Cars Today Need To Go On A Diet!

[coolieman1220]

So today I shall rant about a topic that I became aware of over the weekend. Many of you probably know this and are aware of this already but hey why not rant about it.

What would you consider light for a car these days? I'd say between 3200 and 3500lbs.

Cars are just too heavy and for what reason? with newer technologies we should be making them lighter. Lighter = better fuel economy and performance.

Why do I bring this up? I was on the highway Saturday night driving the G35 calmy. A G37S coupe turned in front of me entering the onramp of the highway so i sped up to play. It was 1:30 AM. I'm expecting the G35 to whoop my ass like no other. My car is 6 years old. I have a full tank of gas and just me, my car weighs 3300lbs give or take and puts out 260 horsepower. The G37 puts out 330 horsepower and its newer and stick. So we get on the highway, on the onramp i hear his exhuast howl, he kicks it into third. so i throw it into manual mode yank the shifter, put my car into third. then he takes off and i take off after him. pedal to the metal. he doesn't pull away much from me at all, i'm keeping up with him. So we do it again, we never managed to line up but i did try to overtake him and he didn't notice but when he did it took him a little while to pull away. i was so surprised, i was proud of my girl. we were doin 120MPH easily at some points. Now i raced an E46 M3 before, he pulled away from me like i was dust. That puts out 330 horsepower but it is a hidden powered BMW.

I got home and looked up specs. A 2009 G37S weighs 3700lbs. He may have had more then 1 person in his car. so all that extra power, goes to weight. an E46 M3 weighs 3300lbs as well, no wonder it pulled away from me like that. Imagine if i had the VQ37HR motor instead of my VQ35DE.

Does weight make that big of a difference in acceleration like that?

I looked up more cars, a new M3 weights 3700lbs too. luxury cars espeically are very heavy. why? they're supposed to be sporty. shouldn't they be light? im not talking sub 3000lbs but not close to 4000lbs.

What is becoming of the auto industry?....

[NicFromLA]

I agree. There's two big problems: one is wheels are getting bigger and heavier which adds unsprung weight and requires larger wheel wells leaving less room on the inside, but marketing needs the car to have certain dimensions on the inside, hence the cars get bigger. The other problem is almost every country has different safety regulations (most ridiculous) and since car companies can't build a completely different car for each market, the safety systems are over engineered. Cars would be lighter, safer and more use less fuel if there was an international set of safety regulations.

[sleekeywoowoo]

Now I don't post much, but I think it has something to do with meeting new regulations all the time. Like collision, so they beef up the front/side/rear just enough to meet regulations.

But sort of on a different sub-topic but same topic, cars are getting designed to be fat looking. (i.e. magnum, challenger, so on and so forth) Back in the day, safety took a back seat to design, now it's the opposite.

The Past:


The Present:


The Future:

[RacingManiac]

I agree. There's two big problems: one is wheels are getting bigger and heavier which adds unsprung weight and requires larger wheel wells leaving less room on the inside, but marketing needs the car to have certain dimensions on the inside, hence the cars get bigger. The other problem is almost every country has different safety regulations (most ridiculous) and since car companies can't build a completely different car for each market, the safety systems are over engineered. Cars would be lighter, safer and more use less fuel if there was an international set of safety regulations.

Larger wheel are also detrimental in acceleration and braking as far as rotational inertia is concerned.....even if a larget 19" is lighter overall, there is a good chance that it still carries more inertia as more of that mass is located further away from the hub(a fair assumption). And that will hurt braking and accelerating....

The primary issue is still safety and manufacturing. The safety regulation is ever more stringent, not only for pure safety point of view, but even insurance point of view(regulation like minimum speed impact.). That drives the designer to go with more robust design like stronger impact structure. In a perfect world they would all be made with the latest lightweight material, but manufacturing cost drives that down because no one can afford to mass produce a car with exotic material, thus it is much easier to just make

[Ferrer]

What would you consider light for a car these days? I'd say between 3200 and 3500lbs.

