JLR exercises the Chapman principles of ‘adding lightness’
The biggest nightmare confronting ALL carmakers is a combination of brand marketing and perceived consumer demand, states Iain Robertson, which has added weight consistently to consecutive new models, to make them unfeasibly hefty.
The founder of Lotus Cars, Colin Chapman, coined a number of meaningful expressions during his tenure on planet Earth. Among his outstanding legacy comments that include ‘race on Sunday, retail on Monday’ (although some sources suggest that US car dealer, Bob Tasca, may have been the first person to say it), ‘adding lightness’ is probably his most profound. Colin would talk of purity in design and engineering, directed at his racing cars, which would often be used as the pattern for his road cars.
It helps that the fibreglass used to create car bodies was a godsend material for the plethora of specialist vehicle manufacturers that sprung up in the UK, during the 1950s. It could be significantly lighter than pressed steel panels, even though creating a sturdy(ish) ladder chassis, to which the car’s running gear would be attached, did add bulk. Yet, the revolutionary, unitary construction of the original, Coventry-Climax engined, Lotus Elite, of 1958, did rely on sharing technology with Bristol Aeroplane Company, a little-known fact of the period.
Lotus Cars still talks about ‘adding lightness’ to its current crop of sportscars. Yet, as with all carmakers, it is subject to satisfying European and global safety standards, which means that safety restraint systems, side impact protection, non-submarining seats and a plethora of electronic black boxes and associated hardware add several hundred pounds to the kerbweight of its models. Car manufacturing marketing departments create upwardly mobile, eminently consumer-desirable vehicle specifications, which add even more weight by way of leather upholstery, extra instrumentation, additional trim details, supplementary controls and big wheels and tyres.
While Mazda has been highly explicit about its search for lighter but stronger materials in the make-up of its cars, Citroen used to produce the BX model during the 1980s, which featured the use of advanced plastics moulding technology for its roof panels, bonnets and tailgates. In fact, the original Land Rover Freelander featured similar colour-impregnated front wings that were as flexible as your favourite credit card. However, it is Suzuki Cars that has gone the extra mile in reducing the weight of its models. When the Swift-based Baleno model was introduced, it tipped the scales at just shy of 800kgs, when its rival Skoda Fabia was a good 350kgs heavier. Suzuki even cut the capacity of its fuel tank, from an industry norm of 10gals, to just 7.7gals (working on the basis that fuel is surprisingly heavy).
Naturally, the extensive application of aluminium alloys has played a weight-saving role for Audi and Jaguar Cars, with both companies creating substructures from the material, as well as cladding them in readily dented alloy panels for several models. Both the full-size Audi A8 and Jaguar XJ-Series benefit from generous proportions but weigh less than the slightly smaller A6 and XF models.
As Jaguar Land Rover is already well-versed in the use of lighter materials that it is taking part in pioneering research trials to test the capability of further advanced lightweight metals and composites to be used in future vehicles, can only be a positive move. Much as Lotus did in the late-1950s, JLR, as part of a two-year project, will use technology developed for the aerospace industry to understand how materials respond to corrosive environments, in both global markets and over rigorous terrains.
Samples of new metals and composites planned for use in future Jaguar and Land Rover models will be built into aerospace-grade sensors and put through their paces in some of the world’s most extreme physical conditions, including being tested for over 400,000km across North America. The sensors will measure the performance of the materials continuously and share data with Jaguar Land Rover’s product development team back in the UK. Armed with this information, the engineers can forecast the material’s behaviour more accurately in the development of future vehicle programmes, with the intention of ensuring that next-generation lightweight metals meet the company’s standards and deliver a longer-lasting, consistent high quality finish.
Matt Walters, Lead Engineer, Metals and Process Materials for Jaguar Land Rover, informed us: “This research project is a prime example of our commitment to developing lightweight, durable and robust materials for our future vehicles. Using advanced aerospace-grade technology, such as these sensors, is testament to the quality and standards that we wish to achieve. We are working alongside world-class partners on this ground-breaking research project and will improve the correlation between real-world and accelerated testing, as we continue to raise the bar for both quality and durability.”
The research forms part of ‘Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie’ (GDA), which is a consortium of aluminium manufacturers and carmakers (of which JLR is a fully paid-up member) that are researching the longevity of materials and how they can be made both lighter and more damage resistant. Inevitably, working with industry leaders across quality assurance and manufacturing best practices, in order to develop future lightweight vehicles, the additional benefits of increased fuel efficiency and reduced exhaust emissions are key elements of Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘Destination Zero’ marketing plan, which entails a future with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion; all lofty but hard-to-attain goals.
The project builds on the ongoing research into future materials, from the ‘REALITY’ project, which is a pioneering recycling process that gives premium automotive-grade aluminium a second life, in the development of printed structural electronics, which can reduce the weight of current in-car electronic systems by up to 60%, a significant figure.
A carmaker working with aerospace specialists that are already conversant in the field of weight consciousness, while hardly an innovative exercise, is a genuinely practical one. Of course, material costs are important but sharing technology is a most effective way to also cut overheads. While JLR products do carry premium price tags, there is no reason for the company to not only reduce overheads for its customers but also in the manufacturing process, which would be a ‘win:win’ situation.
