The Follow Up, Part 2

The second part of the podcast that I wanted to talk about was Matt's example of the Chevrolet Camaro. He brought up the really important idea of platform sharing. Basically, platform sharing is when automakers use the same architecture to underpin different vehicles. For instance, the Camaro is based on what GM calls their "Zeta" architecture, which was, first and foremost, engineered for full-size rear-wheel-drive sedans like the recently discontinued Pontiac G8.

This goes against the original idea of the muscle car: to take the biggest, most powerful engine possible and stuff it into a smaller car. The current Camaro is the antithesis to this because it is just a big engine in a big car.

No matter how well the Camaro drives, it will always be limited by the platform that upon which it is based because said platform dictates its size. Not to beat a dead horse, but weight, by definition, hampers performance, which is why it baffles me why a so-called "performance car" can weigh more than 2 tons.

Platform sharing has only gotten worse as a result of the SUV craze. As crossovers become more and more popular, automakers are sharing platforms among more and more disparate car models. In an article from the June 2003 issue of Car & Driver, former editor-in-chief Csaba Csere uses Nissan as a prime example of this. In the early 2000s, Nissan introduced a plethora of new models, many of them based on the same two platforms. One of these platforms, known as FM, was for mainly for front-wheel-drive mid-sized cars like the Altima and Maxima. But the other platform, FM, was used for everything from rear-wheel-drive based crossovers to sports cars.

The Nissan Z is a historic sports car model that has been produced by Nissan starting in the 1970s. Looking at today's 370Z, you would expect it to be optimized for handling and performance and, thus, as lightweight as possible.

What you wouldn't expect, though, is that it shares the FM platform with the Infiniti FX, a mid-sized, all-wheel-drive, luxury crossover vehicle that weighs around 4500 pounds.

What Csere emphasizes in his article is that, since these two vastly different cars share components, the common components are not optimized for the different purposes of the vehicles. For instance, suspension components shared between the two would have to be strong (and thus heavy) enough for the FX, meaning that they would be unnecessarily strengthened for the smaller 370Z. So basically what he is saying is that platform sharing makes cars like the 370Z heavier than they need to be.

What I'd like to show through these examples is that automotive obesity does not only relate to fuel efficiency, but other types of efficiency as well. Sure, it saves time to not have to engineer different parts for different cars, but if cars are not structurally efficient, then they are not optimized for their specific purpose. Since cars are consumer items, shouldn't the engineers' main purpose to optimize them for their specific consumer base? Especially with performance cars, car enthusiasts are going to buy the car that is the purest representation of their needs as a driver.

Maybe what I'm calling for in writing this blog is more than a desire for cars to become lighter. Maybe what I want is a re-evaluation of how cars figure into American society. Our culture of excess can be clearly seen in our automotive market, and this goes against my notion of what a car should be. Automobiles are a luxury, and, in my humble opinion, the current state of the automobile exploits this excessiveness. Instead of taking advantage of this luxury, I think that society should appreciate it in its purest form rather than distorting the automobile to exaggerated proportions.