That's the problem.

Also we want all sorts of gizmos and comforts and that adds weight too.

[Dino Scuderia]

You can't wave a magic wand and make all vehicles have a similar weight....or lite weight.

For myself I wouldn't want anything under 3,000 lbs. because there are too many vehicles on the roads with me which are 5,000+. The odds of me surviving certain types of crashes with these heavier vehicles is already low.

People that drive Miata's, Fit's, Smart cars etc. are living dangerously IMO.

[Ferrer]

You can't wave a magic wand and make all vehicles have a similar weight....or lite weight.

For myself I wouldn't want anything under 3,000 lbs. because there are too many vehicles on the roads with me which are 5,000+. The odds of me surviving certain types of crashes with these heavier vehicles is already low.

People that drive Miata's, Fit's, Smart cars etc. are living dangerously IMO.

That's the problem too.

[NSXType-R]

See? I told you nothing was wrong with having crank windows. All those window motors add weight.

[LeonOfTheDead]

First of all, to coolieman1220, luxury cars=/= sporty cars.
Hence the gizmos and comforts Ferrer was talking about.
The compressor for A/C is worth about 25 kg if properly designed, just as an example of something none of use would do without in a new car.
Powersteering? it's necessary in a heavy car, especially with a big engine in the front, but it hads even more weight.
Sound deadening? another source of weight.
Comfy seats? weight.
a bunch of electronic stuff? more weight, and a bigger battery too (which is really heavy already).

Not only safety is called in the weight of a car, but also reliability, over designing parts even for this sake. It would be easy to save some kilos with smaller shafts and thinner parts in the engine, but also unreliable especially considering the things a lot of people will be doing to the car, as using the launch control three times on their bran new GT-R.

RacingManiac is right about the larger wheels.
Weight is always a problem when it comes to accelerating (both directions), more than while constantly traveling at 200 mph.

Why cars are heavier these days?
For some good reasons: safety been one of them (and they wouldn't be much different even with a global rule), and I'm fine with it.
You already know the bad reasons though: ourselves.

we ask, they give.

[Ferrer]

Why cars are heavier these days?
For some good reasons: safety been one of them (and they wouldn't be much different even with a global rule), and I'm fine with it.

So are light cars dangerous...?

[LeonOfTheDead]

So are light cars dangerous...?

No. at all.
But the Golf mk1 is lighter than a mkV partially for the sake of safety.
as funny as it could have been, the mk1 is unsafe.
a Lotus Elise is safe on the other hand.

[Ferrer]

No. at all.
But the Golf mk1 is lighter than a mkV partially for the sake of safety.
as funny as it could have been, the mk1 is unsafe.
a Lotus Elise is safe on the other hand.

That's exactly what I expected from my rethorical question.

There's no such correlation with weight and safety.

[Dino Scuderia]

There's no such correlation with weight and safety.

Yes there is. It's all relative to impact speed and what two masses meet...but still the heavier the vehicle the safer overall.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety(USA) has said there is no substitute for weight.

"There are good reasons people buy mini cars. They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests,"

“All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better."

[Ferrer]

Yes there is. It's all relative to impact speed and what two masses meet...but still the heavier the vehicle the safer overall.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety(USA) has said there is no substitute for weight.

"There are good reasons people buy mini cars. They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests,"

“All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better."

That's brilliant.

[Niko_Fx]

Coolie, could have been a bad driver or the fact that you guys never lined up correctly. I raced a G37S Coupe as well, he had aftermarket wheels so I can't really say that the engine was stock, but let's imagine that it was for a second. Third gear 70mph, we got all the way to 140mph and the G37 put up a good fight. He had a jump start and was about half a car ahead by the time I pressed the gas, I started to reel him in at around 120mph, passed him and by 140mph he was about a car behind.

He had a passenger and I was riding solo... The G37 did better than I expected. I have VQ35HR 307HP and IRRC I should weigh less than a G35 coupe.