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Justin said:
By basic, I mean the car's without many toys or luxury items that add significant weight. I believe you can get a C4S Cab Tip up to some crazy weight.

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C4S Co-Driver said:I don't agree with the statement that the market does not want a reduction in weight....The public is happy with the weight of cars...



Every time a new model comes out, manufacturers are applauded if they can keep the weight the same as the outgoing model. No disagreement from me on the benefits of reducing weight, but I don't see enough market pressure on manufacturers to reduce the weight of their mainstream models. Perhaps people are paying more attention with the Z06? Chevy wanted a certain level of performance and used weight as a way to achieve it. If other manufacturers wish to make their cars more competitive by comparison, maybe they will spent money in this area.

As long as weight hovers a bit over 3000 .lbs and performance stays high, people will not care about weight as much as you think. Most people would rather add 100hp than lose a few hundred .lbs of weight. How many Ferrari owners are complaining about the weight of the F430? How many 997 owners? Not many. In fact, not enough of them to make it financially reasonable for Porsche to listen to their concerns for the standard models. Remember Porsche is all about profit margins. It's a company after all. These light weight materials cost more money, as does producing special low volume models. Notice the GT3 and 360CS and the premium that is charged. Even Lotus charges $400 for A/C delete.

Don't get me wrong here. I have an Elise after all (needs some power though), and would love a 2500 .lbs Porsche with around 300-350hp. But cars like these are reserved for the special production models only. I don't believe there is signifcant pressure from other competing companies or pressure from consumers.

At 3400 .lbs the 997 Turbo will still be a hit, and those wanting lighter weight will go for a different model. Where is the motivation to reduce its weight? So far I only see competition from the Z06 in this regard and I'm not sure how many Porsche buyers it is really going to steal.

- J


Thanks for highlighting the error in my last post. The point I was trying to make with those two contradictory statements is that people are happy with current car weight because they're not aware of the inherent benefits from a reduction in weight as car manufacturers shy away from discussing car weight in most cases. Instead, they mention how much HP the new model has and how fast it goes from 0-60. The point of my original post was that people on this forum are not the average consumer. We actually care about weight, braking distance, gear ratios and much more. I thought it was interesting/disconcerting that everyone seemed fine with the fact that the new Turbo is going to be heavier than the model it replaced, and all everyone could talk about was how much HP it was going to have. I guess that considering we live in the "golden age of horsepower", it's all people focus on. HP is important, but there are other things which are just as, if not more, important in determining a car's level of performance.