Funny observations about vehicles weights
Discussion
Devil2575 said:
Does it?
How much do you think it would cost to do all that to a Mk3 MR2?
Also, you don't actually know how much it would weigh, so a little bit premature to describe the Elise in such a way.
I owned a VX220 I.e S1 Elise front end S2 Elise back end.How much do you think it would cost to do all that to a Mk3 MR2?
Also, you don't actually know how much it would weigh, so a little bit premature to describe the Elise in such a way.
Standard a mk3 MR2 is ~20kg difference in weight as an old S2 Exige S. I know it'd be lighter than a late Toyota S2. Even with he cost of those parts it'd still be half the price.
Edited by Herman Toothrot on Thursday 12th September 20:52
otolith said:
But a MK3 MR2 is a steel monocoque with stressed panels - so if you replaced them with GRP, you'd end up with something as floppy as a crisp packet and lethal to crash. At least in an Elise you've got those big aluminium sills between you and a side impact.
Would be interesting to find out, after all TRD did a small run of GRP wide body cars that lost the steel panels. Siebon offer carbon bonnets and engine covers, have also seen GRP standard shape front wings on offer.
otolith said:
Herman Toothrot said:
Would be interesting to see what weight you could get a mk3 MR2 down to with GRP panels, light weight exhaust, suspension components, aluminium belled discs, forged wheels, GRP seats etc. I bet it'd be almost the same as a late Toyota Elise. Yet a much more user friendly daily driver, when looked at like that it makes the Elise aluminium chassis a bit disappointing / pointless.
But a MK3 MR2 is a steel monocoque with stressed panels - so if you replaced them with GRP, you'd end up with something as floppy as a crisp packet and lethal to crash. At least in an Elise you've got those big aluminium sills between you and a side impact.s m said:
WeirdNeville said:
I weighed my E36 touring on a weighbridge, and it was 1500Kg wet. same as an M3, and i think a bit lighter than a Cabrio!
That's quite a weight Neville, what was the spec of your car or were you sat in it?My 98 SE saloon with sunroof, heated skin and wind and folding rears on 16s was 1420kg ( +/- 25kg ) with half a tank ( same as an E46 CSL with aircon ).
My old E46 330i saloon was over 100kg more
zebra said:
Eg. The Nissan 350 was only heavy in regard to acceleration and handling. A 458 does not have the same issues.
I think the OP was on about 370z not 350z. Different cars, different weights, different engine displacement, different power, different economy, different width, different length etc etc.Don't understand how it's heavy in terms of acceleration. Clocked times between 11.8-12.5 seconds to 100mph isn't hanging around.
Think the 350z was around 13 to 100mph which isn't hanging around.
Of course if your used to a ferrari then comparing it is going to be very different
WeirdNeville said:
Yes, but the Mx5 handles like a feather floating down the road, whereas the 340 feels like a leaden brick slung in a washing machine drum.
Having owned a 340, I'd have guessed at 1500Kg and change.
ahh, but that's because it doesn't have power steering. So it must have better steering purity. like race car.Having owned a 340, I'd have guessed at 1500Kg and change.
I had a 340 years ago. It felt poor to drive in terns of weight because I had the 1.4 model, steering wasn't assisted and it felt huge. Was RWD though and in the wet some fun could be had. I did drive one of the top spec 360's (might have been 2.0 litre) with power steering and that felt MUCH better. Chalk and cheese Infact.
I am looking through rise tinted specs though about 15 years ago
I am looking through rise tinted specs though about 15 years ago
Max_Torque said:
I think you should be talking about "control weights" rather than vehicle mass tbh!
Now that everything is power assisted, you can make any car, of any mass perform tbh (take the 918 as an example, heavy, but massive power and grip)
Something like a viper is regarded as heavy because it's control weights are heavy, and because it's chassis set up is generally quite inert (because it has to deal with >500horses)
I don't think this true. Increased weight will always mean increased inertia, and an increased polar moment of inertia. For a given vehicle, adding weight will decrease cornering speeds, increase braking distances, make turn in less responsive. Weight should always be minimised. Now that everything is power assisted, you can make any car, of any mass perform tbh (take the 918 as an example, heavy, but massive power and grip)
Something like a viper is regarded as heavy because it's control weights are heavy, and because it's chassis set up is generally quite inert (because it has to deal with >500horses)
RealSquirrels said:
I don't think this true. Increased weight will always mean increased inertia, and an increased polar moment of inertia. For a given vehicle, adding weight will decrease cornering speeds, increase braking distances, make turn in less responsive. Weight should always be minimised.
Don't forget increasing weight also increases grip by the same amount that it increases inertia. There's no particular reason that the steady-state cornering speeds or braking distances of a heavy car should be any different to those of a light one (at least until the heavy one starts to overheat things). A low total mass certainly makes it much easier to make a car handle well, but isn't strictly necessary for it.
WeirdNeville said:
Nissan challenged that Mantra with the GT-R. Whether it was fluff or not, who knows, but they described the weight as an integral part of the car. In effect, with enough power and computing, you can get around the problem of inertia and use the grip generated by the weight to good effect.
Whether they were successful or not is probably down to your personal taste.
I've never been convinced by that, I suspect that they built the car, came out heavy, and decided to spin a line so people didn't winge so much. Seemed to work quite well..Whether they were successful or not is probably down to your personal taste.
5lab said:
I've never been convinced by that, I suspect that they built the car, came out heavy, and decided to spin a line so people didn't winge so much. Seemed to work quite well..
I suspect they set out to make a very fast, very cheap car and it turned out that making it heavy was the easiest way to achieve this. 
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