Rumor: Steeda Blog - 2015 Mustang Weight Gain (Updated with Steeda's Response)

[scottpe]

link?

Either way its much larger and heavier than the BMWs, and the ecoboost is much smaller than the GTs and aluminum.

Here: http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php/car-and-driver-1904.html

But I'll save you the trouble:

"C/D: How much does the new Mustang weigh, and what efforts were invested in minimizing the gain over the previous edition?

RN: It will be a few more months before we can share specific weight figures. Throughout the car we carefully assess which materials will meet our goal of improving every measurable performance aspect. So we selected aluminum for the hood, front fenders, and deck lid of all cars. The differential carrier is cast aluminum in cars equipped with a manual transmission. Using our computer aided engineering tools, we redesigned virtually every part in the car to trim weight while optimizing the design even where the specific material didn’t change."

​

Obviously can't read into this statement too far, but sure sounds like a lot of emphasis on weight loss in their engineering. All of that to end up with a vehicle that still weights 2-300lbs more than the current one? Man, I'd feel pretty defeated as an engineer if that was the end result of all my hard work in this area...

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[C00KIE M0NSTER]

Dave Pericak is the chief engineer of the 2015 S550 Mustang. This is a direct quote about the S550 development.

John McElroy: I love what you're saying about pulling a bunch of weight out of the car.
Dave Pericak: Yeah, we are, we are definitely going on a crusade to do that now. How much can we get? You know, I don't know, we're still looking at it. But I think, you know, 200 lbs is within our reach.
...
Dave Pericak: I think we can do it, we just need to do it smart. And we've got, and it's in our sights. We know what we need to do. Believe me, Mustang is not standing still. I've always said Camaro has gonna have to chase me.

 

[Wild Stang]

Are all of you going to be racing your cars? Seems like a high percentage of people in this thread really care about this. Sure it's a disappointment (if true) and a lighter car would be faster, but how many of us will really notice or be affected by this? For those who don't race, when you put a 200-250 lb friend in the passenger seat, do you notice a difference in performance? Most probably do not and will not.

 

[smitty]

I know how the mustang feels. I've had a hard time losing weight ever since I turned 50 as well :lol:

 

[mitchell]

Why should any of us have to accept anything until Ford releases the specs? It's still all conjecture until that happens. There is still just as much evidence that the car may have lost weight or stayed close to the same as there are that it has gained 200+ pounds.

Even if Steeda weighed the the cars they have, how do we know those are completely representative of the final production model? Are we sure that all of the parts that are GOING to be made with special materials are actually made of those materials on these pre-production mules?

I won't deny that this sounds like a discouraging bit of information, but I'm not putting too much stock in it just yet. It's still too early to freak out.

You don't have to accept it. Just like there were many doubters and conspiracy theorists when the track photos were leaked. Believe what you want but know that you are setting yourself (and probably others who flock towards popular opinion) up for further disappointment. A few of us with good info have been warning about this for some time now, trying to make sure people are not completely blindsided when real numbers are released. Wishful thinking is not helping the cause.

 

[C00KIE M0NSTER]

I know how the mustang feels. I've had a hard time losing weight ever since I turned 50 as well :lol:

 

[Husker]

Dave Pericak is the chief engineer of the 2015 S550 Mustang. This is a direct quote about the S550 development.

Quote:
John McElroy: I love what you're saying about pulling a bunch of weight out of the car.
Dave Pericak: Yeah, we are, we are definitely going on a crusade to do that now. How much can we get? You know, I don't know, we're still looking at it. But I think, you know, 200 lbs is within our reach.
...
Dave Pericak: I think we can do it, we just need to do it smart. And we've got, and it's in our sights. We know what we need to do. Believe me, Mustang is not standing still. I've always said Camaro has gonna have to chase me.

Well Now...Maybe I should go back and Retract my Retract-->:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Stuntman]

Here: http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php/car-and-driver-1904.html

But I'll save you the trouble:

"C/D: How much does the new Mustang weigh, and what efforts were invested in minimizing the gain over the previous edition?

RN: It will be a few more months before we can share specific weight figures. Throughout the car we carefully assess which materials will meet our goal of improving every measurable performance aspect. So we selected aluminum for the hood, front fenders, and deck lid of all cars. The differential carrier is cast aluminum in cars equipped with a manual transmission. Using our computer aided engineering tools, we redesigned virtually every part in the car to trim weight while optimizing the design even where the specific material didn’t change."

​

Obviously can't read into this statement too far, but sure sounds like a lot of emphasis on weight loss in their engineering. All of that to end up with a vehicle that still weights 2-300lbs more than the current one? Man, I'd feel pretty defeated as an engineer if that was the end result of all my hard work in this area...

Fwiw the 2015 GT I've seen looked like it had an iron carrier and aluminum cover.

 

[mitchell]

Dave Pericak is the chief engineer of the 2015 S550 Mustang. This is a direct quote about the S550 development.

Again, that's from 2010 before any real development began. Design was still being locked down.

 

[Husker]

Again, that's from 2010 before any real development began. Design was still being locked down.

Doesn't matter what year it was--> He said it & He represents FORD!!

 

[mitchell]

Doesn't matter what year it was--> He said it & He represents FORD!!

Are you guys serious? This was in the infancy of the program. He was talking about aspirational goals. Every manufacturer, every year, wants to shed weight. He did not say "Yes, the S550 has lost weight" and he would have had no way of knowing that since the car was not even fully designed.

He also did not know exactly what type of safety reqs he would be contending with. You guys are starting to sound like a bunch of petulant children.

 

[C00KIE M0NSTER]

Again, that's from 2010 before any real development began. Design was still being locked down.

Again, since you can't read...

Dave Pericak: I think we can do it, we just need to do it smart. And we've got, and it's in our sights. We know what we need to do. Believe me, Mustang is not standing still. I've always said Camaro has gonna have to chase me.

 

[mitchell]

I read just fine, just not with the added color you are reading into it.

"It's in our sights".... in 2010. 3-4 years before production parts were being built. Okay. Go ahead and crucify the chief engineer for that comment, I don't care. It won't change a thing and rational minds know not to take comments made that far before development too seriously.

 

[MustangSteve]

Didn't Ford say the GT will beat the Boss? The Boss was 444 HP so if the car gains 300 lbs it will have to make an additional 30 HP to equal the power to weight ratio of the Boss which is equal to about 475 HP.

I can certainly see it gaining weight but it's difficult for me to see how it will gain 300 lbs and out perform the Boss.

At the Charlotte 50th anniversary event, Pericak said the 2015 GT would run quicker lap times than a Boss.

As numerous pubs demonstrated when running the ZL1 against the GT500, there's a lot more to fast lap times than power and weight. The GT500 had 80+ hp advantage over the ZL1 and still lost around the corners. It's entirely conceivable that the S550 chassis dynamics are so much better that even have more weight and equal or less power could yield faster lap times.

 

[xlover]

Not trying to be a fan boy here but it is very possible that blog was written by a marketing person not the actual people working on the car and may not actually speak for the steeda engineers working on the car. They probably took that number from rumors posted online. I know the response to this would be "how could they post that without talking to engineers" but it's very common for marketing people in that type of role (doing a blog update for a small company) to make these types of claims based on things they believed to be fact. I suppose only time will tell but I don't take a steeda marketing blog for certain. I will wait for a steeda rep on the site to confirm the blog or ford to give me the actual specs.

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