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Originally Posted by Jonjt
Agreed on all accounts. Except, I was hoping for door panels made from a Beryllium metal-matrix-composite, lol. 20 gram door panels and, it'll even give you cancer!
I totally agree about the mix of steels and carbon. Although, I don't know if the time frame is really going to be that long. High K carbon fiber will become much more available, once the aerospace manufacturers chill out. I think that will happen before the 20 year mark. The other issue is making carbon fiber uni-bodies that are repairable. I'd hate for my car to be totaled after a deep scratch or, a 15mph bump. But, OMG, imagine an E46 sized M3/M4 with a 350hp all aluminum FI motor, that weighs ~3000 pounds and gets like 35-40mpg.
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I'm more excited about a 5 series with a significant weight reduction; the whole luxury package in a car that drives like a 3 series!!
At the moment the 5 series drives like a train wagon; it's just too heavy.
BMW also hoped it would scale down sooner, the investment in that carbon fiber producer is not going anywhere. this and long tech cycles in Auto-motive industry don't make me hope before that 20 years.
Actually I was thinking about how great organic compound based doors would be! Imagine, repairing themselves from scratches! Hmm, how about an complex organic molecular structure (let us say pseudo aromatic) that chelates metallic ions!!!