I just spoke to my sales rep at Mercedes of Pembroke Pines and he informed me that he was told of MB's plans to reduce the weight of the 2006 EXX by 500-600 lbs through the use of CF body panels etc. This is amazing news if it is true.

I called to initiate the process of ordering my wife her new toy....a SLK55. She's tired of always feeling like the mommy in her Navigator. Now she'll be able to run her errands in style (and speed). I will have a copy the ordering guide if anyone wants it.

 

Thanks for the info!!

 

What are they replacing that will take 500lbs off? To lose that much weight by using carbon fiber they'd have to make the whole body carbon fiber. I can't see that happening unless they jack the price up to $500K. Look at the SLR as reference.

 

Don't shoot the messenger....notice the ETC? Obviously there is more and I have no further info. It may be BS for all I know...this is what I was told.

 

One big advantage will be dropping the supercharger. With the intercooler it might weigh 80-100lbs. Changing the hood would be nice. I thought some of the other panels were already aluminum. If so there will not be enough to gain to justify the cost. Although it would be great, the car doesn't really need to drop 500lbs. Taking 200lbs off of the front would get the weight distribution more even and do wonders for the handling. The car would be much more neutral and they could inject a little more steering feel.

 

I think I read that the hood and front fenders are aluminum. The trunk may be too.

 

jkrutch - I would love to get the info you speak of on the '05 SLK55. want to see if the wife would like it!!

 

I anticipate having it later today.

 

How can you tell a salesman is lying? His mouth is moving.

It would be great if true. But I usually find that salesman are about the last people to find anything out about cars and more times than not I know more about the car I am looking to purchase than they do.

 

C'mon...he has a real incentive to lie about a car that is over a year away.

 

5-600 lbs is impossible to shed of the body panels. Maybe if the car only came with a frame, seats and powertrain.

As mentioned, 2-300 lbs would make a big enough and more realistic difference, and tigher steering would make this one bang-up job of a car.

Hopefully by then we will have touch screen navi with actual street names, and steeringwheel presets..

 

I just read an article in an old Automobile Magazine about the technical director Gordon M. explaining about the weight savings going CF in the SLR.

He said if the car was made up of steel instead of CF, it would have been 400 lb. heavier. The trade off from using CF is the additional noise and ride harshness. Not an engineer so can't explain further.

 

As with most magazine articles, the gentleman generalizes somewhat. Steel and aluminum have some natural damping characteristics not found in composites. That is not to say that a correct design using these materials could not be quite useable. Steel is also quite a bit stiffer than composite materials raising the natural frequency of the chassis and therefore the resonant frequency. That is the point at which vibration is transmitted most readily.
That is a generalization as well but I hope it helps a little to explain the difference. I helps to remember that steel is a remarkable material and there is a good reason that it is used in automobiles (good specific stiffness, strength).
CF has good specific strength (strength/weight) but some of its other properties are less desireable, especially its cost.

 

i believe 500lb might be possible. Take the m3 and the ms csl for example. BMW shed a few hundred pounds by simply making the roof out of carbon fibre. I could eb wrong but im pretty sure thats what they did. Who knows what mercedes would do but i would be very surprised if they do in fact shed 500lbs

 

Most of the savings is actually in the seats, less electronics, and a/c as an option. Wheels and exhaust could be signifigant difference as well