Question of the Day: Should Cars Be Made of Metal?
Admirably, y'all responded rationally to BMW's GINA Light Visionary Concept. Instead of just screaming "yucky!" like the rest of the car blogosphere, TTAC's B&B took a step back and said, "Hmmm…." Trust me, as someone who has to think about cars all day, it's nothing but fresh air to see readers take such a cerebral tack. And so the GINA is skinned in fabric. Hmmm… Going on nothing but my observation that in normal usage convertibles seem to have a seven-year life span, this may not be the best idea. But, Bangle's comment about "Function over dogma" got my little brain spinning. Why not fabric? Or plastic? Or anything else? Why always metal? Would you drive a non-metal car? Really?
Cleanup driver for Team Black Metal V8olvo.
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Fiero.
"Plastic and plastic composites should be used more than they are currently. Any crash protection lost by the relatively inelastic plastic can be compensated by stiffer (still metal) frame and crash beams." Here is the problem with this statement: Plastic is a oil-based product... we should be finding alternates to this or at least use recycled plastic bottles or something.
Plastic? Why not? Saturn did it and all of those plastic cladded things are still in relatively mint condition compared to their metal bodied counterparts. Cars would at least look much better when say10, 20,30, hell even 40+ years go by.(considering if you even drive the car that long)
I want growth in making cars more engaging. I think balance and integration of the components is key. Metal can only be integrated so much and achieve so many results. BMW used carbon on the roof to counter the center of gravity. Things like that are what I wanna see all over the cars. In little areas, down to little details. Oh and of course safety is a big priority. I love cars but I dont want one to be the suit I'm buried in.