A Serious'd Question

An interesting comment was posted on my last update by Indie, where he coherently asked

Out of curiosity, which would you make a higher priority: biofuels or vehicle weight?

Now my brothers and sisters, I ask of you, what do you think is of greater importance - biofuels, which have so much potential and offers much more in increasing the avg MPG's, or the proven methods gone over in this blog, reduction in vehicle weight.

I think we have found a dilemma of an incalculable epic proportion!

Plastics in Auto Glass

See this article here. It's quite revolutionary what the American Chemistry Council has proposed, and they proved it, Using plastics in auto “glass” can lightweight a vehicle and help prevent passenger injuries. This addresses our number one and number two concerns - light weight feasability for better fuel economy, AND even increases the safety rating on cars.

I learned a couple of interesting sell points about the wonder of plastics in the new system:

1.) Recently, a glazing technology has been developed for a virtually unbreakable polycarbonate plastic resin windshield, eliminating glass and achieving even more of a weight reduction— 40–50% compared to laminated glass.

2.) In addition to saving weight, laminated glass can bend slightly under impact and is less likely to shatter than normal safety glass, reducing the risk of passenger injury.

And a couple frightening things about our current system:

1.) About 7,800 vehicle occupants are killed after being ejected through side windows of thin tempered glass that easily shatters, primarily in rollover and side impact accidents.5

2.) In the U.S, over 250,000 lacerations occur each year due to broken tempered glass in vehicles.

If safety is the number one selling point on this new material, then so be it, but the economics are a no brainer!

The Start of it All

I've actually read an interesting article at popular mechanics that says the key to building a 100 MPG car (which is going to be the ultimate goal of this blog) is by, simply, getting rid of the weight. I find this to be true in most aspects.

What do you think are some things we can get rid of to decrease the weight of a car? I tend to align with more of a weightless philosophy on polycarbonate glazing, but that can get expensive.

I honestly think a good start would be getting rid of all the glass - and replacing it with transparent plastic.

In fact in the article this is already proposed!

Glass, for instance, is one of the heaviest components of an automotive body—heavier per square foot than the most commonly used steel.

What do you think?