For years enthusiasts have been complaining that BMW and MINI need to make cars lighter. Today the BMW Group is giving us its answer. The hope of the megacity program (which will likely result in an eventual MINI branded product) is to do nothing short of redefine mobility while taking a HUGE leap ahead of [...] More...
Wow, 250-350 kilograms lighter, imagine if they could drop our current car's weight by another 500-800 lbs! That makes both the electric version or the three cylinder even more viable. I wonder if this is also in response to FIAT's upcoming range of two cylinder engines?
The game has been changing for a while... cheap steel has been loosing out to high strength steel. Al castings and extrusions have been moving in, as has Ti and Mg...... Plastics have been used for gas tanks for a while, taking over intake manifolds, and there's some guy with a full plastic engine making the circles looking for takers. But it's all a cost game. Mileage standards will only accelerate the move as companies put thier cars on diets. Matt