Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisl
Except that the BRZ/FR-S has a much stiffer chassis than a Yaris. Believe me, you wouldn't want to drive a BRZ with a Yaris chassis. That makes your comparison somewhat irrelevant. Also, some of the weight difference comes from the engine and transmission - the Yaris is FWD, which allows for a single transaxle unit (which is lighter than a separate diff and transmission), the transmission itself is a much lighter-duty 5 speed rather than the more capable 6-speed in the BRZ, and the engine is a 1.5L inline 4, which is pretty much definitely lighter than the 2L boxer in the BRZ. Building a lightweight car is easy, but building a lightweight, high-performance car is hard, since many of the heaviest bits in a car are also necessary for performance.
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Agreed, and when you consider a modern day roadster like the Miata approaches 2500lbs, you can see where the FR-S and BRZ came close especially when factoring in a hard top, larger wheelbase, and a useable trunk + functional backseat.
My guess is that to lose more weight when the cars debuted you were looking at using carbon fiber and other more costly materials and it would just push the price of the car up too high. Many people were already complaining about the price since the original rumors was that the car would start around $22K.
Look at the Alpha Romeo 4C. The car will most likely cost somewhere in the $60-80K range when it hits the states and the rumors are that it will be approaching 2400-2500lbs in the US, and the whole design of the car was to be as light as possible but still meet US regulations to be sold in the US (in Europe the car without all the additional safety features weight right around 2100lbs).