A quote from a piece in The Mustang News:

200-300lbs less road hugging flab would be fantastic. Look at how well the Mustang's current 250-500lb weight advantage is playing out in ALL performance realms against the Camaro and Challenger. Now imagine what a 500-800lb advantage would reap! Everywhere, acceleration, braking, cornering, efficiency, ecology...everything.

 

Soo true, Look how the 2004 Machs normally run faster than the 2005-2009, just because of 200 lbs, My window sticker says shipping weight of 3347lbs, Thats right from the invoice

 

Imagine..if you will a 3200lb Mustang with a DI 5.0 with about 440 HP?

Corvette killer anyone??

 

I'll welcome the weight reduction......as long as the car is still a decent 2+2 with a good trunk. Above all, the Mustang has always been practical and it should remain so

 

their wish list goal will hopefully end up at least maintaining current weight or dropping 100 or so. I cant imagine they could do much more without a significantly smaller car, less features, etc. maybe more aluminum in the suspension and frame?

 

Apples to oranges comparison. You are comparing the shipping weight of your Mach 1 to the curb weight of an S197 GT. Big difference. The shipping weight of a 2005 Mustang GT (Deluxe trim package) is 3356 lbs, the Premium is 3375 lbs. Curb weights for both are 3487 lbs and 3506 lbs, that is for optionless cars, add more options, add more weight.

 

What is shipping weight and curb weight? I just dont know?

 

Shipping weight is usually with minimal fluids in the car, and is the way the car is shipped from the factory to the dealer, while curb weight is with a full load of fluids including fuel, and is the way you'd drive it off the dealer's lot. Just the difference in fuel from a nearly empty tank to a full tank is over 100 lbs.

 

In this instance, the trade off was a good one, the S-197 chassis is leagues ahead of the the SN95/New Edge cars. The SN95/New Edge has the advantage in a straight line but thats about it.

Everybody is looking to downsize their product, the 6th gen Camaro is supposed to be substantially lighter as well. One thing folks are ignoring is the possibility of reduced power going forward as well (be it smaller displacements or some other method).

 

I think the bulk of the car is still constructed from standard strength steel as opposed the "super" steels that are being increasingly employed by auto manufacturers. The high strength stuff can be made thinner to reduce weight and still meet standards.

 

I'd happily put up with a smaller V8 with less power but better fuel efficiency in the next Mustang if the weight was significantly lower as well, to keep the weight to horsepower ration in the same ballpark as today's Mustang.

 

I'd love to see the Mustang become a smaller, lighter car with a tasty 400HP 5.0.

 

The two thoughts that immediately come to mind are lighter Wheels. And lighter exhaust system. As the current axle-back is ridiculously heavy by a good 25lbs.

 

Me too. That would be better than adding horsepower, in my opinion.

 

Its all about horsepower to weight.

 

I have been giving this a lot of thought since seeing the 2011's. Wheel size is getting ridiculous. Many of the 11's look like hotwheel cars. I know that with the cars getting larger 15's would look ridiculous as well, but do we really need 18, 19, 20? Not too mention that by reducing the overall circumference of the wheel/tire combo, you get better torque and gas mileage.

In my roush when I swap from my winter 15's to my 18's, the 18's feel like bricks.

I would like to know what the weight difference is from the 99-04 17's to the 18's and 19's on the 11 GT.

 

I don't have the wheel weights from the new Mustangs yet, but some that I do have are the 5-star 17x8 '99 GT wheels which weigh 19 1/2 lbs, the 17x8 stock Bullitt wheels from my '01 are 22 lbs, while the stock 17x8 wheels on my '08 weigh 21 1/2 lbs, and the stock 18x8.5 Bullitt style S197 wheels weigh 25 lbs each. I've heard figures of around 30 lbs each for the 19" Brembo package wheels for the 2011 GT.

I think 17" should have stayed the standard GT wheel size for the 2010+ GT's, and I really wish they would have made the wheel wells smaller on the S197's and stayed with the SN95/New Edge tire diameters. Mainly for weight and tire availability. The 17x9 Enkei wheels I just put on my Bullitt only weigh 16 lbs each, unfortunately the lack of tire choice in appropriate 17" sizes means I have to go with 18" wheels on my S197 to get the kind of tires I want.

 

Agreed. I think 18" rims are plenty big.

 

Wheel (unsprung) weight is death to good ride and handling (my main gripe about live axles is their enormous unsprung weight). I think anything beyond 17-18 inches on a Mustang-sized street car is simply aesthetics and posing and actually detract from actual performance.

While lighter weight in general is a great thing for performance, not all weight is equal and shedding pounds or even ounces from the Stang's unsprung weight would prove to be disproportionately beneficial to the overall performance, particularly ride and handling. By ride, I don't mean cushy but rather, the ability of the suspension to react to, absorb and not be thrown by lumps and bumps.

 

+1 Rhumb! I don't think people really understand the negative effect of those big rims. I DO! My winter rims for my 04 are 15" stock rims from a 99 with 205/65r15 while my summers are slightly oversized 255/45r18. The 15"s are definitely noticeably quicker and respond better to braking and acceleration (albeit less traction due to the narrowness and winter tread), but they look horrible, and the proper size 245/40r18s look horribly thin on my summer wheels, so I put up with it.