British Car Meeting in Mollis - Riley, Connaught and many others

One of the biggest car meetings in Switzerland every year is the British Car Meeting in Mollis (Glarus). Situated at an airport it offers both the drivers/owners and the spectators an overview on basically any car ever produced in Britain. This years guest of honor was Riley and it was quite a gathering of (mostly post war) Rileys, rarely seen here. But whatever you are interested in concerning British cars, you probably would have been able to spot one - Lotus, TVR, Nash, Hillman, Vauxhall, Triumph, MG, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston-Martin, Rover, Land-Rover, Jaguar, Morris, etc. they all were there, about 1'300-1'500 of them. And, probably for the first time ever, the brand new Connaught V10 GT was shown in Switzerland, as a protoype. The weather was perfect, not too warm so that most cars even survived some queuing at the entrance, sunny and dry. See you again, next year, same time!

Lexus LF-A - have we really waited for this?

Lexus has announced the new Lexus LF-A just recently and it has been covered extensively all over the world. This is a 375'000 Euro supercar with a high revving V10, 560 HP, 1'450 kg weight and impressive performance and road handling (we assume).
It took them 11 years to develop it and the first cars only get shipped in a year or so.
While the car looks impressive (although the design almost looks like a retro modern car) and there's certainly a lot of technology and engineering going into this car, I really wonder whether we have waited for this.
Some of my readers may remember my post on the Connaught D-Type GT V10. Yes, you see Tim Bishop, the Chief Engineer at the steering wheel on the picture here. Well, the team around Tim developed something that I would reckon is more creative at probably a small fraction of the project cost of the Lexus LF-A. There are similarities though. Both cars have a V10 in the front, though the engine in the Connaught is much more in the center of the car, basically between the driver and the co-driver. Both try to to build a lightweight car. The Connaught is 850 kg while the Lexus weighs 1'450 kg. While the performance of the Connaught may be a bit less impressive due to the smaller engine and "only" 300 HP, they achieved to actually seat four people and still have a boot. And what is most intriguing for me, the Connaught has a built-in hybrid module (kind of a KERS) while Lexus, the mother of the hybrid technology, doesn't. Last, but not least, the sticker price for the Connaught is 100'000 GBP, while the price tag for the Lexus LF-A is supposed to be more than 3 times of this.
So, this brings me back to the point, that most of today's supercars and this includes the Lexus LF-A lack creativity and are just evolutions of concepts from the 80ies and 90ies.

Where should car manufacturers spend their money?

Audi announced a new logo. Honestly I wouldn't have noticed it probably, if I hadn't been made aware of it. You can certainly call this a subtle redesign. Regardless of the nature of the changes though, something like a new logo is a huge investment for any global company. Figures in the 3 digit million USD range are not uncommon for these projects. So is it worth it? And wouldn't the money be better spend in developing attractive prototypes or making cars less expensive? I think so. For the money spent for this new logo companies like Connaught probably could develop three new cars including new engines!

Weight Watchers - we need to slim down our cars

Weight is one of the most critical factor in car engineering and at the same time quite underrated. Cars have become heavier and heavier over the last 30 years. And it's not that helpful. The weight doesn't only influence handling, but also fuel economy and energy to be spent for production. And of course if there's more stuff in a car there's more you have to get rid off at the end of its life cycle. So, it seems, there are more than enough arguments to make cars light. However, the contrary has happened.
An excellent illustration from a paper from the "LS-DYNA Anwenderforum (Bamberg 2008)" illustrates this. But let's take some examples.
Here's a accidental list of cars and their base weights:

Car Weight (kg)
Porsche Cayenne GTS 2225
Mercedes 350 SL 1750
Lamborghini Murcielago 6.5 V12 1750
Nissan GT-R 1740
BMW M3 1605
Toyota Prius 1400
Porsche Carrera 997 S 1350
VW Golf 1.4 TSI 1340
Fiat Punto 1.4 T 1155
Lotus Elise R 900
Morgan 4/4 1.6 880

You have to look very hard to find a car that is below 1'000 kg. And the weights in the table aren't even what you get when you receive your fully spec'd car. Extras such as navigation systems, electrical sunroofs, etc. will add addiditional weight, so that the Golf mentioned in the table may be well 1450 kg and not the 1'340 kg quoted.
Obviously it could be different, as the Connaught D-Type GT V10 with 850 kg, the Mindset with less than 900kg or other innovative cars are proving it. And you don't even need to suffer as good solutions offering both performance and comfort are possible.

So, maybe we should form an organization such as a "Car Weight Watchers Association" to focus on the weight of cars? And promote light cars and blacklist heavy ones?

The V10 Hybrid Connaught D-Type GT

Car manufacturers have been trying to convince us that modern sports cars need to have a curb weight of almost two tons, need to be wide and long, thirsty and very very expensive. What looks like a law of nature isn't though!
In Wales (UK) a small company is building a sports car that weighs roughly 850 kg, and is with its V10 2 liter engine very economical thanks to a hybrid modul and the overall construction of the car. And it even carries 4 people with a serious amount of luggage. Where else could you find something like this?
What Tim Bishop and his boys at Connaught Motor Company are able to achieve is really impressive! Have a look at a video on youtube that introduces the car and highlights some of its features. It's very lightweight, as said, roughly 850 kg. That's 500 kg less than a Lotus Evora! It still has been constructed with crash tests in mind and the CAD/CAE tools used are the same as the ones used by the large manufacturers. The masterpiece is the front-mid-mounted V10 with a 22.5 degree angle between the two banks of cylinders. The engine is so small that it can be fitted where normally the transmission would be, resulting into a 50:50 kg distribution for the car. Thanks to a hybrid module energy is consumed in small bits giving a CO2 efficiency second to none in the same category. Yes, it's sort of a green car (not just the paint!). Everything has been constructed with ecology in mind, craddle to grave as Tim calls it. What is also highly impressive is the fact that this cars summons 40-50 years of car engineering and takes the best ideas from these years. You find things in this car that were pioneered in Reliants or Tatras, there's more tradition in this car than in any Aston Martin I would guess.
So here's a potential super car with a price tag of roughly 120'000-130'000 Euros, developed with a budget that was a fraction of what the biggies like Porsche, Jaguar or Maserati spend to come up with cars that are far less innovative than this one. Let's hope Tim Bishop and his great team will be able to lead this project to success and influence the motor car industry with it.
P.S. If you believe you heard the name before, yes, Connuaught built racing (and street) cars in the fifties with quite some success. So, there's even more tradition to this ....