Supra Aluminium Shell

Had a thought earlier today (which has its hazards), and i was wondering if anyone had ever done a complete Supra Alumunium shell?

Some of these companies throw tens of thousands at their Supras, so why not the shell? How feasible is it?

Although no doubt the cost would be astronomical, does anyone have a rough idea of the cost involved, and what kind of weight saving would it provide?

Obviously this may have already been done, in which case i have totally missed the boat.

There was a thread where a guy basicly changed almost every panel for carbon. Someone may pop it up.

The carbon one was awesome,but not cheap:d

Had a thought earlier today (which has its hazards), and i was wondering if anyone had ever done a complete Supra Alumunium shell?

Are you on drugs?

Are you on drugs?

Are you on drugs?

No Nokuchiku, i am not.

This kind of thing has been done before, just probably not on a Supra. Hence my asking.

Freethought not allowed then?

There was a thread where a guy basicly changed almost every panel for carbon. Someone may pop it up.

Any idea what the weight saving was?

Do you mean Chassis or body panels? Chassis has never been, nor ever will be done in anything other than as it came (unless it's bespoke). The stock shell already has an alu bonnet and for those aero owners the roof.

Are you looking at weight loss for your car? This has been covered a little bit before now

Sorry perhaps i wasnt overly clear.

No Darryl not personally looking to weight reduce (perhaps my own frame mind:d).

What i was wondering is, if there was a Supra which had been exclusively lightended with aluminum (all panels) for track day use. If so what kind of weight saving was made.

Infact is Aluminum even the lightest/strongest material for this kind of thing?

I was more thinking out loud really, wondering who has gone to the greatest extremes in reducing the overall weight of their Supra- and the results obtained in doing so.

I must admit am not overly clued up on this side of things, hence my asking.

You could only do the bolt-on panels. The Supra (like most modern cars) is a monocoque where much of the body is stressed. In order to make it out of aluminium AND still be as stiff as the steel version, you would have to make it out of much thicker aluminium than steel - hence the weight saving wouldn't be as great as you might think.

You might be able to put in some kind of steel endoskeleton (like a glorified roll cage-cum-spacefreame) attached to the hardpoints, and then skin over than in ali.

The cost and development time would be - as you rightly assume - bonkers.

Cheers Digsy.

That makes alot of sense.

I have seen this done with older track built Mercs, and the weight saving alone shaves off 1.5 seconds. Not to mention what it did for the handling.

But then again, when one has an open cheque book...

The cost and development time would be - as you rightly assume - bonkers.

As you so well put it, anything apart from swapping panels and chopping parts out is out-of-this-world expensive. It's in early stages but the one of the few serious threads showing whats needed to save any real weight is here: http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=170424

Either that or you get it space framed and stick the panels back on, but again, it'd be incredibly expensive.

Excellent looking thread that, cheers Darryl.

Space frame is the way.....

Using the stock pick up points for all components and alu or carbon skin hung over the frame would be incredibly light.

If you had the facilities, the skills and the time then a spaceframe would be way cheaper than attempting a complete stressed aluminium monocoque body.

A hell of a lot of work though, and some serious design skills! Even with a degree in Automotive Engineering Design its not something I'd like to tackle in my spare time

I love the idea of aluminium cars more becuase that metal doesn't rust very well rather than for the weight saving properties.

The aluminium shelled audi's and of course the GMC delorean, holds some attraction for me.

I think it would be something that may have been considered for a next gen supra.

OK, I've done some rough hand calcs.

Aluminium has about 1/3 the density of steel, and about 1/3 of the modulus of elasticity, from which you can calculate the stiffness of a sheet.

Taking a 100mmx100mm sheet, 1mm thickand applying a 1kN bending load in the centre, the deflection of the aluminium sheet would be twice that of the steel sheet (3mm versus 1.5mm). The ali sheet would of course weigh 1/3 as much. So, 1.3 the mass for half the stiffness.

However, stiffness increases with the cube of the material thickness, so you only have to increase the thickness of the ali sheet from 1mm to 1.25mm to get all that stiffness back. At this thickness, the mass of the ali sheet is still only about 40% of the steel sheet.

This is a very simple example, mind, as the load cases won't be anywhere near as simple as a bending beam. But it does serve as an illustration of the mass / stiffness trade off.

and of course the GMC delorean

They were made from Stainless Steel

Ah of course they were Paul! Even more of a reason to drive it around if it's a glorified piece of cutlery.

They were made from Stainless Steel

They were actualy made of fibreglass. The stainless steel was a thin flashing over the top of it.

The stainless steel was a thin flashing over the top of it.

So Stainless was used in their manufacture, yes? ;)