TopGear - August 2015 PH

THE GARAGE

CAR TECH

he biggest automotive

news coming into 2015 was

the debut of the all-new

Fo r d F- 150 at the North

American International Auto Show.

The F- 150 , if you don’t know yet, is the

bestselling pickup in the United States—

and the bestselling vehicle in that country

for over 30 years running.

But that’s just the icing on the cake.

More important, the latest F- 150 signals

the start of the large-scale, mass-produc-

tion automotive application of a material

once reserved only for military hardware,

space rockets, and supercars. If what

comes to your mind is aluminum, then

you’re a true-blue Top Gear fan.

Yes, aluminum—the same stuff soda

cans are made of, except in quantities

and forms that are more suitable for

use in cars. It’s much lighter than steel,

and taking equivalent masses of both,

there’s more aluminum per kilogram.

Shaped and alloyed properly, it gives a

very high strength-to-weight ratio that

outperforms steel. It has better corrosion

resistance, too.

On the F- 150 , the use of aluminum

instead of steel for the construction

of the body has saved almost 320 kg, or

approximately 15 % of the new vehicle’s

weight. Considering the truck’s heft,

that’s quite significant. A modern super-

mini weighs around 900 kg. Imagine how

much lighter—not to mention faster and

more fuel-efficient—such a car would

be if its body were made entirely of

aluminum. Weight, as we all know, is the

enemy of efficiency.

Of course, the Ford truck isn’t the

first vehicle to use aluminum in its

construction. That title was given out

over 100 years ago to an aluminum-

bodied sports car exhibited at the Berlin

Motor Show in 1899. The F- 150 is not

even the first mass-production car whose

body is made entirely of aluminum—

bragging rights for that go to the Honda

NSX, introduced a quarter of a century

ago. Audi then took the first ‘aluminum-

bodied passenger sedan’ title with the A 8.

Still, what Ford has done is more sig-

nificant. It represents the first step in the

use of lightweight materials on a large

scale, for the purpose of achieving better

fuel economy. Other car manufacturers

are sure to follow suit. How soon? GM

is rumored to have an equivalent truck

coming out in 2018. Better start saving

those soda cans, kids—they’re going to

become a different kind of precious metal

soon enough.

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Aluminum now

removing

320kg from the

f-150 provides

better power-to-

weight ratio,

which should

further aid

ford’s ecoboost

engines

108 TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES http://www.topgear.com.ph

bRITISH cARmAkERS wERE AmONG THE

fIRST TO EmbRAcE ALumINum. NOw,

THE AmERIcANS uSE IT IN PIckuPS