Hack
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2014
- Threads
- 84
- Messages
- 12,418
- Reaction score
- 7,641
- Location
- Minneapolis
- Vehicle(s)
- Mustang, Camaro
I agree. Even though I realize most people like bigger cars, I personally really wish Ford would have made the Mustang 200-300 lbs smaller. Forget reducing factors of safety on their engineering, just make the car a little smaller. Weight would take care of itself. No expensive materials needed.The normal GT could be 250# lighter while spending very little actual money. What they would have to do is engineer the car from the ground up to meet an actual weight goal. From design to stampings to castings, everything has to be pointed towards the goal of losing weight. The engineers have to be given the instruction, "It can't just do the job, it has to do the job in the lightest way possible." That needs to be beaten into them.
I bet there's a minimum of 25# of fat in the rear suspension alone. The camber arm doesn't need to be cast steel. cast AL is fine. The divorced rear spring design means you have to run a high rate rear spring (more steel) and it means the arm has to be sized to take the spring loads in bending. That big cast AL arm is silly. Put a little structure in the shock towers and all of that could be lighter. The rear subframe itself uses big, heavy wall tubing which doesn't seem optimized at all to the job. Smaller tubes and more triangles would go a long way towards dropping weight.
When you start this job at the level of concept, it can make a huge difference. You have to look at the density of literally every part on the car and you have to _really_ care.
I think the build quality is fine. I think the current Mustangs are every bit as good with respect to build quality as they have been in the past. I just don't think the performance is enough better than my 2017 to justify paying more than double for something new. At the rate I'm using it up, the 2017 may just last the rest of my life. It's definitely not worn out.So close to $70k with gas guzzler . Still over $10k more than I'd pay for it.
Ford Interior and Exterior build quality is just not good enough in a Mustang to be asking these prices imo.
Yes, TH has a very small track that emphasizes sticky tires over max power. Bigger tracks will see weight and aero come into play more. The TH lap time and the braking performance of the DH are the datapoints that make me think tires are what is really making the difference with the DH.I have yet to see anyone post a lap time/video from a DH that verifies its faster, other than Lightning Laps and Throttle House. I don't believe there is even one DH lap time posted in the Road Course section of this forum unless I missed it. I'm heading to Road America this weekend and will see if I can get some lap times for comparison.
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