Quote:
Originally Posted by shadoquad
The 370z was the lone sports car which did that, and it was one of the reasons I bought it.
And yes, moar weight = less efficient. Safety measures add weight = car less efficient = fix with FI. Yes, the EPA required higher average mileage across manufacturers' model lines (hello, Aston Cygnet). But the cars would be more efficient if they weren't so heavy.
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The GT500 continues to do it.
The Corvette seems to be nearly identical (a C5 with some options is heavier than a C6 with some options, and vis-versa).
The Camaro certainly porked up. My 370Z is only slightly slower than the beast from a highway roll...or so I hear. For a 430hp car to barely out-gun a 332bhp car with a catback and drop-in tubes/filters is pretty lame.
I think everyone wants a lighter car. It helps mileage. It helps performance. Etc. etc.
Ford is going to shave the mustang down, and GM is going to trim the camaro down, I think. THey would be stupid not to.
The only people still going heavy is Chrysler, and I think that's only because they can't let go of the 300M chassis that they keep basing all their muscle cars off of. But hey, they do look good, even in 5/4 scale.
As a whole though, 2005-2015 is no-man's land. Cars are way better than the 90s and early 2000's, but REAL innovation and ground-breaking stuff is on the horizon for 2015 YM's, and in the future.
That is part of why I traded NOW for a 370Z. I want + equity in it by the time something actually game-changing hits the ground in the mid 20-teens.
Eyes on the mustang and new Z platform for me, although with Nissan's sales this last YM...I dunno. Their re-fresh was pretty...
"ummm...lets do...something? Yeah, okay, that might do it. Lets use old parts for the front end and adapt them with LED's and make the spokes on the wheels a bit wavy. Can we change out shocks and struts and paint the calipers? Give them a reflector out back? No net cost, you say? Sure. That should shut them up until we can offload this platform"
Back to the debate at hand, I think that FI is a solution to EPA/gov regulations, not the extra or non-existent net-weight gain of safety equipment. However, on a car like the 370Z, it is already efficient enough not to get hit with a gas-guzzler tax like the old GT500 did, and Nissan doesn't make enough of them to even touch fleet-averages. There, FI would only mean happier customers = more sales = will it offset cost of plumbing and cooling?