Anything that moves benefits by adding
lightness. You may think that a heavier car holds the road better. It does
not. Weight cancels out in all dynamic vehicle performance calculations. But
common sense will illustrate this fact:
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More weight means more inertia to control
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There is more frictional force available
at the tire contact points with increasing weight
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But, there is more inertia to control
during braking and during cornering
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Therefore, higher inertia cancels out the
higher available friction and the net gain or loss is zero
For similar reasons, weight does not equate
to safety either because there is just that much more weight (usually dead
weight) to carry undesirable energy during a sudden stop; that is, a crash.
It is easy to demonstrate that 600 pounds
extra weight does have a detrimental effect on vehicle performance. Just load
your car with four people and drive it. Enough said. Take away 600 pounds of
fat and you car would seem like it was on steroids.
Unnecessary weight results in almost directly
proportional loss to vehicle performance, especially maximum acceleration,
particularly at lower speeds up to 45 mph or so. Above that speed,
streamlining takes effect, a topic to be covered later. Less weight means less
power to accelerate and maintain cruise speed. It means faster hill climbing
with less power and fuel consumed.
Where is this unnecessary weight? Well, cars
have been gaining weight all along despite stated efforts of the
manufacturers. Weight reduction can be expensive. Steel is cheap and aluminum
is expensive. Without getting too technical it is sufficient that there is a
lot of steel and iron that needs to be replaced with light weight non-ferrous
alloy. A reduction of 500 to 600 pounds is feasible, especially for high end
models.