While I've always been obsessed with getting the best power out of the 911 motors, ever since I've been tracking and autocrossing my cars for the past 15 years, I've also been weight obsessed too. After all, didn't Colin Chapman say 'Adding power makes you faster, but adding lightness makes you faster everywhere'? So with that in mind, when I read in these forums that deleting the sunroof saved anywhere from 20 to 55 lbs. I was enticed, but what is the reality? After all I also deleted the sunroof in my 997 GT3, and before I did it, heard the same embellishments, claims of anywhere from 20 to 47 lbs. I weighted everything pulled out and put back in and the net in reality was something like 23-24 lbs. savings. So I had to take the claims of 55 lb savings on our aircooled 911s with a grain of salt, but I was still optimistic as it came from some very prominent posters on this forum, some of whom are no longer with us, and others who are still active today.
So in the pursuit of science, and for the brain trust here, last year I ordered a new non sunroof steel replacement Dansk roof panel, details of which I posted in this thread here:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1048937-dansk-roof-panel-91150308712grv.html
Pelican lists the roof in their catalog here:
https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/1682001000DSK.htm?pn=1682001000-DSK
When it was received, I weighted it at 20 lbs +/- 0.25, so that already dispelled the myth of claims that it was 8 lbs. The metal is 0.95mm thick, standard sheet metal thickness for the roof, and frankly I can't see how anyone measured 8 lbs unless their scale was broken, or the roof was made of steel foil. For the size of the roof, it would have to be made of fiberglass or carbon to get it that light with any structure to it. And I've felt a 911 with a finished carbon roof and the thing deflected like a plastic trampoline, so that was a no go for me.
This is the subject car, an 86 3.2 pretty much all stock before any changes:
