Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Weight of Modern Sports Cars

[Fellippe Galletta (fellippe.galletta]

On 11/30/08, Charles Perry <charles [at] carolina-sound.com> wrote:
> 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

Totally agree, Charles.

It really is all the structural safety member and safety equipment
that has made low weights extremely challenging.

Just think, the Porsche Carrera GT and the Ferrari Enzo, two cars with
unlimited design and materials budgets and both are still a bit north
of 3000 lbs.

Granted these cars are dimensionally larger than they probably could
be, but I highly doubt even a Gordon Murray could produce a McLaren F1
today sub 3k weight.

FG