Ford Motor Company has announced that, in partnership with the Corning glass works, the new Ford GT supercar will have a windshield and engine cover made of what they call Gorilla Glass Hybrid.
In case you don’t know, Gorilla Glass is Corning’s brand name for the ion-exchange-strengthened glass used in smartphones and tablets. Instead of two sheets of annealed glass laminated with a middle sheet of clear polymer — as in conventional safety glass — Gorilla Glass Hybrid replaces the inner layer with Gorilla Glass.
The reason why Ford is using it in the GT is to save weight. “Light weighting” is quickly becoming a meme in the industry. Ford is trying to sell a supercar with a V6 engine so making it as light as possible is critical. Gorilla Glass is significantly thinner than annealed glass of similar strength, it has a much higher strength-to-weight ratio, and the result is something that weighs a third less than conventional glass.
While this is the first use of Gorilla Glass-branded product for a car’s exterior glass, faithful readers of TTAC will recall that this is not the first time a Detroit automaker has turned to Corning and used ion-exchange glass to save weight.
Three years ago, Jack Baruth wrote about how Corning helped Chrysler lighten the factory “stock” lightweight NHRA A body drag racers they made in 1965. Back then, the thin ion-exchange glass was called Chemcor. Corning publicity for Gorilla Glass makes it sound as if it’s a whole new thing, saying that it uses a completely different formulation than Chemcor, but I’d be willing to make at least a small bet that there’s a chain of patents between Chemcor and Gorilla Glass.
[Photos: Ford Motor Company and Texas Thunder Performance]
Them hail balls would be better of in a nice glass of whiskey or bourbon!
… Or a nice aromatic Gin
I can’t do gin just straight like that, gotta have tonic and some lime.
Queen Victoria and I are old friends but there is no way I am drinking her gin without tonic.
She’s an icy lady, not quite smooth enough to go it alone!
Hendrick’s though. That flavor!
I’m not about to pollute my Gentleman Jack with (sniff, sniff)…water.
And I wouldn’t pollute my water with Gentleman Jack. Knob Creek, Buffalo Trace or Eagle Rare for me, thanks.
Sipping a little Johnnie Walker Red as I type, I agree. If it’s not good enough to enjoy neat, you might as well make it into a cocktail.
Adding lightness is the only avenue left. Engine tuning has evolved to the point that, at the moment, there isn’t much to be gained without running afoul of regulations or reliability problems. It seems like better glass and the weight savings are undeniable. Maybe something similar will make it into production cars as well.
I wonder if we will ever see a 5 stroke engine like the Ilmor combined with direct injection and either a variable nozzle turbocharger or a variable scroll geometry turbocharger plus the usual variable cam timing and varible valve lift technologies.
As for the glass, every little bit of weight taken out adds up to something of substance if you find enough parts that can be lightened.
A friend of mine runs a Miata in Grp 2 Solo. He got down to removing the washers from bolts. He went as far as swapping in an earlier non-airbag dash. I was astonished when he told me how many pounds he’s legally removed from the car.
He’s very competitive in his class so it must have worked.
By the way, great anecdote about Steve Jobs and Gorilla Glass and the Corning CEO, from Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs”:
http://www.dartblog.com/data/2012/01/009944.php
(scroll down to the italics)
Has anyone produced a gorilla glass drinking glass yet? That would be pretty slick.
Lucifer, you asked about Gorilla drinking glasses. If you are looking for crazy strong glasses, check out the Korin series from Japan.
On behalf of actual gorillas, I take offence at the term Gorilla Glass. And also at the V6 in a supercar thing….
Simian Glass is much less offensive.
Cellphone batteries, cellphone operating systems and cellphone glass…. No wonder Apple figures they can have a go at the car biz….
Next thing you know, you’ll get fined for using a car while driving.
Making a supercar as light as possible has always been the goal, regardless of cylinder count!
I don’t think that’s really true. Otherwise, all supercars which existed before carbon fiber was around would have been made of fiberglass.
Instead, they were often heavy metal, and just used a larger engine to compensate.
Bugatti Veyron is made of nothing but exotic stuff. And it is still a pig hiding in outrageous horsepower; a 25-year oldMcLaren F1 still eats a Veyron’s lunch to 100mph with sixty percent the power and less than half the weight.
That’s what it took to make a car go that fast and still be safe and comfortable. I would certainly take a McLaren F1 over a Veyron, but the McLaren can’t compete when it comes to top speed.
Fiberglass is nothing special. The aluminum panels of older supercars are probably lighter than fiberglass equivalents.