WI more aluminium used in cars.

I'm thinking of Australia specifically, since we have lots of aluminium but I suppose the same could apply to American cars since they are of similar conception. WI govts from about the 50s pushed/mandated the use of aluminium in mass produced cars? Lots of engine parts in Australian and US cars were made of cast iron but could have been made of aluminium (heads, manifolds etc), and I think a lot of other iron/steel parts could be made of aluminium with no adverse effect. How would the 1973 oil crisis look if our average car was a few hundred kilos lighter and more efficient? How fast would muscle cars get if aluminium heads were standard rather than an exotic option, and they were lighter in construction?
 
That thing is pig ugly, and way out there even for 1933. Non conventional cars tend to not do that well in conservative markets like the US and Australia, look at the Corvair for example.

I was thinking more along the lines of GM, Ford and Chrysler using aluminium for everything that bolts onto the iron block from the early 60s onwards. They could start with manifolds, timing covers and water pumps and move onto cylinder heads. I'm not too sure but I think aluminium heads have better heat transfer characteristics than iron heads and allow higher compression with unleaded fuels. So this could mean that those slugish, fuel-guzzling, low-compression engines of the early 70s don't get quite so bad.

Similarly using aluminium instead of steel for other componentry, so that by the early 1970s cars are lighter than their predecessors despite being bigger.
 
That thing is pig ugly,
:eek: I disagree! I think it's very attractive! :cool:

and way out there even for 1933. Non conventional cars tend to not do that well in conservative markets like the US and Australia, look at the Corvair for example.
All too true. The Chrysler Airflow is an excellent example. And the Dymaxion definitely couldn't make it with that real wheel steering.

My scenario is something like; as a compromise, the Dymaxion is produced as a front-wheel drive/steering car, instead of rear-wheel steering. Only a small number of cars are sold (2,000 a year may be optimistic), but is widely used as an advertising vehicle, also receives a large amount of press from racing success and various publicity stunts. Sales are still slow, other than a dedicated niche market, but the other manufacturers take note of the Dymaxion's superior speed and efficiency and follow suit by using aluminum in several high-end saloons and sports cars. By WWII, almost all high-end cars have aluminum bodies. Wartime shortages reroute all aluminum production to making military equipment. Higher aluminum production (higher because of increased use of aluminum in automobile production) means more aircraft engines are made of aluminum. It goes from there.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of GM, Ford and Chrysler using aluminium for everything that bolts onto the iron block from the early 60s onwards.

When did people first realise that bolting aluminium directly to steel/iron causes electrolytic corrosion? If you start trying to produce cars before anyone in the design shops realises how the two base elements interact you could end up with several very expensive lawsuits that could discredit the idea as far a the public and media are concerned.
 
When did people first realise that bolting aluminium directly to steel/iron causes electrolytic corrosion? If you start trying to produce cars before anyone in the design shops realises how the two base elements interact you could end up with several very expensive lawsuits that could discredit the idea as far a the public and media are concerned.

He's quite right. That was the biggest problem with aluminum heads on cars - they didn't last. The Chevrolet Vega was another example of this - the engines in those could destroy themselves in as little as 50,000 miles.
 
I had an aluminium V8 manifold corrode out after 20 years, that's not too bad going. If the govt was giving the manufactuers a bit of a nudge in order to use some of the large aluminium production (especially in Australia) locally these sorts of problems can be overcome.
 
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