5th Gen Camaro curb weight updates. Sticky thread?

[radz28]

Originally Posted by Chogan2200

well...I guess you can't quite have your cake and eat it too??

trust me, I'm not mechanic and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it true that within the last 30 years, Automotive Engineers have been able to figure out how to make big fast cars weigh less with different types of metal....??? perhaps??

[DGthe3]

Whatever it is, I'm sure its the standard that all cars use when describing weight.

[AZCamaroFan]

the automatic car is 53 pounds heavier????

I must say i am severely disappointed in the cars weight. gas is $4 a gallon. if the V8 gets 15/23 mpg, remember that is even with cylinder deactivation. and that 23 is if you hold steady at 55 mph. what about 65-70? 20 mpg?
i remember when the mustang gt 500 came out at 13 pounds shy of 4,000 i mocked it.

[kevin2323]

Yep i knew this car would be similar in weight to its competition. But guess what? That means my challenger will actually be competitive yeyyyyy. I love competition.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Then maybe the mocking should stop...ever care to wonder why weight is so "out of hand"? Is it because engineers across the board got lazy? Is it because everyone is content to build heavy cars?

Maybe there's something more...something like saftey standards that, imo, are out of hand. Maybe there's millions of people who judge a car by its gadgetry, and yet further...maybe it's the wild quest for horsepower that is driving up the power-handling requirements! What would most of you here say to a 3500lb, V6-ONLY Camaro that performed just as well as this one will? Heresy? Blasphemous? "Not a Camaro"?

hmmm...Challenger, GT500(and no doubt soon the rest of the 'stangs), Camaro, GTR (yes, GTR)....something is telling me very loudly that weight is going up across the board...and not just Camaro. Having sat and thought about this for a while, I retract ALL my comments made about the Challenger being a 'Pig'. It's vuloptuous.

I still say that the Camaro won't feel like it weighs as much as it does. The G8 is getting alcolades even though it weights more, and so will the Camaro. Moreso than the G8 I'd say, due to it's performance-orientation. Just don't look at the numbers only and decide it's an underperforming "pig".

[jmliptak]

Originally Posted by Chogan2200

well...I guess you can't quite have your cake and eat it too??

trust me, I'm not mechanic and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it true that within the last 30 years, Automotive Engineers have been able to figure out how to make big fast cars weigh less with different types of metal....??? perhaps??

They have, but they are cars like Corvettes and Porsches and Ferraris...The definition of the Camaro that has been touted is affordable performance, so you have to walk the line. Looks like it is similar to Dodge and Ford in that respect, you can do it lighter with other materials but both they and how they are processed costs a lot more...Did you ever see the special on Discovery about the Z06, the aluminum frame is built at a Dana factory in Ky and shipped to the plant for assembly, the technology for forming and welding is very different, and you are in a world of hurt if you mess up aluminum frame pieces, they cost a lot more to fix as well...It can be done, but at a cost....

[boxmonkeyracing]

well don't even give it a chance. . .9 posts wow. wonder if you were ever really going to give it a chance. my guess is no.

[kevin2323]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Then maybe the mocking should stop...ever care to wonder why weight is so "out of hand"? Is it because engineers across the board got lazy? Is it because everyone is content to build heavy cars?

Maybe there's something more...something like saftey standards that, imo, are out of hand. Maybe there's millions of people who judge a car by its gadgetry, and yet further...maybe it's the wild quest for horsepower that is driving up the power-handling requirements! What would most of you here say to a 3500lb, V6-ONLY Camaro that performed just as well as this one will? Heresy? Blasphemous? "Not a Camaro"?

hmmm...Challenger, GT500(and no doubt soon the rest of the 'stangs), Camaro, GTR (yes, GTR)....something is telling me very loudly that weight is going up across the board...and not just Camaro.

Thank you I have been defending most new muscle cars curb weight because of safety standards getting worst every year. About time somebody stopped calling them pigs and used their brain. I predicted the camaros weight to be 3800 -3900 ish and I was right. I can't wait for it to hit the road!

