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When building a drag car, one of the main ingredients in accomplishing quick ET’s and fast trap speeds is to remove as much weight as possible. There are many ways to do this, including removing most of your interior, installing an aluminum driveshaft, and switching to lighter wheels.
Of course you can remove weight by replacing your heavy, factory stamped steel body panels with something much lighter. Hoods, fenders, and doors are all pretty common to replace with either fiberglass, aluminum, and more often than not these days, carbon fiber.
But if you’re looking to do something with your factory bumpers without removing them completely then you’re in luck. Glasstek [2], a leader in automotive lightweight racing body panels now carries fiberglass bumpers for today’s popular drag cars.
Recently, they sent us over a pair of bumpers (front and rear) for our Project Grandma Malibu. They’re constructed of an incredibly lightweight fiberglass composite that can be painted to match your car, or can be left in the flat black in which they arrive at your door.
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The two bumpers together weighed in at a total of 9lbs.
Oh, and they’re light! Did we already mention that? In fact they are so light we were shocked when we put them on a scale and they rang in at only four and half pounds each. They actually feel lighter than that. Combined, you’re looking at nine pounds total for the combo, which together, is a difference of eighty pounds over the factory steel units.
So if you’re looking to drop some weight from your ’78-82 Malibu race car, or any other ‘strip-only musclecar, then you need to get in touch with the team over at Glasstek today for all of your lightweight body panel needs!
- Lightweight
- Not street legal
- Can be painted to match
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