ZL1 Weight?

[chain777]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

So how much weight would you say would be saved if they used fiber glass or carbon fiber body panels, magnesium engine cradle, the balsa wood floor, in addition to the weight savings they have already made to the wheels, hood etc. Enough to get it around the SS weight

And enough to price it around the Z06. Weight reduction is expensive, much more so than adding power. You can either have a ~4000lb ~$50,000 ZL1 or a ~3800lb ~$80,000 ZL1.

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

So how much weight would you say would be saved if they used fiber glass or carbon fiber body panels, magnesium engine cradle, the balsa wood floor, in addition to the weight savings they have already made to the wheels, hood etc. Enough to get it around the SS weight

Ball park, what you've listed might save about 120 (maybe a bit more) pounds and taking in to account the tooling for the parts and low ZL1 volume, plus the changes required in Oshawa to build the car with these materials, you' be looking at (ball park mind you) $5,000 or more to the sticker. And with Carbon Fiber, the low volume and high tooling bill make these parts very expensive.

And of course, there will be a few that will say it can be done for less, and you probably could aftermarket once you bought your ZL1. But GM has very strict requirements and testing that these parts would have to meet that the aftermarket doesn't. So yes, it can be done for less, but not much less by an OEM.

So my question is not so much could you do it, because you can. It's how many would pay for it and how much?

So let start a poll,

How much more would you pay for your ZL1 to save 100 pounds?

How much more would you pay to save 200 pounds?

And keep in mind the 2nd 100 pounds will cost way more than the first 100 pounds.

And, no this poll isn't about taking stuff off the car. It still needs to do everything the ZL1 can do, including seat 4.

So how much?

[Blackdevil77]

Originally Posted by Number 3

Ball park, what you've listed might save about 120 (maybe a bit more) pounds and taking in to account the tooling for the parts and low ZL1 volume, plus the changes required in Oshawa to build the car with these materials, you' be looking at (ball park mind you) $5,000 or more to the sticker. And with Carbon Fiber, the low volume and high tooling bill make these parts very expensive.

And of course, there will be a few that will say it can be done for less, and you probably could aftermarket once you bought your ZL1. But GM has very strict requirements and testing that these parts would have to meet that the aftermarket doesn't. So yes, it can be done for less, but not much less by an OEM.

So my question is not so much could you do it, because you can. It's how many would pay for it and how much?

So let start a poll,

How much more would you pay for your ZL1 to save 100 pounds?

How much more would you pay to save 200 pounds?

And keep in mind the 2nd 100 pounds will cost way more than the first 100 pounds.

And, no this poll isn't about taking stuff off the car. It still needs to do everything the ZL1 can do, including seat 4.

So how much?

I'd pay an extra 5-6 grand for 200 lbs off the car. Maybe 2 grand or a little more for 100 lbs

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Z4me

Why don't they yank the two back passenger seats, and replace them
with some light wieght cross brackets. It's like any normal size adult
couldn't fit back there anyway's, and have a safety net behind it for the
trunk area. Perhaps a light weight trunk hood would help
as well, just my two cents worth on reducing wieght.

I'd rather see that on a Z28 than the ZL1

[Blue Menace]

Wow, really? Someone posted this before: if you want the car to weigh less, go lose some weight off yourself. If you really think the SS is heavy, go drive an SRT8. Now THAT'S a pig!

[Blackdevil77]

Originally Posted by Blue Menace

Wow, really? Someone posted this before: if you want the car to weigh less, go lose some weight off yourself. If you really think the SS is heavy, go drive an SRT8. Now THAT'S a pig!

Yes, and the fact that the new Charger R/T weighs over 4400 pounds is insane!

[Caliman93230]

The zl1 is going to weigh 1 billion pounds lol, seriously the camaro is built in the wrong platform the zeta was made for a 4 door sedan, plus there was lilttle the engineers did for weight savins, for example the huge garbage cans the car uses for exaust are unnecessary weight, if you want to go fast buy a corvette, and push nos

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

So how much weight would you say would be saved if they used fiber glass or carbon fiber body panels, magnesium engine cradle, the balsa wood floor, in addition to the weight savings they have already made to the wheels, hood etc. Enough to get it around the SS weight

I'm not sure how much of that you could do on the Camaro. In the Corvette, it has a spaceframe that everything is attached to. The body is pretty much just a skin, and as such is non-structural. You could pull the body off a Corvette and it would be fine, though the aerodynamics would suffer a bit.


