Lightweight Supercars
Lightweight versions of already quick cars have been a popular thing for manufacturers in recent years. The recipe seems simple enough: Take one quick car, remove everything unnecessary, tweak something in the engine, change the brakes and slap an extra 20k or so on the pricetag.
The performance gains from ripping out the carpets, electric windows and rear seats for example are not that huge – maybe a point or two a second in the dash to 60mph. However, over the length of a lap on a track the potential is much better, and nothing shows that off better than the new Ferrari F430 Scuderia. This lightweight F430 has lapped Ferrari’s own test track, Fiorano, in the same time as an Enzo! That’s a car more than twice the price, with 100 more horsepower and supposed to be the best and quickest car Ferrari can build.
Porsche’s GT3 and GT3RS do the same thing, and now Lamborghini have noticed the potential for these cars with the Gallardo Superleggera. Personally, these cars seem a bit of an excess to me. If you have the chance to own one of these special cars, call me boring but I’d quite like carpet, a stereo and electric windows. Given the straight choice between a “normal” supercar and a lightweight one, the minimal performance gains wouldn’t make me choose the lightweight one. So the fact that these versions actually cost more is mind boggling!
Still, if you choose to buy one of these, its more than likely not your first supercar purchase, and there are plenty of people out there with the money and the wish to take these cars on the track, which is where they excel. Given those circumstances I’d probably join them, but right now I’d just like to own one I can drive more often on the roads without the compromises!
