Turk,
You stated, ”Your references BECAME the original car somewhere into your argument. If you mispoke that is OK. “
I did not misspeak.
There is some confusion here because of two different threads which are talking about the weights of various cars. On the other thread I stated:
“I was impresssssssed! I sat down and calculated the power to weight ratio of a 330 horsepower small block in one of our new lightweight cars to the power to weight ratio of an {original} (brackets added) big block...I was stunned--it was within 5%.”
I guess most people just don't understand how much power the 427's, (or should I say, the stroked monster 490+ cubic inch engines) are making today compared to the {original} (brackets added} 427’s. The original was FAST--today we are crazy—maybe a little bit too crazy.
As you can see there is a substantial difference between an {ORIGINAL} (brackets added) iron everything 427 at 2413 pounds and a Kirkham aluminum everything 427 at 2148. (The weight I quoted was 2413 pounds, clearly the weight I noted of CSX3104, an original car and not the weight of CSX 4238 which was also noted.)
Interestingly, a current CSX4238 car with aluminum heads and an iron block is almost exactly the same weight as our {original CSX3104} (brackets added). 3104 had iron heads on it when it was weighed, (it has aluminum heads now), and there is a 40 pound savings when you use aluminum heads so the numbers are very close which is quite interesting, considering CSX4238 has an aluminum differential in it and aluminum heads it should have a 60 pound weight advantage over an original car but the numbers indicate the cars are within 13 pounds of each other. I am not sure where the other weight is. (My only comment here on a CSX4000 car is that “interestingly” that is weight is “very close” to an original car’s weight.)
So, from the numbers I have gathered, a small block of {yesterday} (brackets added) is really the same weight as a lightweight big block of today. The lightweight big block of today may even be lighter. “Yesterday” refers to original cars and not to CSX 4000 cars.
So, it seems the British were right—to a point. The {original} (brackets added) car with iron heads, flywheel, and an iron block really did stink—I don’t think anyone disputes that.
If you want the mind altering acceleration of the {original car} (brackets added), then you really only need a 2050 pound car with a small block pumping out 363 to equal an original 427 with 425 horsepower in a 2400 pound car.
As you can clearly see, your comment, “Your references BECAME the original car somewhere into your argument. If you misspoke {sic} that is OK.” is incorrect. I did not misspeak.
You also said, “Not all Kirkhams have billet suspension pieces. I would say most DON'T.” You are incorrect in your statement. The vast majority of our cars are now delivered with the aluminum suspensions. We have sold approximately 400 427 cars and 50 289 cars to date. We switched from original style tubular steel suspensions at around serial number 200 on our cars. We have sold approximately 150 cars to Shelby—over 120 of them were sold to Shelby before serial number KMP200. I imagine our aluminum suspensions now outnumber our original suspensions by 2:1.
You stated, “If you were comparing the KMP to CSX3000, why are you weghing {sic} the CSX4308?” I simply offered the weight because we had the data and I figured someone might be interested. I never discussed the driving and handling of a CSX4000 car…I have never driven one so I could not comment.
Allan,
You posted, ” I was just wondering how much the copper suspension weighs with the copper body. If you add the copper suspension to the aluminum body with a aluminum steering shaft and stainless steel gas tank are you lighter than a viper?”
As I said in an earlier post, we have never sold a car with an aluminum steering shaft.
We have never made a copper suspension—although I must admit it would certainly look cool (all engineering studies aside). I think even our heavy copper-bodied car will all of the heavy iron engine components will not weight nearly as much as a Viper.
bret a ewing,
I do not know what Shelby is or is not making at this time. If Factory Five information would be of any value??? Dave Smith, once told me his carbon fiber body weighted 80 pounds. He was quite surprised when I told him our aluminum body was the same weight so there was no weight savings.
Geardaddy,
That is a GREAT idea. I think I will have to make a list. Sorry, it may take a while as we have 6 cars to deliver to California within the next week and a half—not to mention the cars heading east.
I will also post some of the part differences that I see.
David
