What do these cars actually weigh?

[Nicholas R]

Does anyone know what DeLoreans actually weigh? I'm curious about both automatics and manuals.

According to the manual, the car weighs 2743lbs with a full tank of gas, with a distribution of 63% rear, 37% rear.


According to the VIN plate, the car weighs 3180lbs, (1244 front/1936 rear) with a distribution of 61% rear, 39% front.


Has anyone ever weighed one to find out what the correct answer is? I'm curious because tonight I weighed my car with the new engine and I want to know what to compare it to. My new weight (assuming full tank of gas) was 2,974lbs with a distribution of 63.7% rear, 36.3% front.

On the scales:


Scale readings:


Results:

[jmettee]

I have info at home on my PC, can post it later. I weighed mine (stock, manual) at work with vehicle scales & came pretty close to what the dataplate says.

[Mark D]

The 3180 number on the vin tag is the max rated weight the car is able to theoretically handle, also know as GVWR.

The front axle is rated at max 1244 lbs and the rear is rated for max 1936 lbs. With a curb weight listed at 2743 that means 437 lbs of weight can be added to the car without overloading it beyond the recommended limits.

The GVWR number doesn't really mean a hell of a lot though and is usually a (somewhat) made up number. It could be based off of durability testing and a factor of safety added in, or someone could have completely pulled a number out of their ass. Manufacturers can under rate a vehicle so it can fit into a certain vehicle weight class...or special ratings are allowed with certain restristrictions such as limiting speed at the overloaded weight.

It probably doesn't take much to overload a DeLorean beyond the GVWR...put a few people in the seats and a bag or two in the trunk and you are right there.

When the pilot cars were being run around the test track and sent for extended mileage testing the engineers most likely evaluated the suspension to determine a safe number that would allow for reasonable cargo capacity while providing some assurance that there would not be warrenty claims with people breaking suspension parts while still being loaded below the listed GVWR.

[David T]

Back in June '12 I got my hands on a set of Longacre Racing scales for a few days. I weighed everything I could find. The results on my Delorean:

Stock, automatic transmission, unloaded, no driver, full fuel tank

LF 532 RF 521

LR 900 RR 915

Total 2868

Cross 1421 49.5%
Left 1432 49.9%
Rear 1815 63.2%

Gross 3244
Empty 2868
Useful Load 376 divided by 2= 188

All in pounds. From these numbers we can see some important things. The Delorean is very heavily biased in weight to the rear. Obvious because of the rear engine. Means once the back comes loose it is not going to stop easily. Especially with the limited turn radius of the front suspension
Next, the difference between empty and gross is VERY small. It leaves only 188 pounds for a driver and the same for a passenger AND NOTHING FOR LUGGAGE!
The car is almost perfectly balanced side to side (impressive). With the low (comparativly speaking) front loading we can see why they opted to go with manual steering. From this little exercise we can see that it is very important to limit anything that will add weight to the car. The next step would be to run the numbers regarding HP to weight. Again you will see the car is underpowered by today's standards. Another reason to keep the weight of the car down as much as possible. The automatic is slightly heavier than the 5-speed (maybe around 50 lbs).
David Teitelbaum

[opethmike]

Oh Dave, I don't think Nick's car has any problems with power...

[Jonathan]

...Gross 3244
Empty 2868
Useful Load 376 divided by 2= 188

All in pounds. From these numbers we can see some important things. The Delorean is very heavily biased in weight to the rear. Obvious because of the rear engine. Means once the back comes loose it is not going to stop easily. Especially with the limited turn radius of the front suspension
Next, the difference between empty and gross is VERY small. It leaves only 188 pounds for a driver and the same for a passenger AND NOTHING FOR LUGGAGE!
The car is almost perfectly balanced side to side (impressive). With the low (comparativly speaking) front loading we can see why they opted to go with manual steering. From this little exercise we can see that it is very important to limit anything that will add weight to the car. The next step would be to run the numbers regarding HP to weight. Again you will see the car is underpowered by today's standards. Another reason to keep the weight of the car down as much as possible. The automatic is slightly heavier than the 5-speed (maybe around 50 lbs).
David Teitelbaum

I wonder if one of our Time Machine conversion members would chime in here about how much extra weight all the movie props add to the car? I was under the impression it was 600-700 pounds. With knowing the limits of what the stock car can handle in terms of extra weight, do time machine cars get some sort of beefed up support system underneath on the suspension or frame in some way? If one were to add all the BTTF prop weight to the car, it sounds like it would be pushing it over the limit on operating well or safely.

