Just_a_fan wrote: ↑16 Sep 2020, 13:27
stevesingo wrote: ↑16 Sep 2020, 13:11
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑11 Sep 2020, 11:16
I do wonder why Murray is the only one making truly lightweight cars. Is it just because he cares about it so much or is it because doing it is really hard and very expensive.
My guess is cost. To engineer an manufacture lightweight cars cost a lot. The T.50 is what £2.3million. The type of high end manufacturing needed does not scale well in to mass production. Sure it has a crazy V12, but how much cheaper would a V6 be? Not 50% for sure. OK, it is limited production numbers, so limited economies of scale, but lets say it was a 5000 unit production run V6 version. By how much would that bring down cost. I expect it would still be in the high 6 figures maybe still 7 figures therefore not competitive against what else is available at that price point.
And yet the McLaren F1 managed it back in the early 90s at a fraction of the price of the T.50.
F1's list price in '94 was £540,000. That's equivalent to about £1.1million today (roughly, based on average inflation figures).
I can't help thinking that people are being taken for a ride (excuse the pun) with the pricing and the weight of modern hypercars.
I would argue that type approval costs (emissions/safety) are substantially more expensive today than in 1994 even when adjusted for inflation. Now if the T.50 were 1140kg i.e 200kg heavier, and was equipped with as many off the shelf parts (lights, mirrors etc) as an F1, it would also be cheaper.
But for sure, cars of this type are priced as high as the market will stand.
