Re: a8 v8

[ScharfR@aol.com]

Your assumption that Honda went high tech with the aluminum NS-X is quite
wrong.  Simple substitution of aluminum for steel (with some gauge changes
and panel reinforcements) in a unibody is decidedly low tech.  During the A8
development, Audi showed such an approach in the mid-80s, but quickly decided
that that was a technical dead end.  Making aluminum behave like steel does
not use the key advantages of aluminum fabrication; that is, it is available
as sheet metal, castings and extrusions.  Aluminum unibodies are a species
that will cease to evolve, and be replaced with space frame designs on the
one hand, or aluminum intensive designs on the other.

Combining the virtues of all three aluminum fabricaion methods allows the
real high-tech space frame to be both a lighter approach than a uni-body and
stronger (and more repair friendly) as well.

If the Honda approach were so high tech, you'd have to ask yourself why so
many other manufacturers fooled around with materials substitution in the
80s, then dropped it.  Every aluminum concept car recently shown has used
some form of space frame; nobody is doing unibody anymore.  The real answer
as to why Honda chose it? Quick to market.  (You may also have noticed that
they have been busy stiffening the structure recently.)