Recently we had the five most expensive Porsche's, but even more fun are the five lightest ever built. I didn't know three out of five, and how light the two lightest ones are is actually incredible.
Dont know about "incredible" Heinz because every car was much lighter in those days. They were smaller for a start. They werent cluttered up with things like air bags. They had much smaller engines with much less power and that in turn meant lighter gearboxes, drive shafts etc.
Interestingly, manufacturers at last are aiming to reduce weight. McLaren is an example of someone following the Chapman mantra. Lotus always have tried to do so.
Dont know about "incredible" Heinz because every car was much lighter in those days. They were smaller for a start. They werent cluttered up with things like air bags. They had much smaller engines with much less power and that in turn meant lighter gearboxes, drive shafts etc.
Interestingly, manufacturers at last are aiming to reduce weight. McLaren is an example of someone following the Chapman mantra. Lotus always have tried to do so.
You are principally right Howard, but nevertheless a weight of 370 Kg or what the exact number was is not too bad for a car including a V8 Engine, the lightest of the five cars.
Dont know about "incredible" Heinz because every car was much lighter in those days. They were smaller for a start. They werent cluttered up with things like air bags. They had much smaller engines with much less power and that in turn meant lighter gearboxes, drive shafts etc.
Interestingly, manufacturers at last are aiming to reduce weight. McLaren is an example of someone following the Chapman mantra. Lotus always have tried to do so.
You are principally right Howard, but nevertheless a weight of 370 Kg or what the exact number was is not too bad for a car including a V8 Engine, the lightest of the five cars.
Clever engineering to get a car below 500 Kgs. Not sure Lotus are sticking to their routes these days when the latest Exige is chunky at 1100+ Kgs; not very Chapman.
I dont think you can compare in this simplistic way. Most of the Porsche cars quoted were race cars without facilities like aircon and airbags and heaters and decent seats etc. Not only that but some of the weights were "dry". And the power outputs were low so the need for strength in the gearbox etc wasnt there. And neither was the need to keep costs sensible - beryllium brake discs indeed.
For example, the basic Elise has 220 hp and weighs 845 kg . If you double the power to 430 hp then the weight of the car goes up to 1165kg. Since almost everything else is comparable, thats a good illustration of the weight penalty or power.
That said, some of the weight of modern cars is optional in the sense that extra weight is added for "bells and whistles" that we dont actually need. My F type was a classic of that approach with electric motors driving things that either didnt need to move ( screen vents) or could be moved by me ( door handles). The result was a lardy car at 1600kg.It was also too big.
It would be nice to have a 300 bhp / 800kg modern sports car but no one makes one.
