Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Weight of Modern Sports Cars

[Charles Perry (charles]

I was just reading Car and Driver's article on the new Nissan 370Z. They made 
the car considerably shorter and added all sorts of lightweight materials, and 
the result was a car nearly identical in weight to the outgoing 350Z.

"Nissan's proud of holding the line, claiming that revised crash standards 
alone piled on about 100 pounds."

That's amazing when you think about the fact that it's 100 pounds over all the 
crash standards that were already there - side impact beams, 5 mph bumpers, 
airbags in every direction, required tire pressure sensors, European pedestrian 
impact standards, etc.

It would be an interesting design exercise to get someone like Gordon Murray to 
figure out what the lightest a car of certain dimensions could possibly be if 
you did nothing but get a driveable chassis with all the required safety 
equipment (no leather, radio, a/c, nav, power seats, power windows, etc). It 
would be an interesting figure to show Congress when they're playing with CAFÉ 
and other goofy legislation to show them just how much weight they and other 
regulatory agencies have added to the car and what impact that has on fuel 
consumption and emissions.

-- charles