Alex Rodriguez > wrote:

> 1000 lbs and only $13k. How much you want to bet that car won't pass US crash
> standards? At 1000lbs you would need carbon fiber to get the strength
> necessary to make the car safe. Carbon fiber is not cheap. I also doubt
> people will put up with the pitiful performance a 20hp engine would provide.
> If 20 hp gives 10 sec 0-60, they should double or triple the HP and then
> people might buy. Having so little horsepower is really a safety issue.

You should have visited the web site.

Just to recapitulate, we're talking about the Loremo
<http://www.loremo.com/index_en.php> (official site)

This <http://tinyurl.com/zwpgm> breaks out technical details a little more
accesably. It does not appear to use carbon fiber in a structural role,
just good old relatively cheap steel.

I looked at their web page a while back and they are using a few outside the
box tricks to improve the body's rigidity, most notably they don't have
doors on the side (!), only the front and back. There's some serious, deeply
profiled metal forming creating a sort of double bathtub kind of shape
which, _they_ claim, makes a very stiff body.

Given that everyone involved is an (ex?) BMW (?) engineer -- this thing is
being designed in Munich -- i wouldn't be surprised if they know what
they're talking about.

Assuming it performs as advertised, the only real question is how we balance
a the right of a Loremo driver to not be crushed by a Navigator with the
desire of someone to drive a 7,300 pound 6.5 foot tall SUV.

Given recent trends in vehicle purchasing, I would not place large money on
the SUV lobby's ability to prevail in a war of public opinion against cars
like Loremo, Smartcar etc. Of course, it's entirely possible we'll
gerrymander US safety standards with an eye towards keeping cars like Loremo
out of the Americab market.

I'd buy one today if they sold it here.

..max
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