the previous person who filled. If you're putting a gallon or two in, you're getting ~50% 87 octane.

That leads me to the theoretical question that if everything is 100% equal on your run, how much actual time might you be leaving on the table with 30 to even 60lbs extra in the car? Are we talking 0.1 or more towards 0.5? Or is it even not quantifiable?

1% off a 30 second time is 0.3... but times and weights don't work like this. I'd have to assume it's less than 0.3 seconds in that example.

You could even argue that leaving the extra ~30-60lbs in the rear low to the ground slightly helps overall balance, would could make the car turn in a hair better, that could impact times also.