If the device your using isn't doing much else I'd be investigating rooting it and installing a custom ROM.
I've seen 'CleanROM' recommended and looked into installing it on Nexus 7, however I aren't really having problems with little more than the Pilot App installed, so haven't done it yet as it is rather time consuming and *might* go wrong!
CleanROM 6.0 is supposed to be very smooth and fast - running like that you know there is no other google stuff going on in the background.
I guess you might need googlemaps.
Anyone trying this make sure you do a system backup so you can revert if need be.
Having said that you can usually download the factory ROM in any case.
Otherwise there's not much you can do other than uninstall or disable as much stuff as possible.