Pull the body off a Camaro and you're left with a bunch of pieces lying on the floor. The steel unibody in the Camaro makes replacing panels with carbon fibre very difficult if you plan on retaining the structure of the car. You could switch to aluminum, but the design of the car means that certain parts simply can't be made with aluminum. It would also involve a significant amount of re-tooling at the plant to have an aluminum body structure.

Speaking practically, lightweight exterior pieces would probably be restricted to things like the hood, trunk, and maybe the door skin. Anything else would likely require significant re-engineering to maintain the integrity of the car. And that would cost big bucks.

[Blackdevil77]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

I'm not sure how much of that you could do on the Camaro. In the Corvette, it has a spaceframe that everything is attached to. The body is pretty much just a skin, and as such is non-structural. You could pull the body off a Corvette and it would be fine, though the aerodynamics would suffer a bit.


Pull the body off a Camaro and you're left with a bunch of pieces lying on the floor. The steel unibody in the Camaro makes replacing panels with carbon fibre very difficult if you plan on retaining the structure of the car. You could switch to aluminum, but the design of the car means that certain parts simply can't be made with aluminum. It would also involve a significant amount of re-tooling at the plant to have an aluminum body structure.

Speaking practically, lightweight exterior pieces would probably be restricted to things like the hood, trunk, and maybe the door skin. Anything else would likely require significant re-engineering to maintain the integrity of the car. And that would cost big bucks.

That pic is amazing. Doesn't look very safe, but amazing none the less. What about fiber glass panals? Are those pricey and would they work?

[radz28]

I could see aluminum crossmembers and cradles, but that's about it; maybe control arms, too. I think those would be reasonably "inexpensive", but I don't know if the payoff would be there. Personally - I think CAMARO is a little heavy, but it it were as flacid (I don't mean that totally literally) as, say, the Mustang's chassis, then I'd make up for a lot of that weight by adding chassis stiffeners and such anyways, so I'd almost make up for that weight right there. I'm also, now, a complete supporter of IRS, and know that some of that weight comes from that technology, so while I'd like to see a lighter ZL1, I know it's not going to happen at a reasonable cost and I'm completely fine with it, because I've read what CTS-V can do, and feel even ZL1 can improve upon that, and I'm in complete support of that. While CTS-V, I'm sure, wouldn't feel near as quick as Z06 - why should it? It's hardly the same car. I want ZL1 to be everything it can, but it's still not Corvette That's Big Brother, and no one steps on Big Brother's toes

[radz28]

Those panels aren't really fiberglass, if I recall correctly. I believe they're SMC - sheet molded composite. They are very similar to fiberglass but have a more plastic (composite) matrix, if you will. I think the finish is a lot better. The 4th Gen had many SMC panels, and, for me, the feeling of quality is not the same as metal panels. The feeling of shutting those SMC doors is quite different than the nice metal doors on the 5th Gen. Those doors still weighed probably close to 70-90 pounds; it's been a while since I picked one up since I've been at the shop. I don't see this generation going that way with panels, and I think that's GREAT.

JMVHO

[lbls1]

Its amazing that the corvette has always featured a full frame chassis, but yet maintained a relatively light body weight in proportion to its power. The unitized body of the camaro was an advantage for it because it saved some weight from the body while using a less expensive chassis structure.

Looking at the 5th generation though, although the body IMO has improved over the 4th gen, it strenthened the body at the expense of weight savings. If the ZL1 can come in at roughly the same weight or slightly less than an SS then I'd say that it would accomplish a lot.

Just look at how well the caddy handles itself at its obese 4200 lb body weight! 3900 lbs and the zl1 will make money!

[2cnd chance]

What could be taken off by the owner to lighten the car? Let's consider an SS since some have done this. Example exhaust, washer fluid container, forged wheels, etc. And how much would be saved by each change?

[truth411]

I am hopeing it will wiegh no more than 3950lbs, but I expect 4050 lbs which is about 200 lbs lighter than the CTS-V Coupe.