Gallardo weight
Author
Discussion

crikeymikey

Original Poster:

1,093 posts

242 months

Tuesday 18th July 2006
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As manufacturers are all bear faced liars when it comes to stats (apart from Porsche, who are actually usually conservative) I thought I'd put my G on a DoT certified weighbridge this morning, to find out how porky the little fella really is.

The owners handbook claims the kerb weight (defined as a basic car, with no special equipment, 90% fuel load and a 75kg driver) is 1430kgs. I've always considered this a misprint, and most tests quote 1520kgs.

My Gallardo has SatNav and E-gear. SatNav only adds a couple of kgs to the car. No one can tell me how much the E-gear weighs (50kgs tops?).

So, with no driver and 50% fuel load (40-50 litres), 'Larry' came in at 1580kgs. Which isn't bad. For comparison, my mates 4.5 Cerbera (which TVR generally claim is around 1060kgs) came smack in at 1200kgs with a half tank of gas.

So, either E-gear weighs about 200kgs or Sant' Agata could do with one of Weissach's scales! And so could TVR.

Manufacturers, eh? You can tell they're lying. Their lips move!

BCA

8,651 posts

282 months

Tuesday 18th July 2006
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The TVR weight figure for a Cerb is 1100kilos dry. So no fluids (petrol/oil/ water/coolant etc etc) - I'd say that wasnt bad, especially if it had aircon.

I wonder how accurate the DoT's scales are?? This seems to be the main problem with alot of weighbridges.

bertie

8,569 posts

309 months

Tuesday 18th July 2006
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I don't reckon that's bad.

I thought kerb weights were always quoted dry and no driver.

Oh it's so tempting to mention certain manufacturers penchant for vastly over quoting power figures too but I mustn't!!

crikeymikey

Original Poster:

1,093 posts

242 months

Thursday 20th July 2006
quotequote all
bertie said:
I thought kerb weights were always quoted dry and no driver.


And I thought it was with all fluids (but no driver) and a notional few litres in the tank so the vehicle will run. Dry weights have always seemed like a daft and misleading method. If there aren't any fluids it can't be driven and therefore isn't a car, but a very expensive skip!

The fact that Lamborghini actually go to the trouble to define their interpretion of 'kerb weight' in the owners manual is to their credit. The fact that is total fiction is less so.