[jmliptak]

There are lighter cars, but they cost tens of thousands or in some cases hundreds of thousand more. Tag has a point, you want a HUD and halos and a sunroof and dual exhausts, etc, etc, etc. Tradeoffs abound, the real question is which problem you choose to live with. An affordable Camaro or Mustang or Challenger or a really cool one one made of unobtanium that starts at $40K? THAT is the choice...

BTW, the Bugatti Veyron by this definition would be a pig too, but it goes 240 or 250. Course it had a w-16 putting out about 1,000 hp and costs $1.2 million AND has a nine month waiting list...

[4thGen]

Originally Posted by 1fastbusa

The car looks wonderfull. I dont beleive i have seen pics of the ss with the 20inch wheels which would make it even better. But 3860 pounds for the 6 speed ss are you joking? And i know it was going to come with a independant rear but i was wishing for a solid rear. If the weight would have come in at 3500 at had a solid rear i would have sold my cobra and bought 2. Now ill just keep my cobra and buy a 09 c6 maybe a used z06 if i can find a decent used one

You do realize it has been part of the plan that this car get IRS for the past 3 years right? Personally, I didn't expect anything less than 3650, and that was for the V6. This car wasn't made to be super light, and it shouldn't have been expected to be either. I bet it handles awesome though.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by jmliptak

There are lighter cars, but they cost tens of thousands or in some cases hundreds of thousand more.

Originally Posted by 4thGen

This car wasn't made to be super light, and it shouldn't have been expected to be either. I bet it handles awesome though.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by azfan

I must say i am severely disappointed in the cars weight. gas is $4 a gallon. if the V8 gets 15/23 mpg, remember that is even with cylinder deactivation. and that 23 is if you hold steady at 55 mph. what about 65-70? 20 mpg?
i remember when the mustang gt 500 came out at 13 pounds shy of 4,000 i mocked it.

I've been studying this for a while, looking at theory and real world results when people add or remove weight. A few hundred pounds on a nearly two ton car makes ZERO difference in fuel economy. In fact, if you drive reasonably, even larger percentages of weight make zero difference. The main reason that lighter cars get better fuel economy is that they can have smaller, more efficient engines and/or taller gears.

If you accelerate hard all the time and never take your foot off the gas until it's time to shove the brake pedal into the floor, and do a lot of city driving, then a 20% weight difference could give you a measurable fuel economy difference.

As for highway mileage, which seems to be your concern above, weight has almost no bearing on it. Highway mileage is almost 100% about aerodynamic, tire, and drivetrain drag. Even engine size doesn't matter much (with good gears) because large-displacement engines can make the same power at lower RPM, and engine drag goes up exponentially compared to RPM. Blame the aggressive look and the huge ballsy grille of the Camaro for its highway mileage. If it looked like this and was properly geared it would get over 50mpg for sure:


Edit (2008-10-23): Further study has revealed that weight loss can help fuel economy in one situation: A very lightweight car that is severely underpowered. In such a case, it seems that for every 1% weight change, you could see up to or slightly more than 1% fuel economy change.

[Mr Twisty]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Having sat and thought about this for a while, I retract ALL my comments made about the Challenger being a 'Pig'. It's vuloptuous.

Nice headllights baby

[mxkx250]

I must say i am severely disappointed in the cars weight. gas is $4 a gallon. if the V8 gets 15/23 mpg, remember that is even with cylinder deactivation. and that 23 is if you hold steady at 55 mph. what about 65-70? 20 mpg?
i remember when the mustang gt 500 came out at 13 pounds shy of 4,000 i mocked it.

I am under the understanding that this is how the old epa mileage was applied. The new ones from this year on will be a more real world representation. Testing at actual speed limits. A lot of people complained that they couldn't get the mileage on the sticker. The Government requires a more "real world" representation now.
I have heard that new mileage figures could compare around 3 mpg less than last years figures for the same car.