| We're always looking for economical ways to extract more power from the cars we specialize in and this is something I think has potential. Some info:
Stock rods weigh in at 725 grams. Big end is 521-529g and small end is 190-195g.
Stock rods are forged and shot-peened from the factory to produce a very robust component. In my experience and the historical information I've seen prompts me to confidenetly say that stock rods do not fail unless something really bad happens such as rod bearing failure or hydrolock. In these cases, it is an effect, not a cause of failure. There are aftermarket rods you can purchase for your buildups but they are quite expensive and they only realistically offer advantages in weight and some by reducing windage losses.. But they are quite expensive to buy.. I have a shortblock at our machinist which is a project powerplant for a slicktop Z in our parts yard we are planning to build into a 1320' racer. It is also going to be a testbed for some new ideas and the topic of this message is one of those ideas. 
These are both stock rods, but one of them has been 'massaged' a bit.. Forging flash has been removed and sharp edges have been smoothed. Here's some info on this rod:
total weight: 634 grams
big end: 465grams
small end: 169 grams
Baked on paint allows oil to run off the part easier. This rod is 91 grams lighter than stock and with the lightening, smoothing and shot peening of this part, it could very well be even stronger.. The weight savings on the rotating assembly is even more impressive. Since you are reducing the weight on the connecting rod side of the crank, you must remove weight from the counterweight on the other side. With just this level of work, it would not be difficult to realize at least a ~2.4lb weight savings on the assembly.. With further weight reduction on the crank, we are thinking it wont be hard to take that number closer to 5-6 lbs. A set of these rods will be going into the engine for our car and it wouldn't be expensive to produce these on an exchange basis for customers... So I guess we'll see how they work. :)
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Connecting rods - some work we've been doing... >>> - 
