Mass-produced Magnesium

The new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
The new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

 

POSCO’s magnesium sheeting has been used in the roof of Porsche's "New 911 GT3 RS."

POSCO’s magnesium sheets had previously been used in the roof of Renault's Ecolab concept car shown at the 2014 Paris Motor Show in October last year. However, Porsche is the first foreign company to use it as an exterior material for a car. The new model will be released in Germany in May.

The new model is an upgrade of the 911 GT3 released at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show that opened on March 3. It takes only 3.3 seconds to accelerate from rest to 100km/h. It completed the north course of the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, called “the course of hell,” in only 7 minutes 20 seconds, breaking the existing record of 7 minutes 29 seconds by the Porsche Carrera GT Super Sport. The car gets 7.9 km per liter with the stands of Europe, achieving both driving efficiency and fuel efficiency.

POSCO’s magnesium sheeting is the secret to achieve both driving efficiency and fuel efficiency, since it significantly reduces the weight of the automobile.

In order to reduce the weight of the vehicle, Porsche tested aluminum and CFRP as potential materials for its roof. However, magnesium was the thinnest, strongest and lightest material, so they finally went with it for the new car.

Porsche succeeded in reducing the weight by 10 kg to 1,420 kg compared with existing models. That's 30 percent lighter than even aluminum.

Porsche said, “Due to the light weight of the roof, the center of gravity became lowered and improved running stability.”

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