Why did Ferrari in the 60s make most of the cars out of steel?

Steel is an alloy

 

I think it was so they could have something up their sleeves re. the comp models. JM thought this could be a possibility as well.

 

From a practical standpoint... Availability, raw material cost, tensile stength, speed of overall construction, repairable. In short, cost-savings all around, as I don't know that customers worldwide would have shops with alloy repairs at the ready.

 

I don't think it was technologically possible at that time. Wasn't the first "aluminum" production car launched in in 1990/1991?

The repairing of a "aluminum" damaged car requires special skills as well (without having the knowledge to explain excactly why) and is therefore much more expensive... So I guess we can translate "harder to repair" into "harder to make".
Right?


But most of those 60's steel machines are still lighter than todays ultramodern "aluminum" constructions anyway... LOL...

 

Wow, I didn't know that! Thought only door panels and such were alu-made in the year before 1990... Do'h!!

 

Bristols,I think you,ll find were all alloy from late 40s,they made aircraft hence the ease of access to the product and expertese in making them.

 

Fibro was not really an option !

 

Being serious for a while ......... aluminium is a big of a bugger of a material to repair. If you bend aluminium with a nice sharp kink in it and then straighten it the material will be much weaker than would happen with the same bend and straightening in steel.

If you get a piece of aluminium and bend it over and over ( just a thin bit and bend it by hand ) it will eventually snap in two.

I'm sure my panel guy ( experienced Ferrari panel & aircraft skin repairer) said if the chassis of a bent car is aluminium it has to be cut and a new piece welded in , , no straightening allowed.

Lots of things back in the 30's - 60's were riveted together , just as aeroplanes (the ones still using aluminium) are still riveted together today. My dad is involved in a Beaufort bomber restoration group and I just talked to the qualified airframe guy , , you can't even have a slight scratch in aircraft skin (even WWII restorations) because after a few years that tiny little scratch will split , , most likely up in the air of course. See pic of rebuilt outboard wing section attached
There is a lot to working and bending aluminium intentionally too , , you have to start with annealed aluminium ( soft and bendy state ) , bend it how you want .... then heat treat it which means heating it all up under controlled temperatures and times to five hundered and something degrees and then quite literally dump it into a huge tank of water. At this point it's now no longer annealed and bending is not allowed. If you thought painting cars took care you should see how many steps there are to painting a bit of aircraft skin ... OMG !

I'm sure there will be variations on all car aluminium repairs dependant upon who is fixing what and how broken it is........................

Aluminium cars burn well too , there was a shot of a burnt out crashed Jag on the news here a few nights ago , , if they didn't tell the viewers it was a Jag we wouldn't have known because the remains were lucky to be 6 inches in height. Totaled

 

Beaufort wing section -- aluminium
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