Weight a minute

There seems to be a shift towards quoting ‘dry weight’ for the cars tested in evo. To my understanding ‘dry weight’ means weight ‘without liquids’ – so no fuel in the tank, no coolant in the radiator(s), no oil in the engine, gearbox or diff.

While I understand manufacturers want their latest offerings to appear to be as light as possible, this is a completely meaningless figure. Would it not be reasonable, for the sake of a level playing field among competitors, to always quote vehicle weight with all fluids and with a full tank of fuel – as you would usually drive it?

Peter Jaggs

Whenever possible quotes weights to the DIN standard, this being the car with a 90 per cent full fuel tank and all other fluids present. However, a handful of manufacturers only quote dry weights. As this gives an unfair on-paper advantage, potentially to the tune of 100kg or more, we always label dry weights as such to bring this to your attention, while in The Knowledge they are marked with an asterisk.