[Nicholas R]

Back in June '12 I got my hands on a set of Longacre Racing scales for a few days. I weighed everything I could find. The results on my Delorean:

Stock, automatic transmission, unloaded, no driver, full fuel tank

LF 532 RF 521

LR 900 RR 915

Total 2868

Cross 1421 49.5%
Left 1432 49.9%
Rear 1815 63.2%

Gross 3244
Empty 2868
Useful Load 376 divided by 2= 188

All in pounds. From these numbers we can see some important things. The Delorean is very heavily biased in weight to the rear. Obvious because of the rear engine. Means once the back comes loose it is not going to stop easily. Especially with the limited turn radius of the front suspension
Next, the difference between empty and gross is VERY small. It leaves only 188 pounds for a driver and the same for a passenger AND NOTHING FOR LUGGAGE!
The car is almost perfectly balanced side to side (impressive). With the low (comparativly speaking) front loading we can see why they opted to go with manual steering. From this little exercise we can see that it is very important to limit anything that will add weight to the car. The next step would be to run the numbers regarding HP to weight. Again you will see the car is underpowered by today's standards. Another reason to keep the weight of the car down as much as possible. The automatic is slightly heavier than the 5-speed (maybe around 50 lbs).
David Teitelbaum

Thanks for this info Dave! This is actually exactly what I was looking for. Since my car used to be an automatic, I'm glad to know where I would have been in the past. I'm curious if anyone has any hard data on manual's too, but it's nice to know that the swap only added 100lbs to the car and didn't change the distribution.

[David T]

As you can see 100 lbs is not the same 100 lbs in the front as it would be in the back. Adding more weight in the back is going to have a bigger effect quicker than in the front because of the already heavy bias in the back. Not so important during acceleration or steady-state, the problems will be multiplied during braking and/or cornering. You might want to consider adding an adjustable proportioning valve to reduce the braking power on the rear. That will have the bad effect of increasing braking distances. You might also have to experiment with higher tire pressures on the rear. That has as it's bad effect a smaller footprint and an increased tendency to lose traction. Lowering the rear height may help but then you need adjustable lower links to adjust the camber. With that extra 100 lbs you can now only add 276 lbs for driver AND passenger before you blow the gross! One has to consider ALL of the effects of ANY modification and how they will overcome the worst of them. It is all a compromise. One part of your solution may be to move the battery to the front. Running over gross is bad because it overloads parts and causes them to wear and fatigue quicker, increases braking distances, hurts fuel economy, and can make the car uncontrollable under certain conditions. IMHO you have a considerable "cushion" or margin of safety on the gross before you see a lot of bad things happen so if you are, say, 10% over gross or 3568, you will still be safe. Just be aware of what you are doing and know what to expect as you overgross the car. If you swapped a bigger motor into the car the frame was designed for a certain level of loading. Overloading the frame can lead to cracking and twisting so you may need to reenforce areas of the frame. That can also add to your weight problem. Keep an eye on the frame at least. Seems there is a large safety margin there too.
David Teitelbaum

[vwdmc16]

I weighed my car about 6 months back on longacre scales too, It was empty but a full tank. A bit disappointing.


2832lbs 36.8%F 63.2%R

[Nicholas R]

As you can see 100 lbs is not the same 100 lbs in the front as it would be in the back. Adding more weight in the back is going to have a bigger effect quicker than in the front because of the already heavy bias in the back. Not so important during acceleration or steady-state, the problems will be multiplied during braking and/or cornering. You might want to consider adding an adjustable proportioning valve to reduce the braking power on the rear. That will have the bad effect of increasing braking distances. You might also have to experiment with higher tire pressures on the rear. That has as it's bad effect a smaller footprint and an increased tendency to lose traction. Lowering the rear height may help but then you need adjustable lower links to adjust the camber. With that extra 100 lbs you can now only add 276 lbs for driver AND passenger before you blow the gross! One has to consider ALL of the effects of ANY modification and how they will overcome the worst of them. It is all a compromise. One part of your solution may be to move the battery to the front. Running over gross is bad because it overloads parts and causes them to wear and fatigue quicker, increases braking distances, hurts fuel economy, and can make the car uncontrollable under certain conditions. IMHO you have a considerable "cushion" or margin of safety on the gross before you see a lot of bad things happen so if you are, say, 10% over gross or 3568, you will still be safe. Just be aware of what you are doing and know what to expect as you overgross the car. If you swapped a bigger motor into the car the frame was designed for a certain level of loading. Overloading the frame can lead to cracking and twisting so you may need to reenforce areas of the frame. That can also add to your weight problem. Keep an eye on the frame at least. Seems there is a large safety margin there too.
David Teitelbaum

I agree with you about the braking. To help that out I installed custom 4 piston drilled and ventilated Wilwood brakes on the front. It makes a pretty significant difference. Haven't looked into an adjustable proportioning valve yet though. I've also got the Eibach lowered kit so I've adjusted the rear ride height accordingly. You are correct though that the rear camber was affected by the extra weight and I have a set of Marty Maier's adjustable rear lower links. I haven't installed them yet but am hoping to do in the next few weeks. The front the car also has the shock tower strut bar and the lower control arm brackets so they certainly help hold the front end together during acceleration.

Honestly the next big upgrade that I am considering (actually I'm beyond considering, I've decided that it's a necessity) is the limited slip differential. Even with all that weight over the rear wheels, that open differential just does not cut it.

I weighed my car about 6 months back on longacre scales too, It was empty but a full tank. A bit disappointing.

2832lbs 36.8%F 63.2%R

Thanks for the numbers!! Is your car a manual or an automatic? Because of the 30lbs less than Dave's I assume a manual?
EDIT: Just looked at your restoration thread and saw that it is indeed a manual