back in the early days of rodding they didn't have catalogs full of high performance aftermarket parts to choose from. so, the easiest way to make your car faster was to make it lighter. thats why so many early rods were fenderless and hoodless, it wasn't just because it looked cool. it was to save weight.
on older vehicles like mine, the air conditioning usually isn't working. the compressor and the brackets can weigh approx. 50 lbs or so. if the refrigerant has already leaked out you can just unhook the lines from the compressor and remove it along with the brackets. not only does this remove weight but also unclutters your engine compartment. in the pictures you can see my a/c compressor, and two of the lines that were attached to it, as well as the brackets. just to the right of these is a trailor hitch that i took off as well.
as you can see the weight adds up fast. i've read that for every 100 pounds that you lighten your car you lower your 1/4 mile e.t. by 1 tenth of a second. i've also read that 10 pounds of un-sprung weight (weight not supported by your suspension) for example rear differential, drive shaft, tires,wheels, hubcaps! etc. is equal to 100 pounds of overall weight. speaking of hubcaps, i just remembered that i have removed mine from my car. its hard to see in the picture,but, all four of my 15" hubcaps weigh in at 5 lbs. five pounds of un-sprung weight is the equivalent of 50 pounds of regular weight!! the middle pic is my stock air filter housing,weighing in at 6 1/2 pounds, the holley free flow filter i replaced it with weighs almost 1 pound, a net savings of 5 1/2 pounds. the thing on the scale on the far right is some sort of control module for the cruise control that wasn't working. so i took it off, 3 1/2 more pounds.
so lets add it up.
a/c compressor and brackets
and trailor hitch 60 lbs
hubcaps unsprung weight
5 lbs = 50 lbs
net savings on air filter
housing 5 1/2 lbs
cruise control thing 3 1/2 lbs
total 119 lbs overall weight reduction.
when you do the math (which i don't really do very well) it adds up to over 1 tenth of a second off my quarter mile e.t. (.119 seconds!) Well on my way to some blistering mid 16 second quarter mile times. Just kidding about the blistering times. this car isn't going to be a racer, its going to be a cruiser. i just wanted to illustrate an easy inexpensive way to improve the performance of your car. this will also help with your fuel economy. a lighter weight car will be less work for your engine..