Less is more, apparently.
Russia has gifted us many things in the automotive world. From dashcam footage, road rage, and Ladas, there’s no shortage of interesting car content to come from our comrades. In all seriousness, though, the latest vide from Garage54, a Russian YouTube channel that focuses on anything on wheels, puts a pretty neat theory to the test. Together with a handful of guys called the A-Team, the plan was to see if weight savings meant actual performance.
Gallery: Russians Prove Less Weight Equals More Performance With An Oldsmobile
In the video above, we see a pretty beat up Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera used as the test mule. Needless to say, it’s seen better days. On the plus side, the glass has been thoroughly smashed to begin with, so that’s less weight right there. While it’s not clear what engine the Cutlass was running, the fact that they had to figure out how to get it started first meant that it was just sitting for quite some time. A quick fix and the car started right up, allowing the guys to get to the testing.
The goal is to hit 37 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour) in the shortest possible time. There would be two timed runs using the same stretch of road, just alternating in directions after each attempt. The control time with the car as is was 8.6 seconds, and stopping was courtesy of just one wheel with semi-working brakes. We won’t be giving too much away without watching the video, but the next step was to literally shed some weight. And the easiest way to do that was to get their hands some cutting tools. Remember when Colin Chapman said “Simplify, then add lightness”? So how much performance can you gain? Watch the video above to find out.
We’re gonna ignore the fact that there isn’t much safety taken into consideration during the tests, what with the lack of harnesses and a narrow road with fences, a few parked cars, and walls to come in contact with in case something goes wrong. It’s good fun either way. At least they left the number plate on throughout this entire experiment. Gotta stay road legal.
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