Ripping the Guts Out..........
Discussion
Of the stereo, not the engine!
I simply never use the stereo in my 2001 996 c2, so I'm thinking of ripping it out. There's a head unit, a six-pack CD unit in the boot, plus what looks like a very heavy amp sat right behind it. The whole setup looks serious, but frankly, the factory fit stereo in my Fiesta shopping trolley out punches it in every respect. It's rubbish and it looks like it weighs a ton.
Anyone stripped their stereo out to save some weight? How easy is it? Especially the speakers. And where can I find a blanking plate to cover the hole I will leave in the dash?
I simply never use the stereo in my 2001 996 c2, so I'm thinking of ripping it out. There's a head unit, a six-pack CD unit in the boot, plus what looks like a very heavy amp sat right behind it. The whole setup looks serious, but frankly, the factory fit stereo in my Fiesta shopping trolley out punches it in every respect. It's rubbish and it looks like it weighs a ton.
Anyone stripped their stereo out to save some weight? How easy is it? Especially the speakers. And where can I find a blanking plate to cover the hole I will leave in the dash?
Make sure everything you do is reversible as the car will be un-sellable otherwise. Hole is standard DIN size so any standard blank plate will work. If your car is 2002MY (I think) and has the MOST fibre optic system (which is for various items on the car, not just the stereo) you will need to make sure that the loop is still complete once you've taken the stereo out of it, which may mean getting a suitable connector.
Personally I'd look at improving the setup if you're not happy with it (it sounds as though you do use the one in your Fiesta, so presumably you'd use this one if it were better).
Personally I'd look at improving the setup if you're not happy with it (it sounds as though you do use the one in your Fiesta, so presumably you'd use this one if it were better).
There is a good chance that your 2001 C2 is not MOST and so you will not have this to contend with.
If you are intent on taking it out then you could do a lower console delete which I believe is something done for the GT3. This would then give you only the top 2 slots in the dash to fill, one with the heater controls and the other normally with the stereo, but there is a trinket tray available from porsche.
If you are intent on taking it out then you could do a lower console delete which I believe is something done for the GT3. This would then give you only the top 2 slots in the dash to fill, one with the heater controls and the other normally with the stereo, but there is a trinket tray available from porsche.
Am I really the first person on this forum to have considered removing the stereo to reduce weight? How odd.
Cmoose suggested that this would save 10Kgs. I think it would be more like 20Kgs for the 3 electronic units plus 4 speakers. All I need to do then is leave the spare/jack/wheelbrace at home and I could be saving as much as 40Kgs. Hell, Porsche would charge 7 grand for this sort of "RS" saving! Normally I'd have to leave my already quite diminutive wife at home to achieve this sort of performance improvement (and let's be honest, you CAN feel the difference).
Actually, I had reason to use a can of Halford's finest tyre inflator when I had a blowout on a TVR Griffith a few years back and it worked just fine. Although, to be fair, it would have to be a bit of an emergency as the poor tyre fitters who had to clean up the wheels to put a new tyre on had a hard time of it.
Cmoose suggested that this would save 10Kgs. I think it would be more like 20Kgs for the 3 electronic units plus 4 speakers. All I need to do then is leave the spare/jack/wheelbrace at home and I could be saving as much as 40Kgs. Hell, Porsche would charge 7 grand for this sort of "RS" saving! Normally I'd have to leave my already quite diminutive wife at home to achieve this sort of performance improvement (and let's be honest, you CAN feel the difference).
Actually, I had reason to use a can of Halford's finest tyre inflator when I had a blowout on a TVR Griffith a few years back and it worked just fine. Although, to be fair, it would have to be a bit of an emergency as the poor tyre fitters who had to clean up the wheels to put a new tyre on had a hard time of it.
Saved at least 12kgs taking a very basic sound system out of my 964 C2 and it didn't even have a CD changer.
I've removed 115kgs so far just by removing stuff I don't need, think I can hit 150kgs before needing to buy any lightweight parts.
On a 996 it should be even easier, just depends on how hard you look and what you can do without. Don't ignore all the little parts as you will find 0.1kg trimming down over length cable ties if you can be bothered enough to do it. It all adds up very quickly.
Should be very easy to lose well over a 100kgs without sacrificing any creature comforts other than your sound system.
If you want to return your car to standard, changing the seats, wheels, battery, exhaust and flywheel to lightweight versions. Removing tiour spare, tool kits, jack etc will get you easily over 100kgs
I've removed 115kgs so far just by removing stuff I don't need, think I can hit 150kgs before needing to buy any lightweight parts.
On a 996 it should be even easier, just depends on how hard you look and what you can do without. Don't ignore all the little parts as you will find 0.1kg trimming down over length cable ties if you can be bothered enough to do it. It all adds up very quickly.
Should be very easy to lose well over a 100kgs without sacrificing any creature comforts other than your sound system.
If you want to return your car to standard, changing the seats, wheels, battery, exhaust and flywheel to lightweight versions. Removing tiour spare, tool kits, jack etc will get you easily over 100kgs
godotwait said:
Of the stereo, not the engine!
I simply never use the stereo in my 2001 996 c2, so I'm thinking of ripping it out. There's a head unit, a six-pack CD unit in the boot, plus what looks like a very heavy amp sat right behind it. The whole setup looks serious, but frankly, the factory fit stereo in my Fiesta shopping trolley out punches it in every respect. It's rubbish and it looks like it weighs a ton.
Anyone stripped their stereo out to save some weight? How easy is it? Especially the speakers. And where can I find a blanking plate to cover the hole I will leave in the dash?
You're not alone. I ripped the head unit out my Cayman R and the blanking plate is actually a storage insert which serves to be far more useful. The screen resolution reminded me of a ZX Spectrum and the head unit saved me just under 1KG but weight saving wasn't my goal. I prefer PSE versus DAB to be honest and the lack of stow space due to aluminium doors made the insert a better option.I simply never use the stereo in my 2001 996 c2, so I'm thinking of ripping it out. There's a head unit, a six-pack CD unit in the boot, plus what looks like a very heavy amp sat right behind it. The whole setup looks serious, but frankly, the factory fit stereo in my Fiesta shopping trolley out punches it in every respect. It's rubbish and it looks like it weighs a ton.
Anyone stripped their stereo out to save some weight? How easy is it? Especially the speakers. And where can I find a blanking plate to cover the hole I will leave in the dash?
It's really easy to do if you have trim tools and a Durametric cable but I had to get the dealer to do it due to recoding the alarm as I didn't have a DM cable at the time and he did it for peanuts after I revealed that I knew just how 'complicated' the task was.
I'm not sure if the process will be as easy for a 2001 car though.
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